Starch, as a Healthy Ingredient of Processed Foods Toward Betterment

08/06/07 Scientists in Indiana are reporting progress toward development of low glycemic and slowly digestible starch, a form of starch that would be less apt to cause the spike in blood sugar - and perhaps sharp hunger pangs - that many individuals experience after eating bread, baked goods, and other high-carbohydrate foods.

In a study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly journal, Bruce R. Hamaker and colleagues note that "starch with a slow digestion property would provide for extended glucose release along with a low glycemic response and, thus, may have commercial application as a healthy ingredient of processed foods. There are no commercial slowly digestible starch-based products available in the current food market to our knowledge."

The study describes an enzyme treatment used in laboratory experiments to modify the structure of corn starch. It increased the amount of slowly digested starch by up to 13.5 percent while reducing the levels of rapidly digested starch by up to 19.7 percent. The next step will be to test these materials in human trials.