Associations of dietary glycemic index and glycemic load with glucose intolerance in Iranian adults

This study examined the associations of dietary glycemic index and glycemic load with glucose intolerance in Iranian adults. The study had a cross-sectional design and was performed as a secondary analysis on data obtained from the Isfahan Healthy Heart Program (2000–2001). Data on food intake using a 24-hour recall and blood parameters of a subsample of 960 adults age ≥19 years were used (436 Men, 524 Women; age: 38.2 ± 15.4 year). We identified a positive significant association of fasting and postprandial blood glucose (P < 0.001), body mass index (P < 0.001), and age (P < 0.001) with diabetes mellitus, but found no statistically significant associations of dietary glycemic index and glycemic load with diabetes mellitus after adjusting for body mass index, age, gender, and smoking as confounding factors. We concluded that a low glycemic index diet is not associated with the prevalence of glucose intolerance in our sample.