Abstract: To investigate the postprandial glycemic responses of dried jujubes (DJ) and jujube-rice meals, 7 samples including cooked japonica rice, uncooked DJ, steamed DJ, simmered DJ, rice (R) plus uncooked DJ (R + DJ), cooked rice (CR) with DJ (CR + DJ) and rice congee (RC) with DJ (RC + DJ) were selected for this study. The texture properties of cooked and uncooked DJ samples and the postprandial blood glucose levels of 11 healthy subjects within 240 min were measured and the glycemic index (GI) was calculated. Although all cooking treatments led to significantly lower hardness and firmness when compared with uncooked DJ, simmering treatment exerted the greatest impact on the texture parameters. The GIs of uncooked DJ, steamed DJ and simmered DJ were 56, 65 and 56, respectively, and simmered DJ showed the greatest mean amplitudes of glycemic excursion and largest negative area under curve. The GIs of rice, R + DJ, CR + DJ and RC + DJ turned out to be 78, 75, 82 and 85, respectively. It was suggested that uncooked DJ but not cooked dried jujube could be integrated into glycemic management diets in place of high GI carbohydrate meal. The results indicated that the postprandial glycemic response of a meal needed to be actually tested but not calculated by simple summation of the GI of each food ingredient.

Key words: dried jujubes, glycemic response, glycemic index, cooking treatment, texture properties