Eating only low glycemic index foods may not help the heart

Go ahead, eat that pasta. As long as you eat a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables and low in sweets, those noodles won’t hurt your heart or increase your risk of a diabetes diagnosis, a new study suggests.

The findings offer a revised view of the glycemic index. This index measures how quickly certain foods raise blood glucose levels. Conventional wisdom says that high glycemic index foods, such as pasta or bananas, are bad for the heart and may increase the risk for diabetes. However, volunteers who followed carefully planned diets high or low in carbohydrates with high or low glycemic index scores showed little change in blood pressure, cholesterol levels or sensitivity to insulin before and after altering their eating habits. Using the glycemic index to select what to eat doesn’t seem to have a clear benefit, researchers report December 16 in JAMA.