Re: FYI (Ny Times article on diet, diabetes)

[Guest guest]

I was expecting a lot of debate or discussion on this NY Times article.

Did I miss it? When you read this article, " ...kept their blood sugar

under better control when they ate foods like beans and

nuts...scientists describe these foods as having a low glycemic index, "

don't you get the impression that the difference was significant?

My co-worker returned from August 2008 AADE conference with the bottom

line from discussions there that there was " no significant improvement "

at least in A1c —-(I don't remember any mention of improvement to HDL

Cholesterol — that is encouraging.

Anyone irked by the title, " Recommended diet for diabetics may need

changing. " Somehow, I believe I have not been alone (on this list

serve) in highly recommending (for like the past 50 years) " foods like

beans and nuts... " AND whole grains. Gee, Mediterranean Diet

anybody?

Robin Rhoades

Hartford

>>> " Kalman " 12/19/2008 9:10 AM

>>>

December 19, 2008

Recommended Diet for Diabetics May Need Changing, Study Suggests

By RONI CARYN RABIN

People with Type 2 diabetes

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/type-2-diabetes/overvie

w.html?inline=nyt-classifier> on a high-fiber

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/nutrition/fiber/overview.html?i

nline=nyt-classifier> diet

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/food-guide-pyramid

/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier> kept their blood sugar under

better control when they ate foods like beans and nuts instead of the

recommended whole-grain diet, researchers have found.

Beans and nuts are among foods that only modestly increase blood

glucose

levels; scientists describe these foods as having a low glycemic

index.

The new study, which lasted six months, is one of the largest and

longest to assess the impact of foods with a low-glycemic index,

researchers said.

Participants on the low-glycemic diet also saw significant

improvements

in cholesterol

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/nutrition/cholesterol/overview.

html?inline=nyt-classifier> after six months, with increases in HDL

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/hdl/overview.html?inline=n

yt-classifier> , the so-called " good " cholesterol associated with a

reduced risk of heart disease, the study found.

" That's an important issue today, because there's a double whammy for

people who are diabetic, " said Dr. J. A. , lead author of

the report and a professor of nutritional sciences at the University

of

Toronto. " If they're men, they have twice the risk of heart disease,

and

if they're women, they have four times the risk. If you can hit the

heart disease to which they're particularly vulnerable, you may have

something useful. "

" Pharmaceuticals used to control Type 2 diabetes have not shown the

expected benefits in terms of reducing cardiovascular disease, " he

added.

The study was published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American

Medical Association.

Some 210 patients with Type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to a

low-glycemic diet or a high-cereal, high-fiber diet.

The high-cereal high fiber diet emphasized " brown foods " such as

whole-grain bread and breakfast cereal, brown rice and potatoes with

the

skin on. The low-glycemic diet included beans, peas, lentils, pasta,

quickly boiled rice and certain breads, like pumpernickel and rye, as

well as oatmeal and oat bran cereals.

Both diets are low in saturated fat

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/nutrition/fat/overview.html?inl

ine=nyt-classifier> and trans fat

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/trans_fa

tty_acids/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> . Both groups were told to

limit their consumption of white flour and to eat five servings of

vegetables and three servings of fruit each day.

Participants on the low-glycemic diet saw their hemoglobin

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/hemoglobin/overview.html?i

nline=nyt-classifier> A1C

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/hba1c/overview.html?inline

=nyt-classifier> levels - a measure of blood glucose levels over

recent

months - reduced slightly, by 0.5 percent on average, but experienced

significant improvements in HDL, which increased by 1.7 milligrams per

deciliter of blood on average. Those on the high-cereal diet saw

smaller

reductions in hemoglobin A1C and slight drops in HDL.

Dietitians who work with people who have Type 2 diabetes said earlier

studies had not demonstrated the benefits of low-glycemic index foods

as

clearly as this report.

" We've been telling people to eat whole grains for a long time, " said

Emmy Suhl, a nutrition and diabetes

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/diabetes/overview.html?

inline=nyt-classifier> educator at the Joslin Diabetes Center in

Boston. " What this study shows is that it's not enough to have whole

grains. It's these very specific low-glycemic carbohydrates

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/nutrition/carbohydrates/overvie

w.html?inline=nyt-classifier> that do a much better job. "

But, she said, following such a diet is complicated, since the

glycemic

index of a food can change depending on how it is prepared and served.

" People tell us again and again that diet is the hardest part of

diabetes management, " she added.

S. Kalman PhD, RD, CCRC, FACN

Miami Research Associates

Director, Nutrition & Applied Clinical Research

6141 Sunset Drive #301

Miami, FL. 33143

(fax)

www.miamiresearch.com <http://www.miamiresearch.com>