Dieta Mediterrânea: Baixa Carga Glicêmica diminui o Risco de Diabetes

Artigo publicado na revista européia Diabetologia, realizado com a população do European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition ( EPIC), demostrou:

1- Alimentação com baixa carga glicêmica que também siga os princípios da dieta do mediterrâneo pode diminuir os riscos do Diabetes Tipo 2.

2- Os resultados sugerem que eliminar ou simplesmente restringir o consumo de alimentos com alta carga glicêmica como pães, massas ou açúcar refinados e seguir uma dieta como a Mediterrânea onde são enfatizados o consumo de legumes , nozes, vegetais e frutas tem impacto significante na redução do risco do DM2.

Low Glycemic Load Diet Lowers Diabetes Risk

Published: Aug 16, 2013

By Salynn Boyles, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

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also follows the principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet can lower type 2 diabetes risk, new research suggested.

People in the study whose eating patterns most closely adhered to the principles of the Mediterranean diet and the low glycemic load diet were 20% less likely to develop diabetes than people who least closely followed the two diets, Carlo La Vecchia, MD, of the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, and colleagues, wrote online in the journalDiabetologia.

The findings suggest that eliminating or strictly limiting high glycemic load foods such as those high in refined sugars and grains and following the largely plant-based Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes, can have a significant impact on diabetes risk, La Vecchia said.

"The impact of the diets was synergistic," he told MedPage Today. "The message is that eating a largely Mediterranean diet that is also low in glycemic load is particularly favorable for preventing diabetes."

The study included residents of Greece participating in the ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) trial, designed to investigate the impact of diet and lifestyle on the risk of diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Over 11 years of follow-up, 2,330 cases of type 2 diabetes were identified among 22,295 study participants.

All the participants completed a single, interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire soon after enrolling in the study, and the responses were used by the researchers to develop a ten point Mediterranean diet score (MDS), with the number 10 reflecting the highest adherence to the diet.

The average daily glycemic load for each participant was arrived at by calculating the carbohydrate content per serving for each food listed, multiplied by the average number of servings of the food per day, multiplied by the food's glycemic index.

Glycemic index values assigned to individual foods were obtained from three sources: the American Society for Nutrition's Foster-Powell table, the British values for potatoes, and theUniversity of Sydney GI index.

A higher Mediterranean diet score (MDS) was found to be inversely associated with diabetes risk (hazard ratio 0.88 [95% CI 0.78-0.99] for an MDS of 6 or higher versus an MDS of 3 or lower.

Corresponding hazard ratios were 0.94 (95% CI 0.63-1.40) for body mass index of less than 25 kg/m² and 0.87 (95% CI 0.77-0.98) for BMI of 25 kg/m² or greater (p for heterogeneity 0.868). No heterogeneity was evident for age (P=0.560), sex (P=0.487), or level of physical activity (P=0.495).

Glycemic load was positively associated with a lower risk for diabetes (hazard ratio 1.21 [95% CI 1.05-1.40] for the highest versus the lowest glycemic load quartile).

"The influence of the Mediterranean diet against diabetes risk was independent of glycemic load levels, and individuals with a high MDS and a low glycemic load tended to have the lowest diabetes risk," the researchers wrote. "It is not difficult to envisage a low glycemic load Mediterranean diet, since olive oil and vegetables dominate this diet and do not contribute, or contribute only marginally, to glycemic load."

Registered dietitian Connie Diekman, M.Ed, RD, who is director of nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said a major limitation of the study was the collection of dietary information through a single food-frequency questionnaire administered soon after participant enrollment.

But she added that the study supports other research finding the Mediterranean diet to be beneficial for people at risk for diabetes.

"If you look at the 2010 dietary guidelines for Americans, promoted in the 'My Plate'campaign, you really do see the Mediterranean diet," she told MedPage Today.

"About half the plate is fruits and vegetables, a little over a fourth is grains and a little less than a fourth is proteins. That's the equivalent of about half a cup or at most three-fourths of a cup of whole grain pasta or brown rice at a meal, which isn't much. If the average American would fill half their plate with fruits and vegetables and limit portions of other foods, that would represent a huge step for lowering disease risk."

The authors report no conflict of interest in association with this research. he research leading to these results was funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and the Italian Association for Cancer Research.