while on the subject here is an intersting little tid bit I came across most interesting was the part about protein added to a carbohydrate meal NOT!!! slowing of lowering the Insulin response and the addition of fats did delay the peak but not the total response.
Then the part about “High fat and high protein diets have the distinct potential to induce insulin resistance, which would mean that any carbohydrate eaten would raise blood glucose and insulin levels to greater heights on a day to day basis”
Interseting eh’
Phill
[quote]
But what if the meal contains protein and fat too, as it usually does? How does that affect our mixed meal calculations?
The conventional wisdom holds that between 50 to 60% of protein becomes glucose and enters the bloodstream about 3 to 4 hours after it’s eaten. It’s generally accepted that fat has little affect on blood glucose.
In fact, recent studies indicate that neither protein nor fat have more than a minuscule affect on blood glucose. This seems to be true for people both with and without diabetes. The protein studies are particularly interesting.
A 50-gram dose of protein (in the form of very lean beef) resulted in only about 2 grams of glucose being produced and released into circulation. Neither does adding protein to carbohydrate slow the absorption or peak of the glucose response.
Fat delays the peak but not the total glucose response, according to these new studies. Therefore, it looks like you can simply ignore protein and fat in mixed meal calculations.
“Of much greater concern is how protein and fat affect blood glucose levels in the long term,” Jennie Brand-Miller of the University of Sydney writes me. “High fat and high protein diets have the distinct potential to induce insulin resistance, which would mean that any carbohydrate eaten would raise blood glucose and insulin levels to greater heights on a day to day basis. However, the type of fat may be important here. A recent study in Diabetologia showed that moderately high MUFA [monounsaturated fatty acids] diets improved insulin sensitivity, if the fat was less than a certain level (higher than 37% was associated with insulin resistance).”
For fuller details you can check out the articles themselves:
* Franz, Marion J. "Protein Controversies in Diabetes." Diabetes Spectrum, Volume 13, Number 3, 2000, pages 132-141. The URL is
http://journal.diabetes.org/diabetesspectrum/00v13n3/pg132.htm
* Gannon MC, Nuttall JA, Damberg G, Gupta V, Nuttall FQ. "Effect of Protein Ingestion on the Glucose Appearance Rate in People with Type 2 Diabetes" The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 86, March 2001, pages 1040-1047. The URL is
http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/86/3/1040