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If you are diabetic then a scrumptious soft pizza can wreck havoc in your life. A Penn State Diabetes Centre study suggests a slow and steady insulin-dosing pattern may best combat the glucose-raising effects of that common favourite food.

"Keeping glucose levels from jumping too high or dipping too low may help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, which has been connected to erratic glucose levels in those with diabetes," said Robert Gabbay, MD, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Centre, and co-director, Penn State Diabetes Centre.

"Our study shows that after a high carbohydrate, high fat meal like the pizza used in this study, spacing out insulin given by an insulin pump in two doses, one of which is over an eight-hour period, may keep glucose levels in a more favourable range than a single dose of insulin or a double dose taken over a shorter period," he added.

"We noticed that it was very difficult for those with diabetes who were using insulin pumps to maintain good glucose values when they ate pizza," Jones said. "Because pizza is a favourite food for so many people and good quality of life is eating what you want every now and again, we suggested a study to see how best to help those with diabetes enjoy this common favourite food while maintaining good glucose levels."

Gabbay cautions that this method of insulin delivery may not be applicable to all high-carbohydrate, high-fat foods.

"Pizza is a complex food and causes prolonged post-meal hyperglycemias," he said. "For now, generalization to food types other than pizza may best be based on foods that are known to cause the same type of prolonged hyperglycemias and not necessarily those that have only the same composition."

Gabbay said future studies will investigate whether the method works with foods of other compositions.