For people with diabetes, foods with low glycemic index might be tooImprovements in blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and weight. This emerges from a new study that goes beyond existing drug or insulin therapy. The results show that a low-glycemic diet could be particularly helpful as an adjunctive treatment for type 2 diabetes.
Better values through foods with a low glycemic index for diabetics
The glycemic index (GI) indicates how quickly different foods affect blood sugar levels. Research has shown that foods with a low glycemic index, such as fruits and vegetables, legumes and whole grains, keep blood sugar levels constant. Such a diet also reduces the risk of heart disease in people with diabetes. However, the last guidelines on such diet plans were over 15 years ago, and since then there has been new evidence on the subject. Therefore, researchers set out to summarize the effects of low GI dietary patterns on blood sugar control and other known risk factors in diabetes. Their results are based on 27 randomized controlled trials published through May 2021. These examine how low glycemic index foods affect diabetes for three or more weeks. The studies involved a total of 1,617 participants with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, most of whom were middle-aged, overweight or obese with moderately controlled levels.
Results show that low-GI dietary patterns were associated with small but clinically meaningful reductions in blood glucose (HbA1c) levels compared to high-glycemic control diets. This suggests that the available evidence provides a good indication of the likely benefit in this population. The researchers see this as an acceptable and safe nutritional strategy. This may provide a small, meaningful reduction in the primary goal of glycemic control in diabetes and other established risk factors. The synthesisthis studyfurther supports existing recommendations for the use of low GI dietary patterns. This could enable a new therapeutic approach in the treatment of diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
