Hi-Maize Supports Fatty Acid Metabolism

New research on Hi-Maize from Ingredion Inc. (Westchester, IL) suggests that the food ingredient can activate enzymes involved in insulin resistance.

Hi-Maize is characterized as a “resistant starch” because a significant portion of it resists digestion in the small intestine, where starch is normally absorbed as sugar. What’s left is digested in the large intestine as fiber, benefiting the digestive process and reducing starch’s effect on blood sugar.

An independent study published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism now suggests that Hi-Maize specifically promotes the expression of three enzymes directly involved in fatty acid metabolism: hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), and adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). When 15 men and women with insulin resistance consumed 40 g of dietary fiber from Hi-Maize for eight weeks daily, expression of these enzymes increased by 85%, 171%, and 71% respectively.

“These findings are significant because research has shown that impairment in fatty acid metabolism within fat cells cause excess fat storage in muscles, liver, and the pancreas, which directly causes insulin resistance, a major biomarker for prediabetes.” said Ingredion in response to the study’s findings. “The findings also explain how fat metabolism contributes to development of prediabetes.”

Consumption of Hi-Maize also promoted reductions in fasting insulin and fasting glucose, and increases in glucose uptake into muscles after eating and insulin sensitivity in muscles.

Diabetes UK provided funding for the Hi-Maize study.