However, the marked variation in the composition of traditional sweeteners inevitably leads to a greater uncertainty in GI values for these sweeteners. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the traditional sweeteners are known to contain a plethora of different phytochemical compounds (see next section), some of which have been shown to have anti-diabetic effects ( Arts and Hollman, 2005, Erejuwa et al., 2012a and Scalbert et al., 2005). It is feasible therefore, that the presence of phytochemical compounds could contribute to a reduction in the glycaemic potency of traditional sweeteners compared with glucose syrup and sucrose. Further postprandial glycaemic and insulinaemic studies of traditional sweeteners are warranted to explore the suggested blood glucose-lowering effects of the phytochemicals present within these products.