Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 11/11/09.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Long-term Statin Use Associated With Decreased Risk Of Gallstones Requiring Surgery - Science Daily, 11/10/09 - "Use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins for more than a year is associated with a reduced risk of having gallstones requiring surgery"

In Taking the Garbage Out, the More HDL the Better, but the Truck Should Function - Medscape, 11/10/09 - Good 4 minute video on HDL cholesterol.  Discusses the 5 types of HDL and that high HDL can be deceiving because it's the type of HDL that counts.

Mood Improves On Low-fat, But Not Low-carb, Diet Plan - Science Daily, 11/10/09 - "After one year, a low-calorie, low-fat diet appears more beneficial to dieters' mood than a low-carbohydrate plan with the same number of calories"

Raising 'Good' Cholesterol Levels May Benefit Clogged Arteries - Science Daily, 11/6/09 - "Using MRI scans, we have shown a reduction in the size of artery walls in patients after a year of treatment with nicotinic acid ... Nicotinic acid, sometimes known as niacin, is one of the oldest drugs used for atherosclerosis and only fell out of favour as statins came to prominence. It is known to raise levels of good cholesterol in the blood" - See niacin at Amazon.com.

Aspirin May Prevent Prostate Cancer Recurrence - WebMD, 11/6/09 - "use of anti-clotting drugs, including aspirin, appears to lower the odds that cancer will recur in men undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer ... taking an anticoagulant lowers the risk [of recurrence] by almost half"

Kidney Function Decline Increases Risk Of Heart Failure And Premature Death - Science Daily, 11/5/09 - "Among 4,378 eligible participants in the study, those with rapid kidney decline (1,083 patients) demonstrated a 32% increased risk of experiencing heart failure, a 48% increased risk of having a heart attack, and a 67% increased risk of developing peripheral arterial disease ... Patients whose kidney function dropped by more than 5.6% per year demonstrated a 30% increased risk of developing heart disease and a 22% increased risk of dying prematurely compared to patients with stable kidney function"

Small Increases In Phosphorus Mean Higher Risk Of Heart Disease - Science Daily, 115/09 - "Higher levels of phosphorus in the blood are linked to increased calcification of the coronary arteries -- a key marker of heart disease risk ... Even small increases in the blood level of phosphorus predicted an increased risk of progressive CAC in these apparently healthy adults ... The phosphorus-related increase in CAC was comparable to that seen with traditional heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol"

Low Cholesterol May Be Marker of Undiagnosed Cancer - Medscape, 11/5/09 - "This finding supports the idea that the low serum cholesterol levels that we detected as a possible risk factor may actually have been the result of undiagnosed cancers," he added. "In addition, we observed a greater decline in total serum cholesterol from baseline to 3 years, specifically among the cases that were diagnosed in the early half of the observation, as opposed to the latter portion ... higher HDL cholesterol levels were associated with a decreased risk for cancer (>55.3 vs <36.2 mg/dL; RR for the highest vs the lowest quintile, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.83 - 0.97; P = .01). This inverse association of HDL cholesterol was evident for cancers of the lung, prostate, liver, and hematopoietic system"

Green Tea Shows Promise As Chemoprevention Agent For Oral Cancer - Science Daily, 11/5/09 - "Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia ... more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response ... The extract's lack of toxicity is attractive" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

Children With ADHD at Risk for Zinc and Copper Deficiency - Medscape, 11/3/09 - "this patient population is at risk for low trace mineral status, including deficiencies in zinc and copper — minerals that may play a crucial role in the production of dopamine, norepinephrine, and melatonin, which regulates sleep ... Presented here at the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 56th Annual Meeting, a study conducted by investigators at the University of British Columbia and the Children's and Women's Health Centre in Vancouver, Canada, showed among 44 children aged 6 to 12 years with ADHD, rates of zinc and copper deficiency were 45% and 35%, respectively" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

Olive Oil and Cognition: Results from the Three-City Study - Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2009 Oct 30;28(4):357-36 - "Participants with moderate or intensive use of olive oil compared to those who never used olive oil showed lower odds of cognitive deficit for verbal fluency and visual memory. For cognitive decline during the 4-year follow-up, the association with intensive use was significant for visual memory (adjusted OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.69-0.99) but not for verbal fluency (OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.70-1.03) in multivariate analysis" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff :

• monoprice.com - I've got no affiliation but I read about them several years ago I believe in a CNET article.  They've got just about every kind of cable you'll need for home entertainment, computer, iPod and games at great prices plus they don't take you to the cleaners on shipping when you go to checkout.  Also they've got the best prices I've seen on printer toners.

