Intaken CHO/Fiber as Diagnostic Tool for Diet Quality and Prognostics of Insulin Resistance in Free‐living Adults

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Insulin resistance is closely associated with ingested single sugars and refined cereal products, all evaluated as carbohydrate (CHO) intake. In the same category are the dietary fiber and its sources, with different impact on insulin resistance. The CHO/Fiber ratio would provide an indirect form to check the actual sugar consumption. This study aimed to establish the relationship of CHO/Fiber with the plasma HOMA‐IR, metabolic syndrome and dietary quality of adults enrolled in a Lifestyle Modification Program. In a cross‐sectional study, baseline data from 600 subjects (80% females) over 35 yrs old (54.6 ± 11) participants of an ongoing dynamic cohort study (“Move for Health”) were retrospectively collected (2007–2014). They were analyzed for their diet quality (Health Eating Index‐HEI) and food intake (24h recall) in relation to the co‐variables gender, age, anthropometry, plasma biochemistry, blood pressure and presence of Metabolic syndrome (ATP III‐NCEP). Data were divided in quartiles. ANOVA one way, Tukey's post hoc and Linear multiple regression were applied to analyze the influence of co‐variables in the CHO/Fiber ratio (p<0.05). The calculated quartiles for CHO/Fibers were Q1 <9.75(23.7±10.8g/d fibers); Q2 = 9.75–13.05(17.9±8.2g/d fibers); Q3=13.05–18.97(13.1±6.0g/d fibers) and Q4 >18.97(8.3±3.8g/d fibers). CHO/Fiber ratio showed a significant positive linear regression with the daily serving sugars (r=1.74, p=<0.001) and cereals (r=0.72, p=0.03) and negative with body weight (r= −0.08, p=0.017), serving legumes (r= −0.79, p= 0.01) and HEI (r= −0.20, p=<0.001). When adjusted by age, gender, BMI and kcal/day, Q1 was discriminated by the fewer servings of sugar, higher servings of legumes and higher HEI score. Q1 showed also lower HOMA‐IR than the other quartiles. However, with any other significant relationship of Q1 with the presence of metabolic syndrome and neither with its components. Thus, from the found results the CHO/Fiber ratio seems a single tool suitable for diagnosing poor quality CHO‐diets associated with insulin resistance marker.Support or Funding InformationSupported partially by CAPES and CNPq.