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Fea ures
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Omani coffee has least impact on glycemic responses
O
mani coffee and glycemic index of snacks:
A new study has been
conducted at SQU to evaluate the effect of Omani coffee
on the glycemic response and
glycemic index (GI) of certain
snack foods on healthy human
volunteers. It has measured the
nutritional quality and GI of
nine different types of commonly consumed snack foods
in Oman. These are doughnut,
croissant, cheese, chicken and
fried egg sandwiches, sambosa
vegetables, fried and boiled
vermicelli and white bread
with red beans.
Eating habits
Commenting on his research work, Dr Amanat Ali,
of the College of Agricultural
and Marine Sciences, said
there is a progressive increase
in the prevalence of diabetes,
obesity, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia in Oman
that may be associated with
unhealthy dietary habits and
an inactive sedentary lifestyle.
Food choices are mostly made
on the grounds of availability,
economics, cultural acceptability, individual liking/disliking with little consideration to
nutritional quality.
He added that there is no
single measure which could
be used to guide the people
making food choices. Different foods behave differently
in our bodies depending upon
their type, nature, chemical
structures and other characteristics. The carbohydrate rich
foods which are broken down
quickly during digestion produce high glycemic responses,
i.e. spike up blood sugar level. Conversely, foods which
are broken down slowly and
gradually release glucose into
the blood stream and produce
low glycemic responses. With
a rapid and dramatic increase
in blood sugar level, the body
is in a constant state of rapidly moving gradient between
hyperglycemia, or too much
blood sugars, and hypoglycemia, or too little blood sugar.
This can increase the risk of
developing diabetes and many
other chronic diseases.
Glycemic index
The GI of foods, Dr Ali illustrates, is a numerical, physiologic classification of carbohydrate rich foods that uses a
scale from 0 to 100 based on
their glycemic responses during the postprandial period as
compared to a standard food
(glucose). The original concept
of GI was proposed to help the
diabetic people to select the
best foods to control their impaired glucose and insulin responses. Improved stability of
blood sugar levels is not only
critical to diabetic patients but
also has positive implications
in healthy people. The foods
having the GI values of less
than 55 are regarded as low
GI, 56-59 as medium GI, and
above 70 are high GI foods.
The GI of foods could be a rational way to counsel diabetic
patients in selecting carbohydrate rich foods.
The World Health Organisation and Food and Agriculture
Organisation have endorsed
the concept of GI and recom-
mend that the GI value of
foods should be placed on food
labels. Thus, the researcher underlines, the GI of foods will
have important implications
for the food industry. The best
way of eating low GI foods is
simply to swap high GI foods
(such as refined grains or white
rice) with low GI foods (whole
grains or brown rice). Diets
based on the concept of GI
have been shown to stabilise
the blood sugar, improve body
weight, decrease visceral fat,
control appetite, improve the
energy level, enhance memory,
balance mood, promote regularity, and reduce the hospital
stay after cardiovascular sur-
gery. It is however suggested
that the concept of GI in diet
planning should be used in
conjunction with the other attributes and nutritional indicators of foods.
A common beverage
Coffee is one of the most
commonly consumed beverages in the world and Omanis
consume almost 1 kg of coffee
per person per year. Epidemiological studies have shown that
habitual consumption of coffee reduces the risk of type-2
diabetes regardless of gender,
method of brewing, or geography. Coffee may influence glycemic responses but it is not
clear whether they affect the
GI value of foods. Ingestion
of caffeine can however cause
acute postprandial hyperglycemia and may affect the insulin
sensitivity leading to impaired
glucose homeostasis.
The health benefits of
coffee have been attributed
to the presence of phenolic
compounds including antioxidants. Studies suggest that
certain dietary polyphenols
have biological effects in the
small intestine that can alter
the pattern of glucose uptake. Roasting of coffee at
high temperatures produces
a number of unique compounds, which can alter the
blood glucose levels and may
also be involved in the regulation of satiety and insulin
secretion. Coffee may also
have prebiotic-like properties,
altering the gut flora and ultimately digestion. It has been
suggested that a novel function of some dietary phenols
in humans may be to attenuate intestinal glucose absorption rates and shift the site of
glucose absorption to more
distal parts of the intestine.
Findings
The study has concluded
that Omani coffee does not
significantly affect the glycemic responses and GI of
commonly consumed snack
foods. Significant (P < 0.05)
differences were observed in
the proximate chemical composition of these foods. The
moisture, crude protein and fat
contents in these foods ranged
from 21.9 to 67.5 per cent, 4.3
to 17 per cent and 2.7 to 23.4
per cent, respectively. Almost
similar blood glucose responses were observed when these
foods were given with either
water or Omani coffee. Significant (P < 0.05) differences
were observed in the GI of
these foods when served with
water and the highest GI value (75 ± 3) was observed for
doughnut while the lowest GI
value (60 ± 5) was for sambosa
vegetables.
The GI of these foods
when taken with Omani coffee
ranged between 64 and 78. The
highest GI value (78 ± 4) was
observed for cheese sandwich,
however, no significant differences were observed in the GI
values for doughnut, cheese
sandwich, fried egg sandwich
and chicken sandwich. The
lowest GI value (57 ± 4) was
observed for sambosa vegetables. Overall, no significant (P
< 005) differences were observed in the GI value of foods
when served with either water
or Omani coffee.
These findings, the researcher concludes, are a valuable addition to the nutritional
database for Omani foods.
They were presented at international forums.
plants to stand soil salinity
Social work helps gifted students Modified
A
n SQU researcher is
introducing biotechnology as a solution to
the problem of soil salinity in
the Sultanate. The technique
consists in generating genetically modified plants with an
enhanced salt tolerance property.
Dr Mahmood Yaeesh,
commenting on his work, says
this serious problem has led
to desertification of large agricultural areas, especially in
Al-Batina region where it is
causing a significant economic
loss for the local farmers.
The method, he explains,
is simply to transform the salt
susceptible plants with specific genes isolated from the
A
new study is considering possible
ways and means that would
boost development in gifted students.
Dr Magdi Mohammad Mustafa, at
SQU’s College of Education, seeks
to define operational mechanisms
that school social workers could use
to promote families and schools’
efforts to support gifted students.
The overall goals of the work include identifying those efforts and
examining whether they yield adequate and appropriate services. Further, the study is to explore potential
forms of co-operation between families and schools to achieve this purpose. The research will be based on
a wide sample of people from all the
districts of Muscat Governorate, including gifted students, their parents,
teachers, social workers, administrators, and experts.
salt tolerant plants. As a first
step towards this objective,
key salt tolerant genes need
to be identified and characterised from plants known to
be tolerant to saline soil. The
academic seeks to identify
some salt tolerant genes from
the Grey mangrove (Avicennia
marina), a local plant which is
able to grow in an extreme salt
conditions due to an outstanding tolerance mechanism controlled by a set of proteins.
He explains that the identification process of salt tolerant genes in mangrove will be
based on the determination of
their corresponding proteins
which are differentially accumulated in seedlings under
diverse salt and temperature
conditions. Experiments will
be basically conducted using the two-dimensional gel
electrophoresis and the immunoblotting (western blot)
techniques.
The researcher adds that
differentially expressed proteins will be identified by sequencing parts of their amino
acid chain or by de novo sequencing.
This information will help
to isolate the coding DNA
sequence for these genes.
He hopes the outcome of his
project will help facilitate
the production of transgenic
plants with novel salt tolerance traits.