Diabetes mellitus is the increase in blood glucose caused by the inability of the body to produce insulin or use produced insulin that facilitates the mediation of glucose to the cell for energy production. Diabetes patients have restricted diet and consume more of fruits and vegetables and also foods of low glycemic index i.e. foods that would cause gradual increase in the blood glucose when consumed and prevent those that have high glycemic index i.e. causes a spike in the blood glucose when consumed.

The necessity to extend the range of food consumed by the diabetic patients motivates scientists to explore more foods that could be taken by diabetic patents.

The level of consumption of white yam is relatively high which makes it imperative to look into the benefits and effects of this yam specie on diabetic patients. Studies done on white yam has shown that white yam could be bad or good for diabetic patients depending on how it is processed. Processing of starch affects the rate of availability of digestible carbohydrate.

White yam could be boiled, pound and made into yam flour ( amala) . Processing of starch leads to the breakage of the orchestrated starch structure making carbohydrates more available.

A study showed that boiled yam has high glycemic index than yam flour (Amala) and pounded yam has the highest glycemic index compared to boiled yam and yam flour(amala). The way white yam is processed in pounded yam makes the carbohydrate more available to enzymes that disintegrate and completely breakages the carbohydrates to glucose though yam flour(amala) undergo quite a vigorous processes but the hydration lost in the process with some slight modifications makes the carbohydrate less available and making it have low glycemic index.

In summary, amala(yam flour) is safer for diabetes patient than pounded yam

It is recommended for diabetic patients to consume more of amala (yam flour) in lieu of pounded yam.

culled from......http://www.livehealthyblog.org/2014/10/diabetesamalayam-flour-better-than.html

Good point