Reasons to Choose Low-GI Foods

Dietary programs such as The Protein Power Lifeplan, The Perricone Prescription, and A Week in the Zone all stress the need to consume low-glycemic foods.

According to this notion, insulin is secreted to regulate blood sugar after eating sugar or other high-glycemic-index carbohydrates. An inflammatory cascade of free radical damage is triggered by high blood sugar levels.

Dr. Perricone emphasizes the gravity of the situation by noting that people with poorly managed diabetes age one third more quickly than people without diabetes and are at increased risk for renal failure, blindness, heart attack, and stroke.

This is when insulin comes in to help, as it removes the sugar from the blood. The insulin and what it does with all that sugar Excess energy is deposited in the fat cells. And until insulin comes to the rescue, the sugar runs wild, causing glycation and cross-linking of collagen throughout the body.

The results are plain to see in the skin, which becomes leathery and brittle with age. The same harm, however unseen by the naked eye, is being done internally to the kidneys, lungs, and brain.

Up until this point, everything has been fine. Reduce your sugar intake as recommended by nutritionists. Some foods that we typically consider healthy turn out to be unhealthy when ranked by the glycemic index, which compares the effects of different carbohydrates and sugars.

A blood sugar spike of 100 indicates that eating table sugar has a glycemic index of 100. (On one scale, white bread).No matter what scale is utilized, the importance of ranking foods by their impact on blood sugar remains the same.

Different thresholds are used in the low-glycemic food diets described above. Some diet plans, like Dr. Perricone's 28-day plan, forbid eating anything with a glycemic index of 50 or above. Bananas, bagels, carrots, maize, potatoes, rice, and melons aren't on the list.

The full table and other information regarding the glycemic index (GI) can be found at http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm. Freelance medical writer and diabetes expert David Mendoza pens the content for this site. There's a wealth of useful data on this site.

Mr. Mendoza notes that the glycemic index of a product only indicates the rate at which a given carbohydrate converts into sugar; it does not provide information about the actual amount of carbohydrate present in a given dish. To rephrase, it's not just about the type of carbs you eat but also about how many of them you eat.

His website features a glycemic load (GL) column and a serving size (in grams) column based on data provided by Professor Jennie-Brand Miller of the University of Sydney. Twenty or more is considered a high glycemic load, 11–19 is considered medium, and 10 or less is considered moderate.

The "bad" carbs that are typically avoided on low-glycemic meal plans may not be so terrible after all. Watermelon has a very high GI of 74 but a very low GL of 4 per 120-gram serving. A banana weighs 129 grams and has a bad GI of 51 but a decent GL of 13. Carrots are a good source of vitamin A and fiber, but their GI of 47 is on the high end and their GL of 3 is on the low end. Corn has a high GI of 47 and a low GL of 7 for the same quantity.

However, based on either the GI or the GL, a few carb-heavy items don't look good. The GI (72) and GL (9) for a 70-gram bagel are both quite high (25). White rice, when boiling, has a GI of 56 and a GL of 24 per 150 g serving. The glycemic load (GL) and glycemic index (GI) of a medium baked potato (159 g) are both high (GI: 60) and low (GL: 44). (18).

It is important to consider a food's glycemic load if you are trying to eat a low-glycemic diet. GL is a better indication of how much sugar is being delivered into the bloodstream and how much sugar will be stored as fat, so long as the recommended serving sizes are adhered to (or the calculation is adjusted properly).

Disclaimer: The content of this article is for educational purposes only. In no way is it intended to replace professional medical counseling.