We've all heard the term 'Glycemic Index" (GI) but few people really understand what it is or why it's important. My goal is to give you a simple overview and explain to you why you should know what it is. The Glycemic Index is important because it has a direct impact on the blood glucose levels in your body.
Your insulin levels are affected by your blood glucose levels. Because your insulin level impacts your health in so many ways, it's important to understand how to control it. If you understand the Glycemic Index you can make the right choices when it comes to choosing which carbohydrates to eat. This in turn will allow you to feel better as well as reduce your risk of numerous diseases.
So what is the Glycemic Index? The Glycemix Index is basically a way to rank carbohydrates. The ranking is based on the effect that the carbohydrates have on your blood sugar (blood glucose). At the most extreme end of the scale is eating glucose (simple sugar).
Eating glucose directly doesn't require any digestion and would cause a rapid spike in blood sugar, followed by a rapid spike in insulin which allows the cells to use this sugar (this is why some diabetics carry around sugar cubes to ingest when their insulin level is low).
When these spikes occur in your body, it's bad news. These spikes raise your lipid levels and your sugar levels and actually cause you to eat more than your body actually requires.
In terms of GI level, the upper limit is 100. The type of foods you would typically find at the upper end of the scale include things like corn flakes (72) and white bread (70). Lower GI foods include apple juice (40) and oatmeal (48).
Eating a lot of high GI foods can be detrimental to your health because it pushes your body to extremes. This is especially true if you are overweight and sedentary. Switching to eating mainly low GI carbs that slowly trickle glucose into your blood stream keeps your energy levels balanced and means you will feel fuller for longer between meals. This is will help you hold off eating between meals.
Helpful for Diabetics?
Some people with diabetes use the GI as a guide in selecting foods - especially carbohydrates - for meal planning because it ranks foods based on their effect on blood sugar level. The problem though is that although it considers blood sugar levels, it doesn't take into account how 'healthy' a food is. Low index foods aren't necessarily healthier than high index foods are.
Although the GI diet has some potential benefits, such as reducing blood sugar levels, it is very complicated. Many factors affect the GI value of a specific food, including how the food is prepared and what's eaten with it. Also, the GI value for some foods isn't known. For these reasons, the American Diabetes Association has concluded there isn't enough evidence to recommend the general use of a low-glycemic-index diet for people with diabetes.
The GlycemicIndex website summarizes the benefits of sticking to a low-GI diet as:
-Low GI diets help people lose and control weight
-Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin
-Low GI carbs improve diabetes control
-Low GI carbs reduce the risk of heart disease
-Low GI carbs reduce blood cholesterol levels
-Low GI carbs can help you manage the symptoms of PCOS
-Low GI carbs reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
-Low GI carbs prolong physical endurance
-High GI carbs help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise
By using the Glycemic Index as a guide, combined with "common sense" eating (limit or remove trans fat, HFCS, saturated fats from your diet) and full body workouts three times a week, you have a great road map to weight loss success.
George is the creator of the BusyBod Workout System. He specializes in at home workout, is a Certified Trainer with over 20 years of experience & a former gym owner. George's unique approach to fat loss & fitness is built around the idea of saving time so that you can focus your time on things you love doing. You can request his free at home workout quick-start fat loss kit at his blog.