Health Focus (Glycemic Index/Glycemic Load):

News & Research:

• High Carbohydrate Foods Can Cause Heart Attacks - Science Daily, 6/25/09 - "Doctors have known for decades that foods like white bread and corn flakes aren't good for cardiac health ... foods with a high glycemic index distended brachial arteries for several hours ... Enormous peaks indicating arterial stress were found in the high glycemic index groups: the cornflakes and sugar group ... During the consumption of foods high in sugar, there appears to be a temporary and sudden dysfunction in the endothelial walls of the arteries ... Endothelial health can be traced back to almost every disorder and disease in the body. It is "the riskiest of the risk factors,""
• Low Glycemic Breakfast May Increase Benefits Of Working Out - Science Daily, 4/15/09 - "Overall, fat oxidation was higher in the LGI treatment than in the HGI treatment (P < 0.05) during the post-breakfast and exercise periods. Following lunch, fullness scores were higher in the LGI trial than in the HGI trial (P < 0.05). The authors concluded that consuming a LGI breakfast increases fat oxidation during subsequent exercise and improved satiety during recovery in sedentary females. As such, individuals trying to shed fat may consider choosing LGI foods eaten prior to when they exercise"
• Scientists Discover Why A Low GI Meal Makes You Feel Full - Science Daily, 3/18/09 - "Eating a meal with a low GI (glycaemic index) increases gut hormone production which leads to suppression of appetite and the feeling of fullness"
• Low Glycemic Diets Help Diabetics Control Blood Sugar, Review Suggests - Science Daily, 1/2/0/09 - "Clinicians measured hemoglobin A1c levels, which give a picture of a person's blood glucose control over several weeks or months. The reviewers found that levels decreased by 0.5 percent with a low GI diet, noting that the findings were significant, both statistically and clinically"
• Low-glycemic Diet Shows Greater Improvement In Glycemic Control Than High-fiber Diet - Science Daily, 12/16/08
• Low-Glycemic Index Diet for Diabetes - WebMD, 12/16/08
• Glycemic Stability May Be Important Key To Recovery From Critical Illness - Science Daily, 5/20/08 - "We found that patients with wide fluctuation were significantly more likely to die in the intensive care unit and the hospital than those who experience low glycemic variability"
• Starchy Diets Linked to Cancer, Diabetes, and Heart Disease - vitalchoice.com, 3/17/08
• Dietary Strategies for Improving Post-Prandial Glucose, Lipids, and More - Medscape, 1/29/08 - "The amount and type of carbohydrate consumed with a meal is a major determinant of the post-prandial glucose excursion.[21] The glycemic index of a food is defined as the incremental increase in the area under the post-prandial glucose curve after ingestion of 50 g of a specific food compared with that noted after ingestion of 50 g of oral glucose. A meal such as white bread and jelly with a glycemic index of 80 will result in a 2-fold higher incremental increase in glucose compared with an isocaloric meal of whole-grain bread and peanut butter with a glycemic index of 40. Most studies show that diets rich in high-glycemic-index, low-fiber foods independently increase the risk of both CV disease and type 2 diabetes ... Excess intake of processed carbohydrates sets up a vicious cycle whereby the transient spikes in blood glucose and insulin early after a meal trigger reactive hypoglycemia and hunger.[25] The chronic consumption of a diet high in processed carbohydrates leads to excess visceral fat, which increases both insulin resistance and inflammation and predisposes to diabetes, hypertension, and CV disease.[25] In contrast, restriction of refined carbohydrates will improve the post-prandial levels of both glucose and triglycerides and can reduce intra-abdominal fat, particularly in individuals with insulin resistance ... Recent studies show that 1 to 2 tablespoons of vinegar, when added to a meal containing high-glycemic-index foods such as white bread or white rice, will both: 1) lower post-prandial glucose by 25% to 35% (Fig. 5), and 2) increase post-meal satiety by more than 2-fold.[32] Thus the addition of vinegar to a standard meal can not only improve the meal-induced oxidant stress by blunting the post-prandial glucose excursion, but also can increase and prolong satiety, which should help to reduce food cravings and lower caloric intake over the subsequent 2 to 4 h" - See apple cider vinegar at Amazon.com - 4.5 tablets equals about 3 tablespoons by my calculations.  I've been popping 4 of these with meals for years and more and more research keeps backing me up.    If 1 to 2 tablespoons is correct you could get by with just two tablets.
• Sugar and Alzheimer's: Are They Linked? - WebMD, 12/7/07 - "The brains of the sugar-fed mice had about twice as many plaque deposits as the mice fed regular water"
• Diets With High Glycemic Index May Raise Cataract Risk - Medscape, 11/30/07 - "Glycemic load, a food's glycemic index multiplied by the total available carbohydrate content, was used to gauge both carbohydrate quantity and quality ... each standard deviation increase in dietary glycemic index was associated with a 19% increase in the risk of cortical cataract. Subjects in the highest glycemic index quartile were 77% more likely to develop cataract than those in the lowest quartile"
• High-Carb Diet, Bigger Prostate Tumor? - WebMD, 11/27/07
