Low glycemic diet for epilepsy

[Bernard]

Another study, led by Dr. Elizabeth Thiele of the pediatric epilepsy program, department of neurology at Massachusetts Hospital for Children, published in December 2005, evaluated a low-glycemic index diet as another possible diet therapy option for unmanageable pediatric epilepsy. The diet is even more liberal than the modified Atkins diet. Patients can eat up to 40 g of carbohydrates a day in the form of low-glycemic index (glycemic index >50) foods such as lentils, grapefruit and whole grain high-fibre bread. The study also only included 20 patients. Half had a greater than 90% reduction in seizure frequency.

Less-strict diets for kids with epilepsy may improve compliance

This sounds similar to the diet that Stacy was on during her 4 years of seizure free, drug free living (and which she is back on again). We never measured/monitored her carb intake, but instead limited the carbs in her diet to mostly complex carbs (aiming for no more than 10g sugar/simple carbs a day).

[Bernard]

Her study was published in the December 2005 edition of Neurology: abstract

[RobinN]

A good overview here:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocente...ains/gigl.html

In the past, carbohydrates were classified as simple or complex based on the number of simple sugars in the molecule. Carbohydrates composed of one or two simple sugars like fructose or sucrose (table sugar) were labeled simple, while starchy foods were labeled complex because starch is composed of long chains of the simple sugar, glucose. Advice to eat less simple and more complex carbohydrates was based on the assumption that consuming starchy foods would lead to smaller increases in blood glucose than sugary foods (1). This assumption turned out to be too simplistic since the blood glucose (glycemic) response to “complex” carbohydrates has been found to vary considerably. A more accurate indicator of the relative glycemic response to dietary carbohydrates is the glycemic index.