White measuring cups filled with different pulses.

Keeping Your Finger On The Pulse

Congratulations to one of students and team member, PhD candidate Alexandria Rankovic, on her publication earlier this month in the Journal of Animal Science!

White dog taking a treat from someone's hand

For her MSc, Alex researched the effects of various starch sources on the glycemic index (GI) of sled dogs. Initially, the effects of single-ingredient starch sources on GI were investigated, including cooked white rice, cooked green lentils and white bread. Once this was established, she then explored how commercial diets containing ingredients classified as traditional grain, whole grain, grain-free, and vegan would modify GI and insulin response.

She found that there were no statistical differences between the single-ingredient starches and the commercial diets, regardless of ingredients. The majority was also true for the commercial diets. The exception was the grain-free diets, which demonstrated the slowest peak in insulin response.

Thank you to Petcurean for sponsoring this project!

Congratulations again to Alex on her recent publication!