The Glycaemic Index: Implications Of Dietary Fibre And The Digestibility Of Different Carbohydrate Foods In The Management Of Diabetes

Abstract

Current nutritional guidelines for the management of diabetes have focu ssed attention on the importance of increasing the carbohydrate and fibre in the diet. Specific details are not as yet available but the experimental studies indicate that both these measures may be very valuable in achieving better diabetic control and reducing serum lipids. We suggest that one possible approach to increasing carbohydrate intake is to take those carbohydrate foods that, on the basis of the carbohydrate they contain, raise the blood glucose levels least. Tables of glycacmicindex are therefore presented based on the degree to which a 50 g carbo-hydrate portion of the food raises the blood glucose, expressed as a percentageof the value for 50 g of carbohydrate given as glucose. This physiologicalapproach to carbohydrate exchange enables useful foods and food groups to be identified. In this way the high-fibre food legumes are identified which have proved useful in a number of therapeutic dietary trials involving diabetes.