The addition of vegetable to carbohydrate-based meals was shown to contribute to glycaemic management. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of homogenisation on vegetables added to rice meals in terms of acute glycaemic responses (GR). In a randomised crossover trial, sixteen healthy volunteers completed thirteen test sessions, which included two sessions for glucose control, two for rice and nine for different vegetable-rice mixed meals: cooked pak choi and cooked rice (CP+R); cooked cauliflower and cooked rice (CC+R); cooked eggplant and cooked rice (CE+R); and their homogenised counterparts, both raw or cooked. Postprandial GR tests, in vitro carbohydrate digestion and chemical analyses were carried out for each test meal. Compared with pure rice, CE+R, CP+R and CC+R meals achieved significantly lower glycaemic indexes (GI) of 67, 71 and 73, whereas their homogenised counterparts failed to show significant difference with rice. The hydrolysis indexes (HI) of CE+R, CP+R and CC+R were 69·6, 83·8 and 80·6 % of the HI of the rice control. CE had the greatest effect on lowering the GI, the incremental area under the blood glucose curve from 0 to 120 min, the peak glucose value, the maximum amplitude of glucose excursion in 0-120 min (MAGE0 -120), the HI and rapid available starch. Both in vitro and in vivo tests demonstrated that incorporating non-homogenised cooked vegetables into a rice meal could slow the carbohydrate digestion and improve postprandial GR. Texture properties of vegetable may play an important role in underlying glycaemic control mechanisms.
Keywords: In vitro carbohydrate digestion; CC cooked cauliflower; CE cooked eggplant; CP cooked pak choi; GI glycaemic index; GR glycaemic response; RS resistant starch; iAUC incremental AUC; Cooked vegetables; Glycaemic responses; Homogenised vegetables.