Low-Glycemic Load Diet Facilitates Weight Loss in Overweight Adults with High Insulin Secretion



http://www.docguide.com/news/conten...=FDE48C5AAAA580E785256BD5007E630B&lan=English

When weight loss is the goal, most diets restrict calories. It is a
relatively simple concept--a person can lose weight by taking in fewer
calories than he or she expends. But does it matter where the calories
come from? It might, according to findings from a small study published
in the December 2005 issue of the medical journal Diabetes Care.

Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on
Aging at Tufts University discovered that a diet's overall "glycemic
load" may be an important determinant of weight loss, but only for some
people.

Senior author Susan Roberts, PhD, director of the Energy Metabolism
Laboratory at the Center says, "Our results suggest that in the future
there may be a way to predict who will do best on a low glycemic load
diet." The key, they have found, may be in knowing a person's level of
insulin secretion.

"Insulin is a hormone that is important in glucose (sugar) metabolism,"
explains senior author Andrew Greenberg, MD, director of the Obesity
and Metabolism Laboratory at the Center. "The regulation of body weight
is, at least in part, influenced by how much insulin a person secretes
in response to a load of glucose, as well as by how sensitive that
person is to insulin's glucose-lowering effects."

"In our study," says first author Anastassios Pittas, MD, assistant
professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, "everyone lost some
weight as a result of restricting calories, but people who had high
levels of insulin secretion and ate a diet with a low glycemic load
lost the most weight."

As part of the ongoing Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of
Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) trial at Tufts, the authors studied
32 healthy overweight adults on a reduced-calorie diet for 6 months.
Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to a low glycemic load
diet, and the other half followed a diet with a high glycemic load.

"A food's glycemic load is a relative measure of how much carbohydrate
is in the diet and how quickly that food is converted in the body to
blood sugar. Foods with lower numbers typically have a greater
proportion of protein and fat, which usually result in a smaller rise
in blood glucose following a meal. Examples of low glycemic load foods
include salads with oil and vinegar dressing, high fat granola cereal,
and most fresh fruits and vegetables. Glycemic load may not be the
'be-all, end-all' of weight-loss diets for everyone," says Roberts, who
is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and
Policy at Tufts, "but it significantly enhanced weight loss in our
high-insulin-secreting subjects."

"Our findings may eventually have implications for individualizing
weight-loss diets," says Roberts. "We need to confirm our results with
further studies of larger groups of subjects first, but measuring
insulin secretion might be a simple way to target dietary
recommendations that help enhance successful weight loss." Greenberg,
who is also an assistant professor at the Friedman School, notes that
"only when we have completed these future studies can we determine
whether these tests will be useful for making recommendations for the
general public."

Pittas AG, Das SK, Hajduk, CL, Golden J, Saltzman E, Stark PC,
Greenberg AS, Roberts SB. Diabetes Care, (December) 2005; 28:
2939-2941. "A Low-Glycemic Load Diet Facilitates Greater Weight Loss in
Overweight Adults With High Insulin Secretion but Not in Overweight
Adults With Low Insulin Secretion in the CALERIE Trial."
 
In alt.support.diabetes [email protected] wrote:
> http://www.docguide.com/news/conten...=FDE48C5AAAA580E785256BD5007E630B&lan=English


> When weight loss is the goal, most diets restrict calories. It is a
> relatively simple concept--a person can lose weight by taking in fewer
> calories than he or she expends. But does it matter where the calories
> come from? It might, according to findings from a small study published
> in the December 2005 issue of the medical journal Diabetes Care.


> Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on
> Aging at Tufts University discovered that a diet's overall "glycemic
> load" may be an important determinant of weight loss, but only for some
> people.


> Senior author Susan Roberts, PhD, director of the Energy Metabolism
> Laboratory at the Center says, "Our results suggest that in the future
> there may be a way to predict who will do best on a low glycemic load
> diet." The key, they have found, may be in knowing a person's level of
> insulin secretion.


> "Insulin is a hormone that is important in glucose (sugar) metabolism,"
> explains senior author Andrew Greenberg, MD, director of the Obesity
> and Metabolism Laboratory at the Center. "The regulation of body weight
> is, at least in part, influenced by how much insulin a person secretes
> in response to a load of glucose, as well as by how sensitive that
> person is to insulin's glucose-lowering effects."


> "In our study," says first author Anastassios Pittas, MD, assistant
> professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, "everyone lost some
> weight as a result of restricting calories, but people who had high
> levels of insulin secretion and ate a diet with a low glycemic load
> lost the most weight."


> As part of the ongoing Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of
> Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) trial at Tufts, the authors studied
> 32 healthy overweight adults on a reduced-calorie diet for 6 months.
> Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to a low glycemic load
> diet, and the other half followed a diet with a high glycemic load.


> "A food's glycemic load is a relative measure of how much carbohydrate
> is in the diet and how quickly that food is converted in the body to
> blood sugar. Foods with lower numbers typically have a greater
> proportion of protein and fat, which usually result in a smaller rise
> in blood glucose following a meal. Examples of low glycemic load foods
> include salads with oil and vinegar dressing, high fat granola cereal,
> and most fresh fruits and vegetables. Glycemic load may not be the
> 'be-all, end-all' of weight-loss diets for everyone," says Roberts, who
> is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and
> Policy at Tufts, "but it significantly enhanced weight loss in our
> high-insulin-secreting subjects."


> "Our findings may eventually have implications for individualizing
> weight-loss diets," says Roberts. "We need to confirm our results with
> further studies of larger groups of subjects first, but measuring
> insulin secretion might be a simple way to target dietary
> recommendations that help enhance successful weight loss." Greenberg,
> who is also an assistant professor at the Friedman School, notes that
> "only when we have completed these future studies can we determine
> whether these tests will be useful for making recommendations for the
> general public."


That's the artificial problem they're suffering from, that they want
to be able to make recommendations to the general public. It may be
the case that the nutritional biochemistry of the general public is
too diverse for general recommendations to be safe enough for all.

For diabetics, pre-diabetics, etc. there is a simple answer to this
problem: get a BG meter and avoid the foods which spike your BG.

Wait a minute! That involves allowing patients to make their own
decisions about how to treat their illness! That's the beginning of a
very slippery slope involving a very important matter of medical
principle!

--
Chris Malcolm [email protected] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]