Glycaemic and metabolic responses to a traditional cereal--legume mixture

The study was conducted to evaluate the acute postprandial and long-term metabolic response to a traditional mixture of barley (Hordeum vulgare), Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum) and wheat (Triticum aestivum). The acute study was performed on eight healthy subjects (five male, three female) and six subjects with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) (four male, two female). Each subject underwent two 50g carbohydrate meal tolerance tests (MTT), one with white bread (reference meal) and another with chapaties made from the cereal-pulse mixture (CP). The postprandial glycaemic and insulinaemic responses to CP were attenuated compared to those to white bread, the glycaemic index being 68.6 and 64.9 in healthy and NIDDM subjects, respectively, and the insulinaemic index being 88.1 and 66.0 in healthy and NIDDM subjects, respectively.