Preliminary Study on Pulse-Based Snack “Vadai” Reducing Postprandial Glycaemic Response in Healthy Malaysian Adults

Snack consumption contributes significantly to daily energy and nutrient intake. Low glycaemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL) snacks help modulate postprandial glucose (PPG) rise in prediabetes and diabetes. Masala Vadai (MS) and Medu Vadai (MD) are traditional Indian snacks made from pulses, where their GI and GL values and the effect on PPG remain unexplored. In this randomised cross-over trial, healthy adults (n=13, 19-30 years old, 22.3±2.3 kg/m2) consumed either MS, MD, or glucose solution as reference food (RF) containing 12.5g of available carbohydrate on three occasions with one week apart between each test. Capillary blood was measured at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 minutes to calculate incremental area under the curve (iAUC) and to estimate the GI. The results showed that when compared to RF, MD but not MS had significantly lower iAUC at 30-min (p=0.013) and 45-min (p=0.001). Both snacks had low peak blood glucose (p<0.001) and incremental peak blood glucose (p<0.001), wherein MD exhibited a more delayed effect than MS. However, time to peak blood glucose did not differ between the test foods and RF. MD and MS had low-medium GI (MD=47, MS=63) and low GL (MD=6, MS=8), respectively. In conclusion, MD attenuated PPG significantly more than MS in comparison to glucose solution, offering an advantage of glycaemic control. Even within similar pulse-based snacks, the GI value is important in influencing PPG. These findings will add to the GI compendium for Asian foods and will be useful to healthcare professionals in providing sound nutritional advice.