• High Carb Diet Linked to Prostate Tumor Growth - Science Daily, 11/27/07 - "A diet high in refined carbohydrates, like white rice or white bread, is associated with increased prostate tumor growth in mice ... Having too much insulin in the blood, a condition called hyperinsulinemia, is associated with poorer outcomes in patients with prostate cancer"
• High-glycemic Index Carbohydrates Associated With Risk For Developing Type 2 Diabetes In Women - Science Daily, 11/26/07 - "Our results indicate that black women can reduce their risk of diabetes by eating a diet that is high in cereal fiber ... In another study ... Women who consumed more carbohydrates overall were more likely to develop diabetes--when they were split into five groups based on carbohydrate intake, those in the group consuming the most (about 337.6 grams per day) had a 28 percent higher risk than those in the group consuming the least (about 263.5 grams per day). Women who ate diets with a higher glycemic index and who ate more staples such as bread, noodles and rice specifically also had an increased risk. Women who ate 300 grams or more of rice per day were 78 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those who ate less than 200 grams per day"
• Limiting Refined Carbohydrates May Stall AMD Progression - Science Daily, 10/8/07 - "Our data showed those people in the high-glycemic-index group were at greater risk of AMD progression, especially those already in the late stages ... Participants who consumed the most refined carbohydrates were 17 percent more likely to develop blinding AMD than the group that consumed the least"
• Food for Thought: Fattening Carbs—Some Promote Obesity and Worse - Science News, 9/29/07 - "In the study, mice that chowed down on a type of rapidly digestible starch didn't gain any more weight than did animals eating a starch that digests slowly. But the first group did accumulate lots of excess fat"
• Quick-burning Carbs May Cause Fatty Liver: Low-glycemic Diet Protected Mice - Science Daily, 9/21/07 - "After six months, the mice weighed the same. However, mice on the low-glycemic index diet were lean, with normal amounts of fat in throughout their bodies. Mice on the high-glycemic index diet had twice the normal amount of fat in their bodies, blood and livers"
• Starchy diet 'may damage liver' - BBC News, 9/21/07 - ""High-glycaemic" foods - rapidly digested by the body - could be causing "fatty liver", increasing the risk of serious illness ... After six months on the diet, the mice weighed the same, but those on the high GI diet had twice the normal amount of fat in their bodies, blood and livers"
• Sugary Drinks, Not Fruit Juice, May Be Linked To Insulin - Science Daily, 9/5/07 - "Study participants who consumed two or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had significantly higher fasting blood levels of insulin as compared to participants who did not report consuming any such beverages, regardless of age, sex, weight, smoking status, or other dietary habits ... Higher fasting levels of insulin mean these study participants are more at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes ... consumption of 100 percent fruit juice was not significantly related to any of our measures of insulin resistance"
• Right Breakfast Bread Keeps Blood Sugar In Check All Day - Science Daily, 9/5/07 - "It is known that a carbohydrate-rich breakfast with low GI can moderate increases in blood sugar after lunch. But my results show that low GI in combination with the right amount of so-called indigestible carbohydrates, that is, dietary fiber and resistant starch, can keep the blood-sugar level low for up to ten hours, which means until after dinner ... people with great fluctuations in their levels of blood sugar run a greater risk of having a generally lower cognitive ability"
• Study links low-GI kids' breakfast to less calories - Nutra USA, 9/4/07 - "The children ate on average 61 kcal less over the days they were given the low-GI breakfast, compared with the days when they ate a high-GI breakfast"
• Dietary Glycemic Index Tied to Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration - Medscape, 7/30/07
• High-Sugar Foods May Affect Eyesight - WebMD, 7/13/07 - "People with the diets highest on the glycemic index were the most likely to have advanced AMD in at least one eye"
• Link Between Carbohydrate Quality And Vision Loss Is Strengthened By New Data - Science Daily, 7/11/07 - "the risk for AMD may be diminished by improving dietary carbohydrate quality, as defined by dietary glycemic index. This may be achieved by relatively simple dietary alterations, such as replacing white bread with whole grain bread"
• Low-Glycemic Load Diet May Work for Dieters With Certain Insulin Response Patterns - Science Daily, 5/16/07
• Biology Dictates Diet Success - WebMD, 5/15/07 - "The low-glycemic-load diet was effective for a lot of the individuals who were high-insulin secretors and who previously had challenges losing weight and keeping it off"
• Low-Glycemic-Index Diet Slows AMD Progression - Medscape, 5/8/07 - "age-related macular degeneration (AMD) ... consumption of highly refined carbohydrates can lead to up to a 17% increased risk of AMD progression"
• Low Glycaemic Index Diet Improves Insulin Sensitivity in Overweight Women - Doctor's Guide, 4/25/07
• Study Examines Calorie Restriction and Glycemic Load - Doctor's Guide, 4/10/07 - "Unlike several other long-term studies, which have reported greater weight loss with low GL diets at six months but no differences by 12 months, our data show no significant short-term or long-term differences"
• Low glycemic diet may help stay slim - MSNBC, 10/27/06 - "normal-weight women who ate a diet with a relatively high glycemic index gained more weight, more fat, and more padding around the middle over a six-year period than women who ate a low glycemic index diet"
