[Dietary treatment of diabetes mellitus. Background and rationale for recommendations in the 1990's].

Individual dietary regulation is still an important part of all forms of treatment of diabetes. In insulin dependent diabetes (IDDM) it is rational to advise the patient 1) to arrange his diet so that this results in a low glycaemic response, which implies a relatively high intake of dietary fibre and polysaccharides, 2) to distribute the food into 5-6 daily meals and 3) to consume a low-fat diet. This prevents too pronounced postprandial hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia between meals. Simultaneously, insulin sensitivity is increased and not only the insulin requirement but also peripheral hyperinsulinism tend to be reduced. Dietary regulation in IDDM is thus a compensation for the defective synchronization of variations in the plasma levels of glucose and insulin in the present day forms of insulin therapy. Nine out of ten diabetic patients are non-insulin dependent (NIDDM). The great majority are obese, 50% have essential hypertension and just as many have dyslipidaemia (raised serum triglyceride and reduced serum high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol). The condition is characterized pathophysiologically by insulin resistance in muscle, fat and liver tissue and delayed and frequently reduced glucose-stimulated secretion of insulin. The most important element in dietary regulation in NIDDM is, therefore, reduction of the energy content of the food with the object of achieving and maintaining reduction in weight. Even moderate reduction, in the majority of NIDDM patients, will have the effect that metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids becomes approximately normal on account of considerable increase in insulin sensitivity and to a lesser degree increased secretion of insulin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)