Descripción del proyecto
Una guía del consumidor para reducir la respuesta glucémica a los alimentos con almidón
Los alimentos con almidón son uno de los principales componentes de nuestra dieta. Proporcionan hasta la mitad de nuestras necesidades energéticas y, dado que el almidón está constituido básicamente por glucosa, desempeñan un papel relevante en nuestra glucemia. La hiperglucemia está relacionada con una serie de enfermedades crónicas y la velocidad a la que se digiere el almidón de un alimento determinado está directamente correlacionada con los niveles de glucosa en sangre (es decir, la respuesta glucémica). En pocas palabras, los alimentos con almidón de rápida asimilación llevan aparejados la aparición de hiperglucemia. Con todo, este efecto puede contrarrestarse mediante una combinación adecuada con otros alimentos. El proyecto GlucoMatchMaker, financiado con fondos europeos, está desarrollando la primera aplicación móvil para ayudar a las personas a mezclar y combinar alimentos ricos en almidón con otros alimentos y bebidas a fin de mitigar la respuesta glucémica.
Objetivo
Low pH foods can attenuate the glycemic response to starch-rich foods. It has been demonstrated that lemon juice, due to its low pH (pH≈2.3) inhibited key digestive enzymes thereby interrupting gastric digestion of starch in vitro. This effect can significantly reduce the glycemic response in humans. In particular, adding lemon juice to a starch rich meal reduced the mean blood glucose concentration peak by 30%. Considering the panoply of food options available, it is likely that other combinations have similar effects but no work has been conducted to develop a consolidated knowledge base to exploit this strategy.
GlucoMatchMaker will go beyond the state-of-the art by addressing this knowledge gap. The main goal is to develop and test the real-life effectiveness of the first mobile app to guide individuals on how to mix and match starchy foods with other foods/beverages to attenuate glycemic responses.
The research work will employ multidisciplinary knowledge and methodologies and is divided into 4 parts (1) Selection and characterization of starch-rich foods, low-pH foods/beverages and of how their combination influences starch digestion in vitro (WP1). (2) Determination of the conditions of effectiveness of these combinations (in silico models) (WP2). (3) Development of the first mobile app that will integrate this knowledge to guide the user on how to mix and match starch-rich foods with others to lower their glycemic impact (WP3). (4) Test the effectiveness of the developed strategy in a real-life context (WP4).
This project addresses the United Nations and EU target to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one third as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The research plan was developed in the framework of “H2020 Work Programme - Health, demographic change and wellbeing”, specifically the aim to “translate new knowledge into innovative applications and accelerate large-scale uptake and deployment”.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
R93 Carlow
Irlanda