Explain the Glycemic index in Chronic Diseases?

In addition to serve as an aid in planning diets for diabetics, GI of diets has been linked to a number of chronic diseases. Several health benefits appear to exist by reducing the rate of carbohydrate absorption by means of a low GI diet. The health benefits include reduced insulin demand, improved blood glucose control and reduced blood lipid levels. All these factors play an important role in the prevention and management of chronic diseases including diabetes, coronary heart disease and certain cancers. Epidemiological evidence suggests a direct association between GI and risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease (CI-ID), obesity and certain cancers.

Let us first deal with diabetes, the most widespread disease. In some studies, a positive association between GI, Glycemic load (GL i.e. product of the average GI and total carbohydrate intake) and risk of type II diabetes has been observed. This could be because high GI foods lead to a rapid rise in blood glucose and insulin levels. Hyper insulnemia in turn may down regulate insulin receptors and therefore reduce insulin efficiency resulting in insulin resistance. On the contrary, low GI foods result in reduced peak insulin concentrations and reduced insulin demand thus decreasing the risk of type II diabetes.