f you are diabetic, a soft, scrumptious pizza can wreak havoc in your life.

A Pennsylvania State Diabetes Center, USA, study suggests a slow and steady insulin-dosing pattern may best combat the glucose-raising effects of that common favourite food.

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

"Our study shows that after a high-carbohydrate, high-fat meal like the pizza we 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 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."

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Gabbay cautions 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 hyperglycaemia," he said. "For now, generalisation to food types other than pizza may best be based on foods that are known to cause the same type of prolonged hyperglycaemia 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.