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Use of glycemic load to monitor carbohydrates in patients on ketogenic therapy
Author(s) -
Le AnhThu,
Borum Peggy R.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.1088.9
Subject(s) - glycemic , ketogenic diet , carbohydrate , medicine , chinese hamster ovary cell , zoology , plasma glucose , endocrinology , chemistry , diabetes mellitus , epilepsy , biology , receptor , psychiatry
Ketogenic therapy (KT) has historically been used to treat patients with intractable epilepsy. It consists of high fat, adequate protein, and minimum carbohydrate (CHO) with the emphasis on the fat to protein plus CHO ratio. The glycemic load (GL) is a value calculated from the amount of CHO consumed and the effect of the CHO on plasma glucose. Foods with simple CHO have higher GLs and foods with complex CHO have lower GLs. Traditionally, the type of carbohydrates being given to KT patients is not monitored. This study's purpose was to determine if this monitoring would be valuable. Diet recalls from 15 pediatric patients on KT were obtained and analyzed by the University of Minnesota's Nutrition Data System (NDS). The total GLs (with both glucose and white bread as references), total CHO, CHO/kg/day, and GL/kg/day were determined. Linear regressions were done for total CHO vs. GL and for CHO/kg/day for GL/kg/day. Total CHO vs. GL had an r 2 of 0.7971 and p‐value 0.0004 and CHO/kg/day vs. GL/kg/day had an r 2 of 0.8283 and a p‐value of 0.0001. As expected, linear regressions reveal significant correlation between CHO and GL and CHO/kg/day and GL/kg/day, but do not account entirely for all the data. For example, one patient received 34.4 g CHO per day and had a GL of 16.7 whereas another patient who received 21.5 g CHO per day had a higher GL of 21.1. These data indicate monitoring the types of carbohydrates given to patients on KT may be beneficial.