• High Bread Consumption Linked To Higher Risk Of Most Common Kidney Cancer - Science Daily, 10/20/06 - "A significant direct association was observed for bread consumption (OR=1.94) for the highest compared to the lowest quintile of intake ... By contrast, decreasing risk was associated with increasing intake of poultry, processed meat, and all vegetables, both raw and cooked ... The association between elevated cereal intake (bread, pasta and rice) "may be due to the high glycemic index of these foods"
• Low Glycemic Index Diet Best For Weight Loss And Cardiovascular Health - Science Daily, 7/26/06
• High Carb, Low Glycemic Index Diet Best to Reduce CV Risk - Medscape, 7/25/06
• What Is the Glycemic Index? - Dr. Weil, 6/23/06
• Loss of Central Vision with Age May Be Linked to Quality of Dietary Carbohydrates - Doctor's Guide, 6/6/06 - "Women who consumed diets with a relatively high dietary glycemic index had greater risk of developing signs of early age-related macular degeneration when compared with women who consumed diets with a lower dietary glycemic index"
• High Glycemic Index Diet May Increase Risk of Developing AMD - Medscape, 4/18/06 - "The age-adjusted model showed more than a 2-fold increase in risk for ARM for the third tertile of dietary GI"
• The science of blood sugar - .ffnmag.com, 2/06
• Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load of Popular Diets - Medscape, 1/24/06 - "The impact of GI and GL on efforts to prevent and treat obesity remains to be determined"
• Carbohydrate-rich diets may improve insulin control - Nutra USA, 1/11/06 - "Although an increasing body of evidence would suggest merit in adopting high-carbohydrate, low-GI diets, the charge that high-GI diets result in insulin resistance is unproven on the basis of current experimental data"
• Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study - Diabetes Care. 2005;28(12):2832-2838 - "our results demonstrate a remarkable degree of consistency in finding a lack of association of glycemic index, glycemic load, and carbohydrate intake with measures of insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, and adiposity"
• The Biggest Loser: Weight Loss May Depend On Where Calories Come From - Science Daily, 12/8/05
• Low-Glycemic Load Diet Facilitates Weight Loss in Overweight Adults with High Insulin Secretion - Doctor's Guide, 12/7/05 - "The regulation of body weight is, at least in part, influenced by how much insulin a person secretes in response to a load of glucose, as well as by how sensitive that person is to insulin's glucose-lowering effects"
• Reducing GI does not boost effects of low-calorie diet - Nutra USA, 10/26/05 - "although the new trial confirmed the benefit of lowering glycaemic index on insulin sensitivity, it did not impact the subjects' weight"
• High Glycemic Index or High Carbohydrate Diet May Not Increase Risk of Insulin Resistance - Medscape, 6/6/05 - "Habitual intake of diets with a high glycemic index and high glycemic load or diets with a high content of total carbohydrate including simple sugars was not associated with the probability of having insulin resistance ... intake of dietary fiber was inversely associated with the probability of having insulin resistance"
• Weight Watchers Diet Produces Same Results With or Without Emphasis on Low-Glycaemic Index - Doctor's Guide, 6/6/05 - "both groups lost an average of 5% of their initial body weight ... However, those who followed the low-glycemic diet had better satiety and less hunger and craving, the key problems that are the downfall of many dieters" - This article doesn't mention fat loss.  You can have the same loss in pounds yet have different percentages of lean muscle/fat loss as in the next article.
• Clearing up the confusion over carbs - MSNBC, 6/3/05 - "Both groups lost weight, and there was no difference in their weight loss or calorie intake. It should be noted, however, that the women who ate low GI foods lost more than twice as much body fat as women eating mainly high GI foods"
• Low-g could reduce cardiovascular risk in obese - Nutra USA, 5/17/05
• Low-glycemic Load Diet May Improve Ability To Stay On Diet Longer - Science Daily, 12/2/04
• Low-Glycemic Load Diet May Improve Ability to Stay on Diet Longer - Doctor's Guide, 11/24/04
• Healthy Carbs, Fats for Weight Loss - WebMD, 11/23/04 - "eating a so-called low-glycemic diet may overcome the body's natural tendency to slow metabolism when calories are restricted. A low-glycemic diet emphasizes healthy fats and carbohydrates"
• The glycaemic index: a route to better health? - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 10/04
• GI diet gets health boost - Nutra USA, 8/30/04
• Sick of Low-Carb Diets? Try Low-GI - WebMD, 8/26/04 - "The animals on the high-GI diet were gaining more weight with same amount of food, and we had to cut their food back increasingly over time to keep them at the same weight ... But what was really interesting to us was that even though they maintained the same weight because they got less food, the high-GI group in both rats and mice doubled their body fat and had a reduction ... in muscle mass, which is exactly what you don't want"
• Counting Carbs? - Dr. Weil, 8/17/04
• High-Glycemic Foods Linked to Colon Cancer - WebMD, 2/3/04 - "the future risk of colorectal cancers is nearly three times higher in women who eat the most high glycemic-load foods compared with those who eat lesser amounts"
