The effect of foods on blood glucose has become recognised as an important nutritional property that can be beneficial or detrimental to consumers, depending on their physiological status. For instance, in athletes, in whom there is often a high demand for rapidly available energy, a rapid loading of blood glucose may be of benefit (Walton & Rhodes 1997). On the other hand, in people with impaired glucose tolerance, acute blood glucose excursions caused by foods high in rapidly available carbohydratemay eventually lead to a range of serious medical complications, in multiple organ systems, due to the vascular effects of glycaemia (Brownlee 2001). For the average consumer, products from which energy release is gradual and sustained may have the advantage of delaying the onset of appetite, therefore helping to curb the excess energy consumption which underlies the current obesity epidemic (Pawlak et al. 2002). Since different consumer groups need foods with different glycaemic effects, there is potentially a demand for cereal products differentiated on the basis of glycaemic impact. Wholegrain rolled oats is an example of a starchy cereal product that is widely used in a range of breakfast cereals and other food products. It is a traditional staplethat has been the subject of genetic improvement in plant breeding programmes, including the oat breeding programme at Crop & Food Research, but its glycaemic impact has not been a selected character.
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