High-insulinogenic nutrition - An etiologic factor for obesity and the metabolic syndrome?

This report postulates a critical role for the quantity and quality of dietary carbohydrate in the pathogenesis of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Significant changes in human nutrition have occurred during the last 10,000 years, culminating in the current high-glycemic/high-insulinogenic nutrition. A high insulinogenic nutrition represents a chronic stimulus to the beta cells that may induce an adaptive hypertrophy and a progressive dysregulation of the cells, resulting in postprandial hyperinsulinemia, especially in genetically predisposed subjects. Significant evidence suggests that postprandial hyperinsulinemia promotes weight gain and the development of insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome. The hypothesis is able to explain the current epidemic of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in most industrialised countries, as well as some of the genetics of obesity, including the extreme high incidence of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in certain ethnic groups. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.