- Proponents of low-glycemic-index diets claim that foods with a low glycemic index are healthier than foods with a high glycemic index.
If you have diabetes, the right diet can help keep blood glucose levels in check and help control a number of risk factors—such as elevated blood lipids (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides), obesity, and high blood pressure—for developing diabetes complications.
Most experts recommend that people with diabetes eat a diet high in carbohydrates and low in fat. But recently, a number of books and diet doctors have advocated “low-glycemic-index diets." Proponents of low-glycemic-index diets claim that foods with a low glycemic index (those that cause small increases in blood glucose levels when eaten) are healthier than foods with a high glycemic index (those that cause sharp increases in blood glucose). Because people with diabetes need to control their blood glucose, such a diet might seem like a useful tool.
In fact, sometimes the glycemic index can encourage better food choices, such as eating more fiber—but it may also lead to worse choices, such as avoiding carbohydrates altogether and eating fattier foods.
In addition, keeping track of glycemic index values is often not practical—they’re not listed on food labels, vary according to how the food is prepared, and don’t take into account that people eat more than one type of food at a time.
Finally, no long-term clinical trials have examined whether a low-glycemic-index diet helps to regulate blood glucose levels or control weight, both critical steps for managing diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association does not recommend the glycemic index as a useful tool for planning a healthy diet. Its nutritional guidelines state that people with diabetes do not have to restrict their food choices to those low on the glycemic index. The total amount of carbohydrates eaten each day is more important in determining the body’s response to glucose than the glycemic index of each individual food one eats.
