Dietary Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load in Relation to Measures of Body Weight

The role of dietary carbohydrates in body weight control is still controversial. We investigated the relationship of the dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) on body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC) in a cross‐sectional analysis of 4,721 hospital controls from a cancer case‐control series (Italy, 1991–2002). After allowance for confounding variables the odds ratios for the highest versus the lowest quartile of GI and GL were: 0.65 (95% CI: 0.54–0.78) and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.71–1.02) for BMI>=25, 0.67 (95% CI: 0.51–0.89) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.52–0.92) for BMI>=30, 0.78 (95% CI: 0.64–0.95) and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.69–1.04) for higher WHR, and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.50–0.94) and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.47–1.03) for higher WC. In conclusion GI and GL were not directly related to measures of body weight in this Mediterranean population.