Bread is one of the UK’s favorite foods. According to the UK Flour Millers association, the product is bought by 99.8% of British households, with around 11m loaves sold daily. Most (60-70%) of this bread is white.
While there is no doubt that it is a popular staple, bread has a high glycemic index due to its highly digestible wheat starch. When this starch is quickly digested into glucose in the body, it causes a large spike in blood glucose levels. It is thought that helping consumers manage their blood glucose may help reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes.
With growing public health concerns, managing the glycemic effects of staple foods is attracting ‘great interest’, according to researchers at King’s College London and the Quadram Institute.
A possible solution to this issue has been identified in a new ingredient derived from chickpeas
Finger on the wrist
The novel ingredient, created from incomplete cell powder (ICP), is manufactured using a specially developed grinding and drying process.
However, conventional grinding and processing methods break down plant cells – which expose the starch and make it more digestive – the researchers ’method preserves the cell structure. This makes the chickpea starch more stable in terms of digestion.
Funded by the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the researchers studied the commercial potential of ICP flour, called PulseON. The novel ingredient, they say, expands the possibilities for incorporating large amounts of resistant starch into processed foods to improve nutritional quality.
“The introduction of our new type of flour into bread and other staple foods provides the opportunity to develop the next generation of low glycemic food products to support public health measures to improve health through better diet, ” Said Dr. Cathrina Edwards at the Quadram Institute.
“Consumers replacing wheat bread with PulseON rich bread would benefit not only from the resistant starch type 1, but also from the higher fiber and protein content. ”
Reduces blood glucose response to white bread by 40%
To examine how effective PulseON is in lowering blood glucose levels, the researchers conducted a study in which PulseON replaced some wheat flour in bread rolls.
Published in journal Food hydrocolloids, The double-blind randomized study saw 0%, 30% or 60% wheat flour in a typical white wheat bread recipe turned out for the novel ingredient.
Participants ate all kinds of bread rolls for breakfast, not knowing what type of roll they were eating. The rolls were eaten in random order on individual days. The researchers then recorded the participants ’glucose levels using continuous glucose monitors.
Results showed that blood glucose responses to PulseON rich breads were, on average, 40% lower than after eating the controlled breads.
Scientists have also studied starch depletion in all types of bread using biochemical methods and a microscope in a laboratory. Tests showed that, two hours after hatching, the type 1 resistant starch remained undiagnosed. On the other hand, the wheat stall was excavated within this period.
According to the research team, such findings suggest that the lower glucose response to PulseON-rich bread may be directly linked to the fact that the resistant starch contained in the chickpea ingredient has not been digested.
The next steps towards trading
The results of the study raise the possibility that PulseON-rich bread products will be used to help improve diabetes management. Further research would be needed to investigate this.
What is promising for PulseON’s trading capability is the participants ’sensory response to the rich rolls. Throughout the study, subjects gave equal scores for texture and flavor for all white bread products – including those made with the novel ingredient.
And quality tests suggested there were effects on the texture and appearance of thin bread when using PulseON. These were more pronounced when much of the new flower was introduced. Although more sensory testing is needed, the initial results are encouraging.
After patenting the technology, the research group eats commerce. It is also examining ingredient claims in a wider range of food products, and hopes to conduct further experiments in subjects with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Source: Food hydrocolloids
‘Effect of substitution of cellular legume powder on wheat flour on starch bioaccessibility, glycemic response and bread roll quality: A controlled double-blind randomized trial in healthy participants’
Published online 28 December 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2020.106565
Authors: Balazs H. Bajka, Ana M. Pinto, Jennifer Ahn-Jarvis, Peter Ryden, Natalia Perez-Moral, Alice van der Schoot, Costanza Stocchi, Catherine Bland, Sarah E. Berry, Peter R. Ellis and Cathrina H. Edwards .