Dietary Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load and Anthropometric Measurements in Adolescents

Objective: Diets containing foods that are low in glycemic index (GI) or glycemic load (GL) may influence especially the appetite and other body mechanisms that affect excessive weight gain in adolescence. This study was carried out to determine the relationship between dietary GI and GL and body weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) in 1418 year-old adolescents. Material and Methods: One thousand one hundred and four voluntary adolescents (469 girls and 635 boys) aged between 14-18 years were included in the study. GI and GL were calculated from a 24-hour dietary recall taken from individuals. Anthropometric measurements (body weight, height, BMI, WC) were also measured for all adolescents and evaluated using the WHO Growth Reference for 5-19 Years-2007. Results: According to the evaluation of BMI for age, prevalences of underweight, overweight and obesity were 13.6%, 17.3% and 3.8% in boys and 15.9%, 13.1% and 1.7% in girls, respectively. The dietary GI differed significantly between boys and girls and was higher in obese adolescents than in other BMI groups (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was found between dietary GL based on BMI classification (p>0.05). It was determined that in both genders the dietary GI was positively correlated with anthropometric measurements (p<0.05), while the GL was found inversely correlated with body weight and height (p<0.05). Conclusion: As a result a significant relationship was found between GI and anthropometric measurements. It is considered that a low GI diet may be useful in the prevention of obesity and subsequent chronic adulthood diseases in adolescents.