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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possible relationship of dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) with ulcerative colitis (UC) risks because there is insufficient evidence on the association of GI and GL with UC incidences.

In this case–control study, dietary GI and GL of 62 patients with histology-confirmed UC and 124 controls were assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. The primary outcome measure was the association between dietary GI and GL and UC risk.

In age-adjusted and unadjusted models, there was no statistically significant association between dietary GI and GL and UC risk. However, after adjusting for all known covariates, the odds ratio of UC in third tertile of GI was 2.86 folds higher than first tertile (95% CI: 1.02–8.00, p for trend = 0.04). In the case of GL, when the confounders were adjusted, although subjects in the third tertile were at 2.70 times higher risk of having UC than those in the first tertile (95% CI: 0.72–10.15, p for trend = 0.15), the association was not statistically significant.

In conclusion, the findings indicate a positive relationship between dietary GI and risk of UC. Further prospective studies are needed to elucidate if the findings are consistent, in addition to experimental studies to explore the potential mechanisms of this association.