Malingering’s World

A few studies have come out in the past 3 months about dietary carbs, glycemic load/index and their association with disease.

Arch Intern Med. 2007 Nov 26;167(21):2310-6. Prospective study of dietary carbohydrates, glycemic index, glycemic load, and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in middle-aged Chinese women.
Villegas R, Liu S, Gao YT , Yang G , Li H, Zheng W, Shu XO.

Basically they studied 64,227 Chinese women over 4 and a half years, and they found that “high intake of foods with a high glycemic index and glycemic load, especially rice, the main carbohydrate-contributing food in this population, may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese women.”

Okay. Simple enough. Eat more carbs, eat more rice, get diabetes. Good. I have an answer, right?

Then, less than a month later, this comes out.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):988-94. Dietary glycemic index and glycemic load are associated with high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol at baseline but not with increased risk of diabetes in the Whitehall II study.
Mosdøl A, Witte DR, Frost G, Marmot MG, Brunner EJ.

They studied 7321 people and followed them for 13 years. In this study, high glycemic load was NOT associated with the development of diabetes. In fact, high glycemic load was associated with decreased risk of diabetes. However this study had 71% male subjects. Hmmmm.

In the same journal as the first article, we find this:
Arch Intern Med. 2007 Nov 26;167(21):2304-9. Glycemic index, glycemic load, and cereal fiber intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in US black women.
Krishnan S, Rosenberg L, Singer M, Hu FB, Djoussé L, Cupples LA, Palmer JR.

The conclusion is simple: “Increasing cereal fiber in the diet may be an effective means of reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, a disease that has reached epidemic proportions in black women.” Okay, except last I heard, cereal is made out of carbs. And we’re talking about women again, right?

Okay, so maybe diabetes is too confusing, so let’s look at heart disease….

Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1521-6. Dietary glycemic index, dietary glycemic load, and cardiovascular disease in middle-aged and older Swedish men.
Levitan EB, Mittleman MA, Håkansson N, Wolk A.

Their conclusion for the men: “Dietary [glycemic index] and dietary [glycemic load] were not associated with ischemic cardiovascular disease or mortality, but dietary [glycemic load] was associated with a greater risk of hemorrhagic stroke.” Good. Bring out the carbs, your heart is safe (but your brain is not, though it seems few actually care about that).

Basically, it’s just women who can’t eat carbs, as this study shows: J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007 Jul 3;50(1):14-21. Epub 2007 Jun 18. High dietary glycemic load and glycemic index increase risk of cardiovascular disease among middle-aged women: a population-based follow-up study.
Beulens JW, de Bruijne LM, Stolk RP, Peeters PH, Bots ML, Grobbee DE, van der Schouw YT.

Their conclusion? “Among women consuming modest glycemic load diets, high dietary glycemic load and glycemic index increase the risk of [cardiovascular disease], particularly for overweight women.”

Basically carbs are sexist. Fuck them.

(Oh wait, I forgot. I’m a misogynist too…)

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