Review
Metabolic effects of low glycaemic index diets
Author affiliations
1 "Carol Davila" University of Medicine, Bucharest, Romania
2 "N. Paulescu" National Institute of Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, Bucharest, Romania
3 Foundation for Healthy Nutrition, Bucharest, Romania
Citation and License
Nutrition Journal 2009, 8:5 doi:10.1186/1475-2891-8-5
Published: 29 January 2009Abstract
The persistence of an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes suggests that new nutritional strategies are needed if the epidemic is to be overcome. A promising nutritional approach suggested by this thematic review is metabolic effect of low glycaemic-index diet.
The currently available scientific literature shows that low glycaemic-index diets acutely induce a number of favorable effects, such as a rapid weight loss, decrease of fasting glucose and insulin levels, reduction of circulating triglyceride levels and improvement of blood pressure.
The long-term effect of the combination of these changes is at present not known.
Based on associations between these metabolic parameters and risk of cardiovascular disease, further controlled studies on low-GI diet and metabolic disease are needed.
