Role of Body Composition in the Glycaemic Response to Foods Fed to Three Different Ethnic Groups: A Pilot Study

Aim: To examine the role of overweight and obesity on the glycaemic response to foods across the whole population. Design: Randomised, repeated measures design. Setting: Oxford, UK. Subjects and Methods: Twenty-seven healthy volunteers, 9 Caucasian, 9 Asian, and 9 African, voluntarily participated in the study. The glycaemic response to two breakfast cereals and two bread types was determined in obese and overweight subjects. Results: The current study shows that a very strong correlation exists between fasting blood glucose, peak change in glucose and the IAUC for glucose with each of BMI and WC (r = 0.88, 0.92; 0.82, 0.82; 0.91, 0.81; p = 0.01, respectively) for the Caucasian group. In addition, there was a strong significant negative association between the mean GI values of the four foods and the BMI for the Caucasian subjects (r = 0.61, p < 0.05). Furthermore, there was a strong positive significant association between the mean GI values of the four foods and the percentage body fat mass for the Asian subjects (r = 0.67, p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study has shown that the GI values of foods are affected by body composition in Asian and Caucasian subjects.