Original research
Glycemic load is associated with HDL cholesterol but not with the other components and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988–1994
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* Corresponding author: Vijay Ganji vganji@gsu.edu
1 School Nutrition, McDuffie County Schools, Thomson, GA 30824, USA
2 Department of Mathematics, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
3 Division of Nutrition, School of Health Professions, College of Health and Human Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
International Archives of Medicine 2009, 2:3 doi:10.1186/1755-7682-2-3
Published: 13 January 2009Abstract
Background
Carbohydrate quality and quantity may affect the risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type-2 diabetes mellitus. Glycemic load (GL) is a mathematical concept based on carbohydrate quality and quantity. GL is a product of glycemic index (GI) and the carbohydrate content of a food item divided by 100.
Objective
In this study, the association between GL and components and prevalence of metabolic syndrome was investigated in a representative sample survey of US residents utilizing the data reported in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 5011).
Methods
Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the criteria established by the Adult Treatment Panel III. Multivariate-adjusted means for waist circumference, triacylglycerol, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, blood glucose, and HDL cholesterol were determined according to the energy-adjusted GL intake quartiles using regression models.
Results
In all subjects and in men, high GL was associated with low HDL-cholesterol concentrations in multivariate-adjusted analysis (P for trend < 0.01). However, no association was observed between GL and any of the individual components of metabolic syndrome in women. Also, no association was observed between energy-adjusted GL and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in both men (P for trend < 0.21) and women (P for trend < 0.09) in the multivariate-adjusted logistic regression analysis.
Conclusion
It is likely that the diets low in GL may mitigate the risk for CVD through HDL cholesterol.