Diabetics high fiber dietary effects

Current interest in dietary fiber began about ten years ago when Burkitt and Trowell hypothesized that diabetes and heart disease were fiber deficiency disorders (1 ). Since then there has been increasing research on the effects of dietary fiber on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Such work was pioneered and stimulated in large part by Dr. J. Anderson of Lexington, Kentucky who first used high carbohydrate/high fiber diets to treat diabetes 2) and Dr. D. Kritchevsky who has examined the effects of fiber on the metabolism of cholesterol O) ... 

Chandalia, M., Garg, A., Lutjohann, D., von Bergmann, K., Grundy, S.M., and Brinkley, L. J., Beneficial effects of high dietary fiber intake in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, N. Engl. J. Med., 342, 1392-1398, 2000. 

It can be hypothesized that a reduction in the general and postprandial glycemic and insulinemic response may delay the development of insulin resistance and thus the development of diabetes (NIDDM) although there is very little direct evidence to support this hypothesis. However, diets high in both carbohydrate and dietary fiber have been reported to improve insulin sensitivity. Much of the research in this area has studied the effect of dietary fiber on the management rather than the prevention or etiology of diabetes. 

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