Thursday, July 08, 2010

High glycemic index diet and inflammatory-related death

To examine whether dietary glycemic index (GI), dietary fiber, and carbohydrate-containing food groups were associated with the mortality attributable to noncardiovascular, noncancer inflammatory disease, researchers analyzed 1490 postmenopausal women and 1245 men.

Researchers stated in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study that over a 13-y period, 84 women and 86 men died of inflammatory diseases. Women in the highest GI tertile had a 2.9-fold increased risk of inflammatory death compared with women in the lowest GI tertile. Increasing intakes of foods high in refined sugars or refined starches also independently predicted a greater risk, with subjects’ GI partly explaining these associations. In men, only an increased consumption of fruit fiber (P = 0.005) and fruit (P = 0.04) conferred an independent decrease in risk of inflammatory death. These data provide new epidemiologic evidence of a potentially important link between GI and inflammatory disease mortality among older women.

Bonnie - does this mean that men can now go hog-wild on refined carbs? Absolutely not. Refined carbs affect men in other ways, especially from a cardiac perspective. However, this study shows that the differences between men and women in disease formation is becoming more evident. yet another reason why we need to deviate from the "one size fits all" treatment mentality.

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