Thirteen healthy subjects participated in the study. Three meals of equal energy content consisting of hamburgers and mashed potatoes, polished rice or white beans were studied. The various meals were labelled with 2.6 MBq 51Cr and gastric emptying was studied by a movable NaI (T1) detector. Blood glucose and plasma insulin were measured after an overnight fast and after ingestion of the testmeal. Gastric emptying of mashed potatoes was faster than that of polished rice (P less than 0.02) and of white beans (P less than 0.05). Blood glucose and plasma insulin responses to the meal with mashed potatoes were greater than to that with polished rice (P less than 0.01), which also produced a greater glucose response than that with white beans (P less than 0.01). The correlation coefficient (rs) between difference in gastric emptying and difference in blood glucose or plasma insulin response was 0.95 (P less than 0.01) when comparing meals of mashed potatoes and polished rice. No correlation was found between gastric emptying and blood glucose or plasma insulin after the white bean meal. We conclude that glucose and insulin responses to potatoes and rice are strongly related to gastric emptying rate, but other factors dominate the control of these responses to white beans.