Glycaemic index of stevia product and its efficacy on blood glucose level in type 2 diabetes

Stevia, a fantastic zero calorie sweetener, an incredible internal medicine, also products made from whole leaf concentrate have extra ordinary health benefits. The GI of foods has potential implications for the prevention and treatment of major chronic diseases, including diabetes, CHD and obesity. The objectives of the study were to determine the glycaemic index of chappathi with stevia leaf powder and to find out the therapeutic efficacy of chappathi with stevia extract on blood glucose level of women with type 2 diabetes. Six women with diabetes were selected for determining glycaemic index of chappathi with stevia extract. The reference food (glucose), control food (chappathi) and test food (2 g% stevia incorporated chappathi) were given to each of the women on first ,second and third day respectively. Blood glucose levels were read by Glucometre for every 30 min. until a period of 2 hours. Glycaemic index was calculated by incremental area under curve method. Six type 2 diabetic women were selected randomly from thirty newly diagnosed diabetic women and the selected women consumed chappathi prepared with stevia leaf powder (2 g%) daily for breakfast. Supplementation period was 30 days (31-60 d). The effect of stevia was tested at pre test (1-30 d) and post test design (61-90 d). The glycaemic index of control and test food was 71 and 62 respectively. Mean significant reduction was found in fasting (104 to 87.5 mg/dl) and post prandial (250 to 183 mg/dl) blood glucose concentration of type 2 diabetic women after 30 d of supplementation of 2 g stevia, moreover significant (P<0.05) increment was observed in mean fasting (87.5 to 93.2 mg/dl) and post prandial (183.1 to 199.5 mg/dl) blood glucose concentration after withdrawing stevia (60-90 d) from their daily diet. Hence it may be concluded that stevia product had moderate glycaemic index and it reduces hyper glycaemia in type 2 diabetic
women.

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