Determination of the Glycemic Response of Healthy Individuals to a Developed Dragon Fruit Snack Bar

Abstract

Studies of glycemic response to snack foods are limited. Furthermore, a dragon fruit snack bar was developed previously but not tested for glycemic response. Its development includes the usage of dragon fruit with pulp (110 g), rice pop (pinipig;76 g), rolled oats (15 g), almonds (15 g), cashew nut (15 g), sesame seed (8 g), raisin (12 g), honey (70 g), rock salt (8 g), and water 25 ml which yielded 6 servings. The purpose of this study is to determine the glycemic response of healthy individuals to a developed dragon fruit snack bar. This descriptive study utilized 50 g of carbohydrates (1 serving) from the developed dragon fruit snack bar (50 g per serving). Eleven individuals with no medical and family history of diabetes and had normal Body Mass Index completed the study. The participants fasted for eight hours prior to blood collection. A glucometer was used to measure the blood glucose of the participants. Blood glucose level was tested with 15-minutes interval for the first 1 hour and another two 30-minute intervals for the next hour (i.e. interval time of 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes). This procedure was done twice; at baseline using 50g carbohydrates D-glucose and; using 50 g of dragon fruit snack bar. The results showed that the blood sugar level of the participants increased within the time range of 15 to 30 minutes and started declining within 45 to 120 minutes. The baseline procedure that had used 50g carbohydrates D-glucose served as the basis of the results. The glycemic index of the dragon fruit snack bar is low compared to the glucose powder (the reference food), but its glycemic load is high. Thus, one serving of the dragon fruit snack bar should only be 25 g to prevent too much increase in blood sugar level. Therefore, the amount of carbohydrate should be considered in the selection of food to help manage blood sugar.