La risposta glicemica tra presente e futuro - Strategie del settore alimentare per la prevenzione e la gestione del diabete mellito

Diabetes mellitus is one of the major metabolic diseases worldwide and it is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia.The incidence of this disorder has been increasing in the last decades, affecting not only adults but children and adolescentes as well. Diet plays an important role in diabetes prevention and management. A main approach to achieve this goal is represented by the consumption of products naturally producing a low glycemic response. The latter can also be controlled by developing foods that are formulated to exhibit such an effect. Since in vivo analyses are costly and time-consuming, one of the most promising methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of process interventions aimed at producing low glycemic index foods is represented by in vitro digestion. The aim of this paper is to describe the most important factors affecting the glycemic response, the most common technological strategies applied to manage diabetes, as well as the methods used to evaluate their effectiveness