Have you heard anything about an “amylose free” diet combined with Avandia [rosiglitazone]) for weight loss (obviously this would be in type 2)? Someone is asking me for information on this, and I don’t know what to tell them. I was not even sure where to turn because none of the nutritionists I work with know anything about this. I am aware that Avandia and Actos [pioglitazone] cause long term weight gain as opposed to metformin which tends to be associated with weight loss and that they are insulin sensitizers.

No one on the Diabetes Team was familiar with this concept, but I found some information on the Internet:

Weight Loss Hope? An intriguing report from the Denver Endocrine Society meeting comes from an early trial in Maryland. Drs R C Shoemaker and AR Cobitz found that a combination of an amylose-free diet and rosiglitazone (Avandia) produced a weight loss of 1.5-1.7 lbs per week over a 12 week period in a group of 100 patients. High amylose foods include long-grain rice.
P1-567 Use of rosiglitazone in treatment of hyperinsulinemic obesity in non-diabetics. RC Shoemaker,1 AR Cobitz.2 1McCready Hospital, Pokomoke, Maryland; 2GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
Rosiglitazone + Amylose-free diet Associated with average weight loss of 1.5lb/wk in women and 1.7lb/wk in men in a 36-week open-label pilot study of 40 nondiabetic hyperinsulinemic patients. Amylose-free diet involved avoiding “vegetables that grow underground bananas, or foods enriched with maltodextrins or corn syrup, or foods made from wheat, rice, rye, barley, and oats” (paper presented by Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker at Endocrine Society Meeting, reported in FP News 10/15/01)

WWQ