Glycemic Response of Type 2 Diabetics to Raisins

Abstract

Raisins are a nutrition snack containing fiber, antioxidants, potassium, and carbohydrates which raise concern about glycemic response, especially in diabetics. Diabetics tend to have low fruit intakes and raisins (RA) could be a healthy dried fruit snack. In this single cross-over trial, fasting type 2 diabetics were randomized to 100 Cal servings of raisins (RA; 30.3g), bananas (BA; 103.1g), or Thompson seedless grapes (TG; 112.4g), and white bread (WB; 40.2g) on each of four lab visits. Blood glucose (n=16) and plasma insulin (n=6) were measured before and 30, 60, 120 min after snack consumption. Relative to baseline, blood glucose peaked significantly at 30 min for RA, TG, and WB at181 +/- 3, 205 +/- 4, and 176 +/- 3 mg/dl, respectively, the 30 minute value for BA was 174 +/- 3 mg/dl and approached significance (p=0.12). At 30 minutes, only the blood glucose values for BA and TG differed significantly, no significant differences were observed at other times, and all values returned to near baseline 120 min post-consumption. Plasma insulin increased for all treatments, with the least increase being associated with RA, these highly variable increases were not statistically significant from baseline. In conclusion, the favorable glycemic and insulin response, the extended shelf-life and portability of raisins may make them an attractive choice for improving fruit consumption in type 2 diabetics.