Researchers from Children's Hospital, Boston, US, have reported that a diet with low glycemic load will be much beneficial for people suffering from cardiovascular disease than the conventional low fat diet.
A Glycemic index measures how the food affects our blood sugar. Glycemic Index (GI) ranks foods on their effect on the blood sugar level. The index ranges from 1 to 100. Some food items raise the blood glucose level more than the others. These are the ones with low GI (less than 55). High GI foods usually rate more than 70.The study had 23 obese adults have any one of the two types of diets; the first one was with foods of low GI without any strict restriction on fat or carbohydrate. The control diet plan was restricted intake of carbohydrates and fat.
The results of the study showed decrease in body weight significantly after being on the former diet for six months. There was also a decline in plasma triacylglycerols in the first type of diet than the conventional low fat, low carbohydrate diet. The research shows that food with low glycemic load may benefit the cardiac patients by lowering their cardiovascular risk.