• Sugary Breakfast Boosts Lunchtime Hunger - WebMD, 11/3/03 - "A new study provides evidence favoring foods with low-glycemic indexes (GI) such as whole-grain breakfast cereals including oatmeal, bran cereal, and muesli (a Swedish tradition). It shows that foods with low GI's can keep us feeling full and that these foods may have an important role in weight loss and obesity management"
• Focusing on Fiber? - Dr. Weil, 9/22/03 - "If you’ve tried but failed to lower your cholesterol with a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet, the problem may have been the carbohydrates you were eating. Refined carbohydrates (those that are high on the glycemic index, a system of ranking foods by their effect on blood sugar) can cause rapid increases in blood sugar, prompting the pancreas to release insulin, which in turn signals the liver to pump more triglycerides into the bloodstream"
• Dietary Experts Debate Carbohydrates - Intelihealth, 9/2/03 - "Blood sugar levels may shoot twice as high after a high-GI meal as after a low one, and that unleashes metabolic havoc: The body responds with a surge of insulin, which prompts it to quickly store the sugar in muscle and fat cells. The high sugar also inhibits another hormone, glucagon, which ordinarily tells the body to burn its stored fuel ... Blood sugar plunges. So much is stored so fast that within two or three hours, levels may be lower than they were before the meal. Suddenly, the body needs more fuel. But because glucagon is still in short supply, the body does not tap into its fat supply for energy. The inevitable result? Hunger ... After one year, the low-GI volunteers had dropped seven pounds of pure fat. The others had put on four"
• Glycemic Index: New Way to Count Carbs? - WebMD, 8/20/03 - "Foods with a high glycemic index (and therefore a higher number) cause a sudden and drastic jump in blood sugar levels. Low-glycemic foods are more easily absorbed in the body and raise blood sugar more gradually ... The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition lists any food under 55 as a low-glycemic food and any food more than 70 as high glycemic"
• New Diet Approach May Fight Child Obesity - WebMD, 8/12/03 - "a reduced-glycemic-load diet that emphasizes foods with a low to moderate glycemic index and allows children to eat until they're full was more effective than a traditional low-fat, calorie-restricted diet in helping obese children shed pounds and slow the progression of insulin resistance, a risk factor for diabetes ... Complex carbohydrates, such as whole-grain bread and cereals, brown rice, and vegetables, are foods with a low to moderate glycemic index"
• Ways Of Reducing Glycaemic Load Vary In Effects - Doctor's Guide, 3/10/03
• Cardiovascular Risk Factors Affected By Diet -  Doctor's Guide, 2/27/03 - "Although patients were advised to maintain an identical energy intake with the different diets, there was significant weight loss on the low glycaemic index diet compared with weight gain on the high sucrose diet"
• What is hyperinsulimia? How is it controlled? What are the tests? What is Glucophage? - Dr. Weil, 9/3/02 - "People with the genetic tendency to develop metabolic syndrome can avoid it by getting regular exercise and by minimizing consumption of high-glycemic index carbohydrate foods"
• Cracking the Fat Riddle - Time Magazine, 9/2/02 - "the food pyramid is due for an overhaul in 2003—although no one is yet willing to give any details. If Harvard's Willett has his way, the pyramid will make a greater distinction between the types of fats and carbs we should and shouldn't eat. Willett, unlike the USDA, does not lump most carbohydrates at the pyramid's base or all fats at the pyramid's eat-sparingly pinnacle. In fact, Willett places good fats—those from vegetables and fish—at the base and good carbohydrates—from whole-grain versions of bread and pasta—side by side at the base. Carbohydrates with a high glycemic load join saturated fats at the top"
• Low Glycaemic Index Diet Might Prevent Metabolic Diseases - Doctor's Guide, 5/16/02
• Glycemic Index Helpful in Food Selection - Medscape, 5/8/02 - "11 healthy men were randomly allocated to 5 weeks of a low- or high-glycemic index (LGI or HGI) diet separated by a 5-week washout period in a crossover design. Compared with the HGI diet, the LGI diet resulted in lower postprandial plasma glucose and insulin profiles and areas under the curve, lower plasma triacylglycerol excursion after lunch, decreased total fat mass by approximately 700 g, and a tendency to increase lean body mass without changing body weight. Decreased leptin, lipoprotein lipase, and hormone-sensitive lipase mRNA quantities in the subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue accompanied decreased fat mass"
• Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load And Certain Foods Linked To Breast Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 12/17/01 - "Consumption of foods that are associated with a high glycemic index, such as white bread, increased breast cancer risk: odds ratio 1.3. In contrast, pasta, which is associated with a medium glycemic index, did not seem to influence breast cancer risk: odds ratio 1.0 ... glycemic index and glycemic load show "moderate, direct associations" with breast cancer risk. This suggests that hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance might contribute to the risk of developing breast cancer"
• Diet Trial Finds Marked Reduction In Energy Intake - Doctor's Guide, 12/12/01
• Evidence Builds for Use of Glycemic Index to Control Diabetes - WebMD, 7/19/01
• Experts Take On the 'Hunger Index' - WebMD, 8/3/00
• Cancer's Sweet Tooth - Nutrition Science News, 4/00
• Carbohydrates and Glycemic Index - Ask the Dietician

