Effect of hot and cooled carbohydrate diet on glycemic response in healthy individuals: a cross over study

Background: Cooling of starch after cooking is known to cause starch retrogradation which increases resistant starch content. Resistant starch cannot be digested in the gut and acts as dietary fiber. The study aimsed to determine the effect of cooling of carbohydrate rich diet on glycemic response on healthy adults.Methods: The present study was a randomized, single blind, crossover study where 20 healthy subjects were selected. Two rice preparations were used, one freshly prepared hot, second, cooked and cooled at 4°C for 12 hours. All subjects were evaluated after giving both rice preparations separately with a crossover period of 7 days. Glycemic response was checked over a period of 2 hours at various time intervals using ACCU-CHEK® Active glucometer.Results: Glycemic response with cooled white rice was better in comparison to freshly prepared hot white rice at all time points (mean±SD, 121.9±17.4 vs 128.0± 22.1 mg/dl). However, the difference in means at 30 mins was maximum and statistically significant (p<0.001).Conclusions: Cooled white rice yields better glycemic response when consumed by healthy individuals possibly due to formation of resistant starch.