Resistant starch and in vitro starch digestibility of five Nigerian foods

Abstract

There is increased awareness of the role of digestible and resistant starch in the management of some metabolic diseases. The study is aimed at determining the resistant and in vitro starch digestibility content of five Nigerian foods. The diets are boiled Cowpeas, Akara (fried cowpea cakes), Moi-moi (steamed cowpea cakes), Usi (gelatinized cassava starch) and Okpa (steamed Bambara groundnut cakes). Raw food materials were purchased and processed into commonly eaten forms. Analysis of result showed that Usi had significantly (P< 0.05) higher total starch content than boiled cowpeas, Akara, Moi-Moi and Okpa.  Rapidly digestible starch was also significantly higher in Usi than the other food samples. Okpa had significantly lower resistant starch content than other foods. The results suggest that the high rapidly digestible starch content of Usi makes it unsuitable for the management of metabolic diseases.

Keywords: resistant starch, in vitro starch digestion, rapidly digestible starch.