Abstracts:

• Glycemic load, glycemic index and breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort of Swedish women - Int J Cancer. 2009 Feb 3 - "In analyses stratified by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status of the breast tumors, we observed statistically significant positive associations of carbohydrate intake, glycemic index and glycemic load with risk of ER+/PR- breast cancer; the multivariate relative risks comparing extreme quintiles were 1.34 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.93-1.94; p for trend = 0.04] for carbohydrate intake, 1.44 (95% CI = 1.06-1.97; p for trend = 0.01) for glycemic index and 1.81 (95% CI = 1.29-2.53; p for trend = 0.0008) for glycemic load. No associations were observed for ER+/PR+ or ER-/PR- breast tumors. These findings suggest that a high carbohydrate intake and diets with high glycemic index and glycemic load may increase the risk of developing ER+/PR- breast cancer"
• Glycemic Index, Retinal Vascular Caliber, and Stroke Mortality - Stroke. 2008 Oct 23 - "high glycemic index (GI) and low cereal fiber (CF) ... Persons consuming food in the highest GI tertile and lowest CF tertile had a 5-fold increased risk of stroke death ... High-GI and low-CF diets predict greater stroke mortality and wider retinal venular caliber. The association between a high-GI diet and stroke death was partly explained by GI effects on retinal venular caliber, suggesting that a high-GI diet may produce deleterious anatomic changes in the microvasculature"
• Dietary glycemic index and the risk of age-related macular degeneration - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Oct;88(4):1104-10 - "a higher mean dietary glycemic index was associated with an increased 10-y risk of early AMD in a comparison of quartiles 1 and 4 [relative risk (RR): 1.77; 95% CI: 1.13, 2.78; P for trend = 0.03]. Conversely, a greater consumption of cereal fiber (RR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.44, 1.04; P for trend = 0.05) and breads and cereals (predominantly lower glycemic index foods such as oatmeal) (RR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.44, 1.02; P for trend = 0.03) was associated with a reduced risk of incident early AMD ... A high-glycemic-index diet is a risk factor for early AMD-the recognized precursor of sight-threatening late AMD. Low-glycemic-index foods such as oatmeal may protect against early AMD"
• Glycemic index, glycemic load, and cancer risk: a meta-analysis - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jun;87(6):1793-801 - "Overall, both GL and GI were significantly associated with a greater risk of colorectal (summary RR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.44 and RR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.34, respectively) and endometrial (RR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.62 and RR = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.49) cancer than of breast and pancreatic cancer"
• The glycemic index and cardiovascular disease risk - Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2007 Dec;9(6):479-85 - "dietary GI and/or glycemic load independently predict cardiovascular disease, with relative risk ratios of 1.2 to 1.7 comparing highest and lowest quintiles. In randomized controlled trials in overweight subjects, diets based on low-GI carbohydrates have produced better cardiovascular-related outcomes than conventional low-fat diets. Taken together, the findings suggest that health professionals may be able to improve cardiovascular outcomes by recommending the judicious use of low- GI/glycemic load foods"
• The Canadian Trial of Carbohydrates in Diabetes (CCD), a 1-y controlled trial of low-glycemic-index dietary carbohydrate in type 2 diabetes: no effect on glycated hemoglobin but reduction in C-reactive protein - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jan;87(1):114-25 - "In subjects with T2DM managed by diet alone with optimal glycemic control, long-term HbA(1c) was not affected by altering the GI or the amount of dietary carbohydrate. Differences in total:HDL cholesterol among diets had disappeared by 6 mo. However, because of sustained reductions in postprandial glucose and CRP, a low-GI diet may be preferred for the dietary management of T2DM"
• Dietary glycemic index and glycemic load and the risk of type 2 diabetes in older adults - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jan;87(1):126-31 - "These findings do not support a relation between dietary GI or GL and the risk of type 2 diabetes in older adults"
• Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, and Cereal Fiber Intake and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in US Black Women - Arch Intern Med. 2007 Nov 26;167(21):2304-9 - "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"
• Prospective Study of Dietary Carbohydrates, Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Middle-aged Chinese Women - Arch Intern Med. 2007 Nov 26;167(21):2310-6 - "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"
• Dietary glycemic load, added sugars, and carbohydrates as risk factors for pancreatic cancer: the Multiethnic Cohort Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1495-501 - "Glycemic load and added sugars were not significantly associated with pancreatic cancer risk. The risk increased with higher intakes of total sugars, fructose, and sucrose, and the association with fructose was significant when the highest and lowest quartiles were compared (relative risk: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.80; P for trend = 0.046). A significant association was found with fruit and juices intake (1.37; 1.02, 1.84; P for trend = 0.04) but not with soda intake. Statistical evidence of a significant interaction with body mass index was present only for sucrose intake (P = 0.04). A comparison of the highest and lowest quartiles of sucrose intake in overweight or obese participants gave a relative risk of 1.46 (0.95-2.25; P for trend = 0.04), but the comparison was not significant in normal-weight participants"
