BACKGROUND:
Nutrition is able to alter the cardiovascular health of the general population. However, the optimal dietary strategy for cardiovascular disease prevention is still far from being defined. Mediterranean and vegetarian diets are those reporting the greatest grade of evidence in the literature, but no experimental studies comparing these two dietary patterns are available.

The effects of high-carbohydrate, high plant fiber (HCF) diets on glucose and lipid metabolism of 20 lean men receiving insulin therapy for diabetes mellitus were evaluated on a metabolic ward. All men received control diets for an average of 7 days followed by HCF diets for an average of 16 days. Diets were designed to be weight-maintaining and there were no significant alterations in body weight. The daily dose of insulin was lower for each patient on the HCF diet than on the control diet.

THERE is no indication that healthy people taking a diet rich in carbohydrates are especially liable to diabetes ; in fact numerous observations show improvement of carbohydrate tolerance following its greater intake. The Staub-Traugott effect is a classical example of this in acute experiments. As a long-term effect diabetes mellitus is not especially common among the huge and mainly carbohydrate-eating populations of the world-e.g., the Chinese-except the rich and the sedentary among them who partake of large quantities of fat as well and encourage obesity by overeating.