Glycemic Index of Five Ghanaian Corn and Cassava Staples

Glycemic index (GI) quantifies and measures the blood glucose raising effect of a food containing a specific amount of carbohydrate. Due to this concerns have been raised on the quality of carbohydrate and the indices that influence its metabolism. The objective of study was to investigate the effect of processing on the glycemic index of five Ghanaian corn and cassava staples. The research design was a cross over trial. Ten healthy subjects consisting of five males and five females were included in the study. Study subjects were served 50g of pure glucose containing 50g of available carbohydrate and 200ml of pure water. Glucose which served as the reference food was given to subjects on two different occasions. The subjects were also served specific 50g of abolo, akple, kafa, local kokonte and processed kokonte on specific days. The glycemic index figures were assessed by using official methods and reported as mean for the ten study subjects. Locally made kokonte had the least GI of 7 followed by processed kokonte which had a GI of 18 whiles kafa had a low GI of 29. Abolo had a medium GI value of 58 and akple also had a medium glycemic index value of 69. There was no significant difference between the GI of locally made kokonte and processed kokonte (p > 0.05) indicating processing had no significant effect on the GI of kokonte