Glycemic Index and Pregnancy: A Systematic Literature Review
Table 2
Characteristics and outcome measures of studies examining the association between glycemic index/glycemic load and pregnancy outcomes in pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus.
Mean age: 31.5 y Dietary assessment: 133-item semiquantitative FFQ, capturing prepregnancy dietary pattern
GI in quintiles Q1: <51 versus Q5: >57 GL in quintiles Q1: <104 versus Q5: >138
Incidence of GDM ()
Subjects with dietary GI in the highest quintile had a 30% increased risk of developing GDM while those in the highest quintile of GL had a 61% increased risk. There was also a significant increase in risk for increasing dietary GL () while that for dietary GI was nonsignificant ()
Mean age: 31.0 y Mean gestation weeks at baseline: 30.1 weeks
Low-GI diet () versus high-GI diet ()
Need for insulin
Higher proportion (59% versus 29%; ) of women following the high-GI diet required insulin for optimal GDM management. Switching from high-GI to low-GI diet helped 47.4% of these women avoid insulin. No significant differences in key fetal and obstetric outcomes were found.
GDM: gestational diabetes mellitus; FFQ: food frequency questionnaire.