Impact of a particular diet on the nutritional status and glycemic response of noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients – An analytical study

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous primary disorder of carbohydrate metabolism with multiple etiological factors that generally involve absolute or relative insulin deficiency or insulin resistance or both. All causes of diabetes ultimately lead to hyperglycemia, which is the hall mark of this disease syndrome. Nutrition and diet play a critical role in the course of disease, in the controlling hyperglycemia in addition to drugs in diabetes mellitus patients. OBJECTIVES: To assess nutritional status of noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients and glycemic response to the given type of food as compared to normal individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Out of 40 cases of NIDDM patients, 15 normal subjects belonging to the same age and socioeconomic group were selected for the study on glycemic response to dextrose load and given test food (idly). In another six of NIDDM subjects, glycemic response to test food chapati was studied. In 13 cases of diabetes with hypertension, 12 cases of diabetes without hypertension, and 16 cases of normal subjects, a wide range of biochemical parameters like lipid profile, free fatty acid (FFA) levels, serum, and erythrocyte copper and malondialdehyde levels were estimated among them. DISCUSSION: The results of the study showed that in NIDDM patients, body mass index is significantly lower than the normal, showing that obesity is not a predisposing condition in these subjects. The glycemic response to food (idly) is much higher than the response observed in normal subjects. The extent of suppression and FFA levels in the serum that was brought out by the food for glucose is lower than that observed in normal subjects. CONCLUSION: High lipid profile values and low copper levels can favor the generation of lipid-derived free radicals, which further predispose to the vascular changes and hypertensive states observed in the NIDDM patients.