Gellan gum in white rice and blood sugar in people
What it found
In 12 healthy adults, white rice cooked with gellan gum led to a lower rise in blood sugar after the meal than the same rice cooked without it.
The authors say this could be a simple way to reduce the blood sugar response to white rice.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood sugar response
The blood sugar rise over 2 hours was 93 for the gellan gum rice compared with 160 for the control rice, a 42% difference. The peak blood sugar was 6.5 mmol/L with gellan gum rice versus 7.3 mmol/L without.
Stomach emptying
The time for half the meal to leave the stomach was 101 minutes with gellan gum rice and 107 minutes without, not a significant difference. The rate of emptying was also similar.
Appetite and food intake
There were no significant differences in appetite ratings or in the amount of pasta eaten at a later lunch between the two rice meals.
Stomach appearance on MRI
MRI scans showed that rice cooked with gellan gum formed multiple darker boluses that stayed in the stomach throughout digestion, while control rice became more homogeneous.
Animal and lab studies
Rice grain structure
In lab tests, gellan gum coated the rice grains and penetrated below the surface. The grains stayed firmer and less soft when soaked, compared with rice cooked in plain water.
What the authors conclude
“The addition of LAGG to the cooking process was effective in reducing postprandial blood glucose responses in healthy humans.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that adding low acyl gellan gum to the cooking process was effective in reducing postprandial blood glucose responses in healthy humans.
- They say that if confirmed, this could potentially provide a simple and relatively inexpensive intervention to reduce the post prandial glycemic response to white rice.
How it was done
White rice has a high glycemic index and its consumption has been linked to an increased risk of type-2 diabetes, diabetes complications and obesity. The authors wanted to see if adding gellan gum during cooking could lower the blood sugar response in people, after earlier lab tests suggested it might.
Twelve healthy adults (seven women and five men, average age 26) took part in a randomised, controlled, crossover study. They ate two meals of jasmine white rice (232 kcal each), one cooked with 3% low acyl gellan gum and one without, on separate days about a week apart. Blood glucose, stomach contents and appetite were measured for 2 hours after each meal.
What it can’t tell you
- This study was in healthy young adults, mostly Caucasian, so the results may not apply to older people, other ethnic groups, or people with diabetes.
- The study only lasted 2 hours after the meal, so it cannot show what happens over a longer time or with regular consumption.
- The study used one type of rice (jasmine) and one type of gellan gum, so the findings may not apply to other rice varieties or other gums.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
- Authors work at
- University of Nottingham, UK; Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and University of Nottingham, UK; Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
The paper
- Title
- Structuring white rice with gellan gum reduces the glycemic response in healthy humans
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Alshammari NA, Riches K, Muttakin S, et al (2024). Structuring white rice with gellan gum reduces the glycemic response in healthy humans. Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.). doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2024.115090Free full textPubMed 39614504DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error