Glycemic response of fruit desserts obtained by organic farming

The awareness that food has benefits over and beyond the basic nutrients that it provides has recently emerged in nutrition, and the concept of ‘functional food’ – i.e. foods and food ingredients that can enhance health – was introduced. Recent population studies have shown that low glycemic index (GI) foods might play a role in reducing the risk chronic diseases and therefore could be considered as functional foods. Thus the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommended that populations in industrial nations base their diet predominantly on foods with a low glycemic index to prevent the diseases of modern civilization. Moreover, international recommendations advise increasing intakes of fruit and vegetables to help reduce the burden of chronic diseases worldwide, suggesting the consumption of three to five servings of fruit and four to eight servings of vegetables per day. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute postprandial response on plasma glucose of Fruttosa, a berries and peach/apricot flavoured desserts made using exclusively organic fruits and ingredients. The GI of Fruttosa desserts was calculated using the FAO/WHO standard method, using glucose as reference standard. Postprandial glycemic responses of fruit-desserts, evaluated as incremental areas under glycemic curves (IAUC), resulted less than 50% lower than those observed for glucose meal; the calculated GI were 44± 4for the berries flavour and 47± 4 for peach/apricot dessert, values very similar to those reported for the corresponding fresh fruit. Fruttosa desserts can be classified as low GI food and could represent a valid “ready to eat” functional product to increase fruit consumption.