Table 2.

Outline of dietary intervention strategies

Dietary intervention	Description
Individualised dietary intervention	Individualised dietary advice and meal plans according to the calculation of daily energy requirement and macronutrient composition distribution from individual anthropometry information. Small frequent meals are recommended
Food exchange education of all food groups	Serving sizes needed in all food groups are calculated according to recommended daily energy intake and macronutrient composition. Spread required serving sizes throughout the day. Use of food exchange table to decide food type and quantity. One serving size of food is 377 kJ or 90.1 kcal in studies which have specifically defined serving sizes60
Low GI diet	GI is a measurement of carbohydrate quality of a food relative to the same quantities of carbohydrate in the reference food. Choosing lower GI category food within the same food group. Low GI food has GI less than 55. Medium and high GI foods are defined as having GI between 55–75 and greater than 75, respectively38
Low GL diet	GL is an extended concept of GI with consideration of the amount of carbohydrate in particular foods. Choosing lower GL food in one serving size within the same food group in the food exchange table. GL is calculated by GI and carbohydrate content in the food38
Fibre‐enriched diet	Increase fibre intake by replacing a proportion of refined rice with buckwheat or wheat bran supplementation
DASH diet	Diet abundant in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low fat dairy products, and low in saturated fat, cholesterol, refined grains and sweets61
PUFA‐rich diet	Oil‐rich diet with 45–50 g sunflower oil used daily as cooking oil. Energy composition of carbohydrate and fat are 50–54% and 31–35%, respectively, as compared to 55–60% and 25–30%, respectively, in control group62

DASH diet, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; GI, glycaemic index; GL, glycaemic load; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid.