About this Resource
Mounting evidence suggests that the relationship between carbohydrate intake and health outcomes may vary more in accordance with the ‘quality’ of a source of carbohydrate, rather than overall quantity consumed. This handout outlines the literature which has analysed different dimensions used to capture carbohydrate quality and asks which ones may be more or less helpful in making informed dietary choices.
Grounded in the Research
carbohydrate quality may be a more important focus than quantity in evaluating the relationship between carbohydrate intake and cardiometabolic outcomes.
Excerpt from: Sievenpiper, J. L. (2020). Low-carbohydrate diets and cardiometabolic health: the importance of carbohydrate quality over quantity. Nutrition reviews, 78(Supplement_1), 69-77.
References
[1] Campos, V., Tappy, L., Bally, L., Sievenpiper, J. L., & Lê, K. A. (2022). Importance of carbohydrate quality: what does it mean and how to measure it?. The Journal of Nutrition, 152(5), 1200-1206. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxac039
[2] Sievenpiper, J. L. (2020). Low-carbohydrate diets and cardiometabolic health: the importance of carbohydrate quality over quantity. Nutrition Reviews, 78(Supplement_1), 69-77. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuz082
[3] Reynolds, A., Mann, J., Cummings, J., Winter, N., Mete, E., & Te Morenga, L. (2019). Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The Lancet, 393(10170), 434-445. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31809-9
[4] Drewnowski, A., Maillot, M., & Vieux, F. (2022). Multiple metrics of carbohydrate quality place starchy vegetables alongside non-starchy vegetables, legumes, and whole fruit. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9, 867378. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.867378
[5] Augustin, L. S., Aas, A. M., Astrup, A., Atkinson, F. S., Baer-Sinnott, S., Barclay, A. W., … & Jenkins, D. J. (2020). Dietary fibre consensus from the international carbohydrate quality consortium (ICQC). Nutrients, 12(9), 2553. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12092553
[6] Liu, J., Rehm, C. D., Shi, P., McKeown, N. M., Mozaffarian, D., & Micha, R. (2020). A comparison of different practical indices for assessing carbohydrate quality among carbohydrate-rich processed products in the US. PLoS One, 15(5), e0231572. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231572
[7] Seal, C. J., Courtin, C. M., Venema, K., & de Vries, J. (2021). Health benefits of whole grain: Effects on dietary carbohydrate quality, the gut microbiome, and consequences of processing. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 20(3), 2742-2768. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12728
[8] Comerford, K. B., Papanikolaou, Y., Jones, J. M., Rodriguez, J., Slavin, J., Angadi, S., & Drewnowski, A. (2021). Toward an evidence-based definition and classification of carbohydrate food quality: an expert panel report. Nutrients, 13(8), 2667. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082667
[9] Zazpe, I., Sanchez-Tainta, A., Santiago, S., de la Fuente-Arrillaga, C., Bes-Rastrollo, M., Martínez, J. A., & Martínez-González, M. Á. (2014). Association between dietary carbohydrate intake quality and micronutrient intake adequacy in a Mediterranean cohort: the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) Project. British Journal of Nutrition, 111(11), 2000-2009. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114513004364
[10] Drewnowski, A., Maillot, M., Papanikolaou, Y., Jones, J. M., Rodriguez, J., Slavin, J., … & Comerford, K. B. (2022). A new carbohydrate food quality scoring system to reflect dietary guidelines: an expert panel report. Nutrients, 14(7), 1485. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14071485
[11] Marinangeli, C. P., Castellano, J., Torrance, P., Lewis, J., Gall Casey, C., Tanuta, J., … & Sievenpiper, J. L. (2019). Positioning the value of dietary carbohydrate, carbohydrate quality, glycemic index, and gi labelling to the canadian consumer for improving dietary patterns. Nutrients, 11(2), 457. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020457