Vince Cachia (Pumpkins And Diabetes, August 17) commits the common human mistake of excluding his mind to innovation that might threaten conventional wisdom, when he thinks he's rubbishing an American report (Business Week, July 30, 2007) of a Chinese university animal study claiming something in pumpkins appears to improve the performance of pancreatic insulin-producing cells, and so might be useful in human diabetes.

Some scientific evidence indicates that the glycaemic index of a food is not a reliable predictor of the effect food has on blood glucose, cholesterol and insulin levels (Van Dam et al., 2000. Dietary glycaemic index in relation to metabolic risk factors and incidence of coronary heart disease: The Zutphen Elderly Study, Eur J Clin Nutr., 54 (9): 726-31). Although nobody is recommending a diet of all high-glycaemic foods for general health, weight loss and diabetes, some addition of nutrient-dense foods, such as bananas, papayas, apricots, carrots and lima beans (and now possibly some pumpkin!), to green vegetables and fruits with less sugar (grapefruit, oranges, kiwis, strawberries, other berries, melon, green apples), is healthy, also for diabetics. It is the poor quality of the high-glycaemic diet in general (refined flour and simple sugar) that is harmful.

One should not be overly concerned about the glycaemic index of a particular food if it is otherwise nutrient- and fibre-rich. The fibre content of food is more important than the glycaemic index, and the fibre content of complex carbohydrates in vegetables and fruits parallels the level of phytochemicals, which have powerful effects on preventing many diseases, including cancer. Hence, there might be something useful for human diabetes in the Chinese pumpkin and diabetic animal study.

When Mr Cachia recommended diabetics stick to only three green vegetables, I'm sure he also meant (but omitted it for brevity's sake) that they should completely avoid foods made from refined starches, such as white bread, white pasta and white rice, and should limit animal food to some fish only (legumes contain protein which, unlike animal protein, lowers cholesterol - so no Atkins-type diet, please).

Bookshops are full of diet books - may I recommend the best one I have come across, being based on scientific facts, and written by a doctor who has long experience of treating obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and diabetes by a predominantly vegetable and fruit diet and weaning his patients off pharmaceutical drugs, including getting diabetics on insulin to reverse their disease and stop needing insulin: The Eat to Live Diet, by Dr Joel Fuhrman, ISBN 0 7499 2386 5 (www.piatkus.co.uk). The author himself warns that no diabetic on medication should make dietary changes without his doctor's assistance, because of the danger of hypoglycaemia. If you reckon your health is your most valuable possession, get this book and perhaps also buy one for your doctor.

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