Soy Flour Fortification of Whole Wheat Meal Possessed Low Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load and Reduced Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

Objectives: Foods with high glycemic index (GI) and/or glycemic load (GL) have been reported to have etiology in the incidence and prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its related chronic metabolic diseases like cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) etc. facing the globe today. High GI in particular has been found to have positive association with hyperglycemia, DM and CVDs such as hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis etc. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate soy flour fortified whole wheat meal consumed with Crassocephalum biafrae (Worowo) vegetable soup’s dietary glycemic index and glycemic load, and its effects on lipid profiles of the test human subjects.Methods: Eighteen human subjects were divided into two equal groups (control and test groups) of nine participants each. After 12 h of overnight fasting, the control group were fed D-glucose (DG) on the first day of the experiment, while the test group were fed whole wheat meal cum Crassocephalum biafrae soup (WWMCBS) and soy flour fortified whole wheat meal cum Crassocephalum biafrae soup (SFFWWMCBS) on the first and second day respectively. Fasting blood sugar and random blood sugar levels were determined at 30 min interval for 2 h using glucometer and blood samples were collected 5 h after meal for lipid profiles assay.Results: Findings showed that; SFFWWMCBS had GI and GL of 28.00% and 14.00 respectively that are nonsignificantly lesser than that of WWMCBS (42.67% and 21.34) respectively, and its consumption resulted in nonsignificant reductions in total cholesterol (140.00 mg/dl-139.33 mg/dl), triglyceride (84.00 mg/dl-78.33 mg/dl), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (60.67 mg/dl-57.67 mg/dl), but slight increase in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (62.33 mg/dl-65.00 mg/dl) in test human subjects at (p<0.05).Conclusion: Conclusively, SFFWWMCBS had lower GI and GL than WWMCBS, and have the potentials to reduce CVDs risk factors, since it decreased cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL-C, but improved HDL-C.