Glycemic index of wheat and rice are similar when consumed as part of a North Indian mixed meal

Introduction: Wheat is preferable over rice due to its lower glycemic index (GI). It is not known if the same is true when these staples are a part of mixed meals, hence we compared the Glycemic responses of wheat/rice containing mixed meals. Materials and Methods: Glycemic responses of 2 mixed meals were compared with reference meal (glucose) where each was designed to provide a total of 50 g of available carbohydrate (AvCHO), in 10 healthy adult volunteers as per recent recommendations. Test meal 1 comprised of a pulse preparation (green gram dal), a vegetable (ladies' finger), and 2 wheat chapattis. In test meal 2 these wheat chapattis were replaced by cooked rice supplying an equal amount of AvCHO. After an overnight fast of 10- 14 h, capillary blood glucose estimations were done subsequent to eating each test meal or glucose. GI of test meals was calculated by comparing their area under curve (AUCs) with AUC for glucose. GI of test meals were compared using unpaired t test. Results: The study sample comprised of 7 males and 3 females with mean age 30.9 ± 5.1y. The GI of test meal 1 (85.5 ± 11.8%) and test meal 2 (83.6 ± 11.4%) was not significantly different (P = 0.7095). Conclusion: The present study found no differences in glycemic index of wheat chapatti and rice based mixed meals with equivalent AvCHO content of the staple.