Abstract:

Diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemias and obesity have been considered diseases with increasing prevalence, and therefore, extremely relevant, as are causes of great mortality. These diseases share the same initial therapy for the adequate control of the patient, the nutritional therapy. The present study aims to show the importance of adopting the glycemic index criterion in the diet of these patients. Low fat diets and high content of fibers and complex carbohydrates has been also recommended, however, some carbohydrates can be noxious, because they increase fastly post prandial glycemia, generating metabolic disturbances. For these reasons, glycemic index has been studied because it classifies carbohydrates in accordance to its physiologic response, and has revealed that foods with low glycemic index obtain better glycemic control than with high glycemic index. The beneficial role of low glycemic index in obesity and dyslipidemias are also reported. Thus, the utilization of the glycemic index show benefits both preventing and treating patients with these diseases.

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