Beneficial Effect of a Low Glycaemic Index Diet in Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Low glycaemic index foods produce low blood glucose and insulin responses in normal subjects, and improve blood glucose control in Type 1 and well-controlled Type 2 diabetic patients. We studied the effects of a low glycaemic index diet in 15 Type 2 diabetic patients with a mean fasting blood glucose of 9.5 mmol l-1 using a randomized, crossover design. Patients were given pre-weighed diets (59% energy as carbohydrate, 21% fat, and 24 g 1000-kcal-1 dietary fibre) for two 2-week periods, with a diet glycaemic index of 60 during one period and 87 during the other. On the low glycaemic index diet, the blood glucose response after a representative breakfast was 29% less than on the high glycaemic index diet (874 +/- 108 (+/- SE) vs 204 +/- 112 mmol min l-1; p less than 0.001), the percentage reduction being almost identical to the 28% difference predicted from the meal glycaemic index values. After the 2-week low glycaemic index diet, fasting serum fructosamine and cholesterol levels were significantly less than after the high glycaemic index diet (3.17 +/- 0.12 vs 3.28 +/- 0.16 mmol l-1, p less than 0.05, and 5.5 +/- 0.4 vs 5.9 +/- 0.5 mmol l-1, p less than 0.02, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Recommendations for the nutritional management of patients with diabetes mellitus

“…The use of low GI staple foods to form the basic and major component of each meal offers bene®ts with lipid reduction (Wolever et al, 1992) and improvements in glycaemic control (Frost et al, 1994;Fontvieille et al, 1992;Brand et al, 1991). The GI of a food is affected by the rate of digestion and absorption of the carbohydrate present in the food (Hermansen, 1994).…”

Muesli with 4 g oat β-glucans lowers glucose and insulin responses after a bread meal in healthy subjects

“…A low-GI diet may improve management of diabetes by lowering early postprandial hyperglycaemi and decreasing risk for postabsorptive hypoglycaemia (Brand et al, 1991;Wolever et al, 1992;Järvi et al, 1995;Gilbertson et al, 2001). By inducing low insulin levels (Björck et al, 2000) and increased insulin sensitivity (Wolever et al, 1992;Frost et al, 1996Frost et al, , 1998Järvi et al, 1999) a low-GI diet also affects the risk for other metabolic diseases associated with the insulin resistance syndrome, for example, cardiovascular disease (Wannamethee et al, 2005). A recent examination of the Framingham Offspring Study showed that diets with lower GI are associated with lower insulin resistance, and a reduced risk of developing the insulin resistance syndrome (McKeown et al, 2004).…”

Determination of the glycaemic index of foods: interlaboratory study

“…Many factors such as food form, particle size, cooking, processing and starch structure affect the GI (Björck et al, 1994). There is evidence that low GI foods improve blood glucose control in people with diabetes Wolever et al, 1992a;Frost et al, 1994;Järvi et al, 1999;Gilbertson et al, 2001), reduce serum lipids in people with hypertriglyceridaemia (Jenkins et al, 1987a), prolong endurance during physical activity (Thomas et al, 1991), improve insulin sensitivity (Frost et al, 1998) and increase colonic fermentation (Jenkins et al, 1987b;Wolever et al, 1992b). In addition, low GI foods are associated with high HDL cholesterol (Frost et al, 1999) and reduced risk for developing diabetes (Salmeró n et al, 1997a,b) and cardiovascular disease (Liu et al, 2000).…”