Yes. The strongest evidence that glycemic index matters comes from the Acarbose trial. Acarbose is a drug that inhibits an enzyme secreted by the intestine to split long chain starches into their glucose building blocks. This drug inhibits the enzyme, so it's turning a high-glycemic index carb into a low-glycemic-indec carb.
The drug reduced the risk of heart disease and diabetes. From a physiological standpoint, it's the definitive study on glycemic index.
Q: Don't most foods-like hamburgers, pizza, and cookies--mix refined carbs with fat, which blunts the glycemic index?
A: If you add fat to refined carbs or potatoes, that will lower the glucose response. But you'll also lower blood sugar if you replace the high-glycemic carb with a low glycemic carb like barley.
No matter what your diet, if you switch from a higher- to a lower-glycemic index carb, you'll get the expected drop in blood glucose. That's why glycemic load matters. It takes into account the amount of carbohydrate as well as the glycemic index.
Walter Willett is chair of the Dept. of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He has published over 1,400 scientific articles on diet and disease. Excerpt from Nutrition Action Healthletter
The drug reduced the risk of heart disease and diabetes. From a physiological standpoint, it's the definitive study on glycemic index.
Q: Don't most foods-like hamburgers, pizza, and cookies--mix refined carbs with fat, which blunts the glycemic index?
A: If you add fat to refined carbs or potatoes, that will lower the glucose response. But you'll also lower blood sugar if you replace the high-glycemic carb with a low glycemic carb like barley.
No matter what your diet, if you switch from a higher- to a lower-glycemic index carb, you'll get the expected drop in blood glucose. That's why glycemic load matters. It takes into account the amount of carbohydrate as well as the glycemic index.
Walter Willett is chair of the Dept. of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He has published over 1,400 scientific articles on diet and disease. Excerpt from Nutrition Action Healthletter
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