Glycemic Indices Of Pineapple, Banana, Jollof Rice And Wheat Flour Dough

Background: Information on glycemic index of staple foods are required to develop appropriate nutrition education materials to promote informed food choices.Objective: This study was designed to determine the glycemic index of four Nigerian staple foods, namely pineapple, banana, jollof rice and wheat flour dough.Method: The study was descriptive cross-sectional in design. Ten apparently healthy postgraduate 2 students (4 males and 6 females, 25.8±2.0 years; BMI: 22.68±2.69 kg/m ; fasting blood sugar: 92.1±3.38 mg/dl) randomly consumed 50 g available carbohydrate portions of test foods and glucose over a five-day period. Blood samples were collected in the fasting state and half-hourly over a 2-h period post-ingestion of test and reference foods to determine plasma glucose concentrations, incremental area under the glucose curve, glycemic index and glycemic load.Results: A 50 g available carbohydrate is equivalent to 176 g of banana, 199 g of jollof rice, 229 g of wheat dough and 322 g of pineapple. The Incremental Area Under the Curve for jollof rice, wheat dough and pineapple showed no significant difference when compared with glucose, while of banana was significant at P<0.05 when compared with glucose. The glycemic index was 94.88%, 97.37%, 98.9% and 99.3% and the corresponding glycemic load was 47.43%, 48.69%, 50.47% and 50.67%, for pineapple, wheat flour, jollof rice and banana, respectively.Conclusion: Banana, jollof rice, wheat flour dough and pineapple have high glycemic index values and post-prandial glucose response is similar for jollof rice, wheat flour and pineapple. Efforts should be intensified on promoting portion size control for improved glycemic response