Glycaemic index of fruits and fruit products in patients with diabetes

Abstract

Patients with diabetes are often recommended to use whole fruit rather than canned fruit or fruit juice because of a belief that the addition of sucrose to canned fruit and the removal of dietary fibre to make fruit juice may increase blood glucose responses. However, the glycaemic responses of few fruits and fruit products have been assessed in patients with diabetes. Therefore, we determined the glycaemic index (GI) values of ten fruits and fruit products in patients with diabetes, for comparison with the GI of white bread (100). The mean ± s.e.m. GI values, with number of subjects in parentheses, were: pineapple juice, 66 ± 3 (13); grapefruit juice, 69 ± 5 (13); apple juice, 59 ± 8 (6); canned peaches, 74 ± 7 (11); canned pears, 63 ± 6 (10); canned apricots, 91 ± 6 (9); fruit cocktail, 79 ± 5 (8); dried apricots, 46 ± 7 (9); fresh oranges, 69 ± 11 (10); and fresh pears, 58 ± 7 (13). It is concluded that in patients with diabetes the glycaemic responses of various fruit products vary over a two-fold range. Most canned fruits and fruit juices tested had similar glycaemic responses to fresh fruits when equivalent amounts of carbohydrate were consumed.