• Carbohydrate nutrition, glycemic index, and the 10-y incidence of cataract - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1502-8 - "poorer dietary carbohydrate quality, reflected by high GI, predicted incident cortical cataract"
• Glycemic index, glycemic load and thyroid cancer risk - Ann Oncol. 2007 Oct 19 - "Compared with the lowest tertile, the ORs in subsequent tertiles were 1.68 and 1.73 for GI, and 1.76 and 2.17 for GL. The OR for highest tertile of GI compared with lowest one was 1.70 for papillary and 1.57 for follicular thyroid cancer. The ORs for GL were 2.17 for papillary and 3.33 for follicular thyroid cancer ... Our study shows that high dietary levels of GI and GL are associated with thyroid cancer risk"
• Breakfast glycemic index affects subsequent daily energy intake in free-living healthy children - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):980-987 - "At all ages, among children who consumed their next meal in the early postprandial phase (after 3-4 h), children with a lower GI(br) consumed more calories throughout the remainder of the day than did children with a higher GI(br), independent of major dietary confounders"
• 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 - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):988-994 - "At baseline, dietary GI and GL were associated inversely with HDL cholesterol, and GI was associated directly with triacylglycerols. Dietary GI and GL were related inversely to fasting glucose and directly to 2-h postload glucose ... The proposed protective effect of low-dietary GI and GL diets on diabetes risk could not be confirmed in this study"
• Dietary glycemic index, glycemic load, and the risk of breast cancer in an Italian prospective cohort study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):1160-1166 - "The relative risk (RR) of breast cancer in the highest (versus lowest) quintiles of GI and GL was 1.57 (95% CI: 1.04, 2.36; P for trend = 0.040) and 2.53 (95% CI: 1.54, 4.16; P for trend = 0.001), respectively. Total carbohydrate intake was not associated with greater breast cancer risk, but high carbohydrate from high-GI foods was. When women were categorized by baseline menopausal status and body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)), the increased risk of dietary GL was confined to those who were premenopausal (RR = 3.89; 95% CI: 1.81, 8.34) and who had normal BMI (ie, <25)"
• Dietary carbohydrate and the progression of age-related macular degeneration: a prospective study from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):1210-1218 - "The latter gives an estimate that 7.8% of new advanced AMD cases would be prevented in 5 y if people consumed the low-dGI diet"
• Glycaemic index, glycaemic load and ovarian cancer risk: a prospective cohort study - Public Health Nutr. 2007 Oct;10(10):1076-81 - "Glyacemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL) .. GI and total carbohydrate and sugar intakes were not associated with ovarian cancer risk in the total cohort. GL was positively associated with a 72% increase in risk of ovarian cancer"
• Beneficial effects of a 5-week low-glycaemic index regimen on weight control and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight non-diabetic subjects - Br J Nutr. 2007 Jul 9;:1-11 - "Mean body weight decrease was significant in the LGI group ( - 1.1 (sEM 0.3) kg, P = 0.004) and was significantly greater than in the HGI group ( - 0.3 (sEM 0.2) kg, P = 0.04 between groups). Hunger sensation scales showed a trend towards a decrease in hunger sensation before lunch and dinner in the LGI group when compared with the HGI group (P = 0.09). No significant increase in insulin sensitivity was noticed. The LGI diet also decreased total cholesterol by 9.6 % (P < 0.001), LDL-cholesterol by 8.6 % (P = 0.01) and both LDL-:HDL-cholesterol ratio (10.1 %, P = 0.003) and total:HDL-cholesterol ratio (8.5 %, P = 0.001) while no significant changes were observed in the HGI group"
• Association between dietary glycemic index and age-related macular degeneration in nondiabetic participants in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jul;86(1):180-8 - "Compared with eyes in the first quintile of dGI, eyes in the fourth and fifth quintiles had a significantly or suggestively higher risk of large drusen, geographic atrophy, and neovascularization. The multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% CIs) for the highest quintile were 1.42 (1.09, 1.84), 1.78 (0.81, 3.90), and 1.41 (0.95, 2.08), respectively, of which only the odds ratio for large drusen was significant. A significant positive relation between dGI and severity of AMD was also noted (P for trend < 0.001). There was a 49% increase in the risk of advanced AMD (geographic atrophy plus neovascularization) for persons with a dGI higher than the sex median"
