INTRODUCTION
Excess influx of carbohydrates with food, especially against the background of obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, or metabolic syndrome, leads to progression of the phenomena [1]. However, not only the amount of carbohydrates, but also their qualitative composition influences the rate of absorption and, finally, glucose level in blood [2]. Simple food carbohydrates are known to be rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract increasing glucose concentration in blood [3]. After sharp increase in secretion and synthesis of insulin, glucose is eliminated by liver and muscle tissue and transformed to glycogen; then, glucose concentration in blood decreases and hunger develops [4]. Complex polysaccharides, resistant starch, and food fibers slow down glucose absorption; their absence or partial lack from the diet leads to small volume of food and consequently need for new meal, i. e. overnutrition [6, 7]. The term glycemic index was introduced as a function of the rate of carbohydrate absorption; this provided for the possibility for patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus or other metabolic disorders, as well as healthy population, to correct diet, choosing products that do not induce high glycemia levels.
Under normal conditions, glucose is the major energy substrate for most tissues in the human and animal organisms. Its concentration in blood is an integral index, which is determined by the rate of glycogen formation from non-carbohydrate precursors, influx of carbohydrates with food, absorption in intestines, utilization by tissues, and excretion. Carbohydrate homeostasis may be referred to one of the perfect and most complexly regulated ones, controlled by both nervous and humoral effects. As a rule, concentration of glucose in blood of laboratory rats varies from 4.5 to 6.4 mmol/L and remains within this range even upon prolonged starvation. An important role in the maintenance of the constant glucose level in blood belongs to metabolic pathways through which glycogen, mainly deposited in liver and muscles, is synthesized and broken down. Hydrolysis of glucose-6-phosphate, generated in liver from glycogen, is well known to serve a constant source of glucose. Metabolic pathways of its utilization in organism are described in details in a number of works [8, 9]. Glucose oxidation in a cascade of anaerobic glycolysis reactions is practically the only source of energy for such tissues as nervous tissue, renal medulla, seminal glands, and erythrocytes [8, 9], while other tissues possess the ability to use both glucose and fatty acids, ketone bodies, and other products of oxidative metabolism as energy substrates.
Cereal porridges may be considered as a complex of polysaccharides (or “slow carbohydrates”), proteins, monosaccharides, food fibers, and relatively small amount of fat. In the process of hydrolysis in the gastrointestinal tract they are cleaved to accessible forms of metabolic substrates that are transported to tissues and organs by blood. The faster the product is cleaved to simple carbohydrates, the higher is its glycemic index. Glucose with a glycemic index of 100 is considered an etalon. Due to the abundance of diabetes type I and II and a number of other metabolic disorders, functional products decreasing the burden of pancreas are required. Usually dietary actions include complete or partial disallowance of food with high glycemic index. We assume that use of cereal mixtures components of which are rich with amylose (legumes) or viscous food fibers (peeled and pearl barley, oatmeal—sources of β-glucans) may considerably widen the assortment of dishes and thus improve the quality of life of diabetes and metabolic syndrome patients.
The aim of the work was to develop multicomponent cereal mixtures that would have low or intermediate glycemic index.
