Validation Study of the Estimated Glycemic Load Model Using Commercially Available Fast Foods

Abstract

The recent popularization of low-glycemic foods has expanded interest in glycemic index (GI) not only among diabetic patients but also healthy people. The purpose of this study is to validate the estimated glycemic load model (eGL) developed in 2018. This study measured the glycemic load (GL) of 24 fast foods in the market in 20 subjects. Then, the transportability of the model was assessed, followed by an assessment of model calibration and discrimination based on model performance. The transportability assessment showed that the subjects at the time of model development are different from the subjects of this validation study. Therefore, the model can be described as transportable. As for the model's performance, the calibration assessment found an x2 value of 11.607 and a p-value of 0.160, which indicates that the prediction model fits the observations. The discrimination assessment found a discrimination accuracy exceeding 0.5 (57.1%), which confirms that the performance and stability of the prediction model can be discriminated across all classifications. The correlation coefficient between GLs and eGLs measured from the 24 fast foods was statistically significant at 0.712 (p < 0.01), indicating a strong positive linear relationship. The explanatory powers of GL and eGL was high at 50.7%. The findings of this study suggest that this prediction model will greatly contribute to healthy food choices because it allows for predicting blood glucose responses solely based on the nutrient content labeled on the fast foods.