Up to 70 volunteers are needed by the university's School of Human Life Sciences to visit the Newnham campus once a week for three weeks to eat breakfast and be tested.

Researchers hope to this month start looking at the effect of meals with a different Glycaemic Index on blood pressure, blood vessel function, blood glucose and lipids, or fats.

GI is a system for ranking carbohydrates according to how quickly they are converted to glucose.

Foods with a low GI (less than 55) are absorbed into the blood stream slowly helping to keep blood sugar levels stable.

Research nurse Susie Shaw said each three-hour visit would involve giving blood, eating a supplied meal and sitting for two hours with periodic testing.

Mrs Shaw said volunteers would eat different breakfasts and she wanted to see how the foods affected GI levels.

She said low GI foods avoided spikes in blood sugar levels, which was believed to be good for health, and the study would look for impacts on cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Volunteers must be aged between 18-80 years, not taking medicine for hypertension, diabetes, kidney or liver disease and be a non-smoker with no allergies to eggs or gluten.

The Clifford Craig Medical Research Institute has contributed $17,800 for the study.

To volunteer, phone 6324 5466 or email hls.gistudy @utas.edu.au