Short Communication
Dissociation of the glycaemic and insulinaemic responses to whole
and skimmed milk
Garrett Hoyt, Matthew S. Hickey and Loren Cordain*
Department of Health and Exercise Science, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
(Received 10 May 2004 – Revised 10 August 2004 – Accepted 14 September 2004)
In most carbohydrate-containing foods, the blood insulin response is predictable and is closely linked to the food’s glycaemic index (GI).
A single study, examining whole milk and fermented milk products made from whole milk, recently reported a large dissociation between
the GI and insulinaemic index (II) in healthy normal adults. Because the fat component of a food may influence the GI and II, it is unclear
if a similar dissociation may exist for skimmed milk in normal adults. We determined the GI and II of both skimmed and whole milk in
nine healthy, male (n 6) and female (n 3) subjects (23·6 (SD 1·4) years). No significant (P.0·05) differences existed between GI and II for
skimmed and whole milks. Significant (P,0·05) differences were observed between the actual and predicted areas under the insulin curves
for both skimmed milk (predicted 1405 (SD 289) pmol £ min/l; actual 6152 (SD 1177) pmol £ min/l) and whole milk (predicted 1564 (SD
339) pmol £ min/l; actual 5939 (SD 1095) pmol £ min/l). Consequently, a large and similar dissociation of the GI and II existed for both
whole milk (42 (SD 5) and 148 (SD 14)) and skimmed milk (37 (SD 9) and 140 (SD 13)). It is concluded that the dissociation of the GI and II
in milk is not related to its fat content.
Glycaemic index: Insulinaemic index: Whole milk: Skimmed milk
The glycaemic index (GI) was developed by Jenkins et al.
(1981) to provide additional information to help diabetic
patients make appropriate dietary decisions. The GI has
important implications for controlling blood glucose con-
centrations
in both diabetic and healthy individuals
(Wolever et al. 1995; Björck et al. 2000), but has been cri-
ticized for overlooking the contribution of insulin to meta-
bolic