New European research published in the Nov. 2009 issue of the International Journal of Obesity (33, 1280–1288; doi:10.1038/ijo.2009.163) indicates that dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) may not influence weight and waist circumference change.
The research involved a population-based prospective cohort study among five European countries (Denmark, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) with 89,432 participants, aged 20 to78, years.GI and GL were calculated on the basis of dietary intake assessed by food frequency questionnaires and by using a GI table developed for this study using published GI values as the main sources.
Researchers concluded that the findings “do not support an effect of GI or GL on weight change. The positively significant association between GI, not GL, and subsequent gain in waist circumference may imply a beneficial role of lower GI diets in the prevention of abdominal obesity. However, further studies are needed to confirm this finding given the small effect observed in this study.”