• High dietary glycemic load and glycemic index increase risk of cardiovascular disease among middle-aged women: a population-based follow-up study - J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007 Jul 3;50(1):14-21 - "Dietary glycemic load (mean = 100; SD = 17) was associated with increased risk of CVD, adjusted for CVD risk factors and dietary variables, with a hazard ratio (HR) for the highest against lowest quartile of 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04 to 2.09; p(trend) = 0.03). Similar results were observed for dietary glycemic index with a corresponding HR of 1.33"
• Dietary glycemic index, dietary glycemic load, and cardiovascular disease in middle-aged and older Swedish men - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1521-1526 - "glycemic index (GI) and dietary glycemic load (GL) ... Dietary GI and dietary GL were not associated with ischemic cardiovascular disease or mortality, but dietary GL was associated with a greater risk of hemorrhagic stroke"
• The effect of a 12-week low glycaemic index diet on heart disease risk factors and 24 h glycaemic response in healthy middle-aged volunteers at risk of heart disease: a pilot study - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Feb 21 - "only the low GI group lost weight ... This pilot study provides some evidence that consuming a low GI diet in addition to weight loss and healthy eating may reduce cardiovascular risk"
• Low-carbohydrate-diet score and the risk of coronary heart disease in women - N Engl J Med. 2006 Nov 9;355(19):1991-2002 - "During 20 years of follow-up, we documented 1994 new cases of coronary heart disease. After multivariate adjustment, the relative risk of coronary heart disease comparing highest and lowest deciles of the low-carbohydrate-diet score was 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76 to 1.18; P for trend=0.19). The relative risk comparing highest and lowest deciles of a low-carbohydrate-diet score on the basis of the percentage of energy from carbohydrate, animal protein, and animal fat was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.74 to 1.19; P for trend=0.52), whereas the relative risk on the basis of the percentage of energy from intake of carbohydrates, vegetable protein, and vegetable fat was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.56 to 0.88; P for trend=0.002). A higher glycemic load was strongly associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (relative risk comparing highest and lowest deciles, 1.90"
• Relations of glycemic index and glycemic load with plasma oxidative stress markers - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jul;84(1):70-6 - "Chronic consumption of high-GI foods may lead to chronically high oxidative stress. A low-GI diet, not a low-carbohydrate diet, appears to be beneficial in reducing oxidative stress"
• Glycaemic index, glycaemic load and risk of endometrial cancer: a prospective cohort study - Public Health Nutr. 2005 Oct;8(7):912-9 - "Our data suggest that diets with high glycaemic index or high glycaemic load may be associated with endometrial cancer risk overall, and particularly among obese women, premenopausal women and postmenopausal women who use hormone replacement therapy"
• Dietary Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, Fiber, Simple Sugars, and Insulin Resistance: The Inter99 study - Diabetes Care. 2005 Jun;28(6):1397-1403 - "Habitual intake of diets with a high glycemic index and high glycemic load or diets with a high content of total carbohydrate including simple sugars was not associated with the probability of having insulin resistance. Furthermore, intake of dietary fiber was inversely associated with the probability of having insulin resistance"
• Low-fat, high-carbohydrate (low-glycaemic index) diet induces weight loss and preserves lean body mass in obese healthy subjects: results of a 24-week study - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 May;7(3):290-3 - "after 24 weeks the average weight loss was 8.9 kg (98.6 vs. 89.7 kg; p </= 0.0001). There was a significant 15% decrease in fat mass (42.5 vs. 36.4 kg; p </= 0.0001) and a decrease in lean body mass of 5%"
• The beneficial effect of a diet with low glycaemic index on 24 h glucose profiles in healthy young people as assessed by continuous glucose monitoring - Br J Nutr. 2005 Feb;93(2):179-82 - "The present study provides important data on how a simple adjustment to the diet can improve glucose profiles that, if sustained in the long term, would be predicted from epidemiological studies to have a favourable influence on CVD"
• Effects of a low-glycemic load diet on resting energy expenditure and heart disease risk factors during weight loss - JAMA. 2004 Nov 24;292(20):2482-90 - "Reduction in glycemic load may aid in the prevention or treatment of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes mellitus"
• Glycemic index and dietary fiber and the risk of type 2 diabetes - Diabetes Care. 2004 Nov;27(11):2701-6 - "Reducing dietary GI while maintaining a high carbohydrate intake may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. One way to achieve this would be to substitute white bread with low-GI breads"
• Meta-analysis of the health effects of using the glycaemic index in meal-planning - Br J Nutr. 2004 Sep;92(3):367-81 - "Results of the present meta-analysis support the use of the GI as a scientifically based tool to enable selection of carbohydrate-containing foods to reduce total cholesterol and to improve overall metabolic control of diabetes"
• Glycemic index and glycemic load in endometrial cancer - Int J Cancer. 2003 Jun 20;105(3):404-7 - "Our study supports the hypothesis of a direct association between GI and endometrial cancer risk"

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