A Comparison of Acute Glycaemic and Insulin Response to Dates (Phoenix dactylifera) and Oral Dextrose in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Subjects

Abstract

An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with 75 g dextrose and an oral dates tolerance test (ODTT) using an isocaloric (300 kcal) amount of dates (110 g) were performed in 16 well-controlled non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients and 10 healthy subjects, using semi-dried Sukkari dates (Al-Qassim) in the ripe (tamer) stage. In the patients, the glucose values were significantly higher after dextrose, p < 0.05, from 60 to 120 min and the incremental area under curve (IAUC) for glucose (mmol/litre 2 h, mean ± SE) following dextrose −76.1 ± 5.2, was significantly larger than for dates −51.4 ± 3.1, p < 0.05