Essay On Carbohydrates

The primary method to control gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is through dietary regulation. The most effective method to control GDM via diet is through carbohydrate restriction and/or selectivity. It is recommended that pregnant women with GDM reduce their carbohydrate intake to 40% of the total caloric intake or can maintain a 60% carbohydrate intake but those carbohydrates must all come from low glycemic index foods. Examples of low glycemic foods are apples, spinach, black beans, split peas, oatmeal, and quinoa. Additional suggestions are to eat complex carbohydrates instead of simple, refined sugars. Eat small, frequent meals and snack often in between meals in order to maintain constant glucose levels throughout the day.
It is not recommended that GDM patients restrict their calorie intake from normal values. A decreased caloric intake can lead to increased levels of ketones in the serum of the mother. This increased ketone level has been associated with a decrease in psychomotor development and a reduction in IQ of the child between the ages of 3-9 years. Furthermore, it is important to not increase fat intake (particularly if choosing to reduce carbohydrate intake to 40% but struggling to maintain total caloric intake). An increase to a high fat diet has been correlated with a recurrence of GDM in future years.
Exercise can be used in conjunction to dietary control when diet alone is not maintaining appropriate glucose levels. The American Diabetes Association recommends participating in both aerobic (walking at a fast pace, swimming laps, playing tennis) and resistance training exercises (free weights or weight machines, resistance bands, wall-sits) .However, it is still controversial to endorse exercis...

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...t compliance, and medication adherence is highly correlated with positive health outcomes. Thus, a medicine that maximizes patient adherence, delivers the same efficacy as previously used drugs, and shows no additional adverse effects is exceedingly likely to become the drug of choice. Of particular interest to researchers currently are the medications glyburide and metformin. As more and more research continues, it is hypothesized that these drugs will become part of the pharmaceutical regime in the treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus. In fact, both glyburide and metformin have been successfully prescribed to treat GDM in other countries for several years. Glyburide, especially, is predicted to gain the approval by the FDA in the coming years as, at least, a second line medication since it has shown to only cross the placenta in insignificant quantities.