J Med Assoc Thai. 2001 Jan; 84(1): 85-97.

Effect of long-term intake of Asian food with different glycemic indices on diabetic control and protein conservation in type 2 diabetic patients.

Komindr S, Ingsriswang S, Lerdvuthisopon N, Boontawee A.

Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.

The study was carried out in 10 females with type 2 diabetes aged 32-60 yrs. All of them were receiving weight-maintaining diets composed of 12 per cent protein, 30 per cent fat and 58 per cent carbohydrate. The only difference among all study-diets was the types of complex carbohydrate used. High-glycemic diet (HG) or low glycemic diet (LG) consisted mainly of glutinous rice or mungbean noodles and the intermediate-glycemic diet (DM) was solely white rice. After the metabolic evaluation of the baseline diet (BL), each subject was placed on DM and followed randomly by HG and LG or vice versa for 4 weeks each. The diurnal plasma glucose levels tended to be lowest after LG. The integrated plasma glucose levels among all diets were not different. The integrated insulin levels after DM and LG did not differ but they were lower than HG and BL. Long-term ingestion of all test-diets spilt less urinary glucose than BL, the lowest was LG. HbA1 levels and nitrogen balance after all diets were better than BL, the best was LG. It was concluded that in addition to strict dietary control, ingestion of mungbean noodles (a low glycemic diet) without increasing fiber intake, can improve diabetic control and protein conservation in type 2 diabetes.