(P41-33-26) Metabolic Heterogeneity in Glycemic Responses to Glycemic Loads: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Study

Monday, July 27, 2026

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM ET

Location: Poster Board G-95

Presenting Author(s)

Hila Zelicha, RD PHD

Post-Doctoral Fellow
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California, United States

Co-Author(s)

JY

Jieping Yang, PhD

Associate project scientist
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California, United States
JH

Jianjun Huang, BS

Research Assistant
Department of Medicine, Center for Human Nutrition, David Geffen School of Medicine
Los Angeles, California, United States
DH

David Heber, MD, PhD (he/him/his)

Professor Emeritus and Founding Director
UCLA Center for Human Nutrition
Los Angeles, California, United States
Zhaoping Li, PhD, MD (she/her/hers)

Professor
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California, United States

Disclosure(s):

Hila Zelicha, RD PHD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: To investigate heterogeneity in acute glycemic responses to carbohydrate loads administered in different matrices and to quantify and compare the inter- and intra-individual variability in response patterns.

Methods: In a 3-arm randomized crossover trial, glycemic responses were assessed in 42 adults consumed a sugar-water (glucose 18.6g and fructose 18.3 g dissolved in 240ml of water), iso-sugar pomegranate juice (PomJ), and water. Each test was followed by a 1-week washout. Mixed-model repeated-measures analyses compared peak glucose, total net area under the curve (netAUC), and related glycemic features across conditions. Individual response profiles were further evaluated using dynamic time warping (DTW) to quantify intra- vs inter-individual variability and identify response phenotypes.

Results: Substantial inter-individual variability in glycemic responses was observed despite similar average responses across interventions. The mean difference between carbohydrate interventions for total netAUC was -72.4±1529.4 mg/dL*min, corresponding to a high coefficient of variation (CV) of 2112.3%. Similarly high variability was observed for glucose peak (-6.4 ± 18.0 mg/dL; CV = 281.3%) and time to glucose peak (1.7 ± 11.2 min; CV = 672.7%). Variability was even greater for the duration of the glucose peak (−0.9 ± 38.4 min; CV = 4149.1%) and the ending time of the glucose peak (3.2 ± 29.0 min; CV = 918.6%). Dynamic time warping (DTW) analysis further demonstrated that inter-individual variability exceeded intra-individual variability, indicating that differences between participants were more pronounced than intervention effects within individuals (p = 0.005).

Conclusions: Glycemic responses to comparable carbohydrate loads varied substantially among individuals despite minimal group-level differences. Inter-individual variability exceeded within-person differences, revealing distinct glycemic response phenotypes. These findings underscore the importance of individualized analyses of glycemic responses, as reliance on group averages may mask meaningful inter-individual variability.

Funding Sources: Center for Human Nutrition, UCLA