Researchers have found that a low glycemic index (GI) diet can considerably keep blood glucose levels down as compared to a whole grain diet.
The six months-long comprehensive study states that beans and nuts increase blood glucose levels moderately. Experts say that this research is first of its kind to evaluate low GI diet and its influence.
People involved in this study showed noteworthy improvement in cholesterol over the six months with the nutty diet and their HDL levels were also recorded higher. HDL is termed as the good cholesterol which helps in reducing cardiac
define disease risk.
David J A Jenkins, study's lead author, said: "That’s an important issue today, because there’s a double whammy for people who are diabetic. He is a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto.
"If they’re men, they have twice the risk of heart disease, and if they’re women, they have four times the risk. If you can hit the heart disease to which they’re particularly vulnerable, you may have something useful," said Jenkins.
"Pharmaceuticals used to control Type 2 diabetesdefine have not shown the expected benefits in terms of reducing cardiovascular disease," he added.
The study, whose findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 210 Type 2 diabetes patients who were put on a low glycemic diet or a high-fiber diet.
Both type of diets were low in saturated and trans fats, where the high fiber diet included whole-grain bread and breakfast cereal, brown rice and unskinned potatoes and the low glycemic diet included lentils, beans, peas, pasta, quick-boiled rice, pumpernickel and rye breads and oatmeal and oat bran cereals.
Patients were instructed to consume at least five servings of vegetables and three servings of fruits each day and cut down on refined flour.
Low glycemic diet group's hemoglobin A1C levels were recorded lower by an average of 0.5 percent while HDL increased on an average of 1.7 milligrams per deciliter of blood. The high-fiber diet group noticed slight drop in hemoglobin A1C and HDL. A1C level is a measure of blood glucose levels over few months.
This study is the first one to confirm benefits of a low glycemic diet for type 2 diabetes sufferers.
Nutrition and diabetes educator, Emmy Suhl from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said: "We’ve been telling people to eat whole grains for a long time. What this study shows is that it’s not enough to have whole grains. It’s these very specific low-glycemic carbohydrates that do a much better job."
She, however, explained that pursuing such diet-plans is a bit complex as the GI of food changes with the way it is cooked and served. "People tell us again and again that diet is the hardest part of diabetes management," said Emmy.
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