Nutritional Composition of Infant Cereal Prototypes Can Precisely Predict Their Glycemic Index

Abstract

Designing cereal-based products with appropriate metabolic responses is of high interest to the food industry in view of the potential health impact of the product. The objective of this study was to test whether a model that used the nutrient composition of breakfast cereals to predict their glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) could also accurately predict the GI and GL for complete (containing protein, reconstituted in water) infant cereal prototypes. Four independent studies measured the postprandial glucose response of 20 complete infant cereal prototypes (51–76 g/100 g glycemic carbohydrates) in healthy adults. The predictions were strongly correlated with the measured values for both the GI (r = 0.93, p-value p-value p < 0.01). In summary, the model previously developed to predict the GI and GL of breakfast cereals was both accurate and precise for infant cereals and could be considered a simple tool to support nutritionally responsible product development.

Keywords

• glycemic index
• glycemic load
• infant cereals
• macronutrient composition
• model