Prospective Study of Dietary Carbohydrates, Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Middle-aged Chinese Women

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Abstract
Uncertainty exists about the role of dietary carbohydrates in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).1 Several2-5 but not all studies of primarily white populations have linked dietary glycemic index (GI), an in vivo measure of carbohydrate quality based on the rapidity of its absorption, and glycemic load (GL), a measure of the total glycemic effect of carbohydrates in the diet,6,7 to an increased risk of type 2 DM. Because bread, potatoes, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, and sweets and desserts are the main sources of dietary GL in Western populations, it has been suggested that the associations between dietary GI and GL and risk of type 2 DM may differ in Chinese and other Asian populations in which rice is the major staple food.8