Company to Extend bar range
line of snack bars that aim to help stabilize blood glucose. The
range was originally aimed at diabetics, but the company is
alsomarketing them as a mainstream product for overweight people
wanting to keep their hunger pangs at bay.
"These are the only snacks clinically proven to help prevent blood glucose highs and lows for upto nine hours," said the company in a statement today.
ExtendBar said that the snack bars - which will be sugar-free and low-carb and available in two flavors, namely Chocolate Delight and Peanut Delight - were designed to meet the nutritional needs of diabetics, but are "also appropriate for anyone trying to manage blood glucose, control hunger in order to lose weight or train for a marathon".
ExtendBar was developed by Dr. Francine Kaufman, head of the Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
Kaufman said she developed the ExtendBar to help her patients regain the quality of their lives by avoiding blood glucose swings.
"ExtendBar contains a unique combination of low glycemic ingredients that break down and convert to blood glucose gradually," said the company. "Just two of the 21 total grams in the bars are fast-converting (net) carbs. As a result, the rise in blood glucose is so minimal the bar can be eaten at any time without the need to offset it with additional insulin."
As Dr Julian Stowell, chairman of the Calorie Control Council and director of scientific affairs for Danisco Sweeteners, said recently," "For people with established diabetes, there is quite clear evidence that moving to a low GI diet is advantageous. But for healthy individuals, it is not so clear".
A study published in Pediatrics (Nov;112(5):e414) last year found that children eating a low GI breakfast tended to eat more moderately throughout the day while those eating a high-GI breakfast were more likely to be hungry by lunchtime.
But intervention studies, to assess the benefits of a low-GI diet over the long-term in a larger population group will require significant resources, and means that definitive proof for the value of the glycemic index may be some way off.
