Dietary approach for management of Type-2 diabetes: An overview of glycemic indices of commonly consumed foods in Nigeria

Abstract

Background and aims: The global prevalence of diabetes mellitus is on the increase, and Africa, particularly Nigeria is not left out. The management of the disease using a diabetes drug is often a hard choice to make for many. Information on the right food is inevitably important, as eating some type of food and avoiding or limiting some could help manage diabetes. Therefore, this study investigated glycemic indices of commonly consumed staples in Nigeria.

Methods: Databases like PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google scholars, African journal online and Nigerian journal online was used to search for relevant information. Keywords like: nutritional management, diabetes in Nigeria, quality of life, prevalence, glycemic index, foods and diabetes, macronutrients and diabetes, were used separately or combined to obtain the relevant information.

Results: Findings from literature search revealed that the glycemic indices of many staples such as Rice dough (Tuwo shinkafa), maize dough (tuwo masara), millet dough (tuwo gero), yam/cassava flour (amala), pounded fermented cassava (fufu, akpu), garri (eba), african salad (abacha), pounded yam (ema, iyan), rice (shinkafa, isesi), beans (wake, ewa, Agwa), and plantain (Ojoko, Ogbagba, Ogede) that are consumed in different parts of Nigeria are high (75.0%-97.0%). However, available information revealed that less commonly consumed foods like, Maize pudding (igbangwu), dried beef floss (dambu), Fonio (acha), bean pudding (moi-moi) and Tom Brownvita (Turnbrown) exhibit lower glycemic indices (14.1%-52.9%).

Conclusions: This study revealed the few among several local foods in Nigeria that are low in glycemic indices that could be useful in the management of Type-2 diabetes. However, these foods may require further certification by appropriate authorities and agencies to enable persons with diabetes, particularly in Nigeria make informed choices on the right food to consume.

Keywords: Diabetes and nutrition; Diabetes mellitus; Dietary management; Foods for diabetes; Glycemic index.