[Effects of Indigestible Maltodextrin] Suppress Blood Sugar Rise? 3 Benefits of Indigestible Maltodextrin

Hello, I am Jinny, a pharmacist.

Have you ever heard the advice that when adjusting your food consumption for dieting, you should check not only the calories of the food but also its GI (blood sugar index)? This is because elevated blood sugar levels after a meal cause fat to accumulate.

Therefore, today I would like to introduce an ingredient called ‘indigestible maltodextrin’, which has great benefits as a diet food by suppressing the rise in blood sugar after a meal. Indigestible maltodextrin is a plant-derived dietary fiber obtained by heating corn starch, and is a dual-functional raw material recognized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as being able to help not only ‘suppress the rise in blood sugar levels after a meal’ but also ‘smooth bowel movements’.

Did you know that when controlling blood sugar, not only fasting blood sugar but also postprandial blood sugar should be considered important? Postprandial blood sugar refers to the blood sugar level 2 hours after starting a meal. The normal level of postprandial blood sugar is 140 mg/dL. If blood sugar continues to be high, sugar oxidizes and causes inflammation, so it is important to maintain appropriate blood sugar levels. If the postprandial insulin level remains high, it means that the postprandial blood sugar level has not decreased as much.

A paper published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2007 reported that consuming indigestible maltodextrin reduced postprandial insulin levels.

The reason people worry about abdominal obesity is not simply for cosmetic purposes. Excessive accumulation of abdominal fat, especially visceral fat, increases the risk of complications such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, managing visceral fat type obesity is more important than other areas such as arms, legs, and buttocks.

In relation to this, a paper was published in the 2020 Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology that studied the correlation between indigestible maltodextrin and abdominal visceral fat.

What happens when stool takes longer to pass through the large intestine? The number of bowel movements decreases and stools become excessively hard, making constipation more likely to occur.

A paper published in 2015 contained the results of a study showing that ingestion of indigestible maltodextrin reduced the transit time of stool through the colon.

Today, we looked at the benefits of indigestible maltodextrin through research papers. Indigestible maltodextrin is not digested in the small intestine and travels to the large intestine, contributing to the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria. Therefore, it may also benefit your overall bowel health. Lastly, we recommend that you take indigestible maltodextrin with plenty of water.

I hope you have a healthy day both physically and mentally. This was Jinny.