Review Article
Year: 2019 | Month: February | Volume: 9 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 259-266
Effect of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Towhid Hasan1, Marjia Sultana1, Lincon Chandra Shill1, Nafisa Habib Purba1, Sara Sultana2
1Department of Food Technology and Nutrition Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali-3814, Bangladesh
2Department of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Corresponding Author: Marjia Sultana
ABSTRACT
Worldwide diabetes mellitus especially type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become a common and rapidly growing chronic non-communicable disease with potentially devastating complications, posing major public health and socioeconomic challenges. The role of glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) in the control of the T2DM remain controversial. However, a number of mechanisms have been proposed through which dietary GI and/or GL can reduce the risk of T2DM, but all are suggestive. So, the present review is aimed to investigate the current understanding of the effect of GI and/or GL on the risk of T2DM.PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane library and several other databases were searched up to December 2018 to identify and select relevant studies. Research conducted using human are only considered eligible. Among the eighteen prospective cohort studies, eight have found no significant association of dietary GI and/or GL with T2DM risk, six studies revealed an association and four studies identified positive association only with GI but not with the GL. Among the ten interventional studies, only two indicated that the risk of T2DM increased with the increment of GI and GL. In conclusion, research on the glycemic response of foods needs to be expanded in order to get a broad and clear knowledge which will provide assurance that how dietary GI and/or GL have play role on the risk of T2DM.
Key words: Glycemic index, Glycemic load, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, Carbohydrate.