Understanding The Glycemix Index - For Weight Loss and Better Health

By:Rebecca Prescott

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a way of rating carbohydrate foods according to how quickly the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, and thus how quickly that glucose enters the bloodstream. The reasoning behind this is that carbohydrates that enter the bloodstream quickly raise blood sugar levels rapidly, causing a spike in energy, that is followed by a drop after the effects of insulin are triggered.

Insulin is one of the hormones that help regulate blood sugar levels, and tries to keep them stable. When too much glucose enters the bloodstream at a time, the body reacts by releasing insulin to remove some of that glucose back out of the blood and into our cells. Its simply a way of keeping the balance. However the effect is that when all the glucose we just ate, in the form of carbohydrates, is removed from the bloodstream, we feel tired and hungry, often craving more carbohydrates. Thus a cycle is created, where we eat more than really necessary.

Carbohydrate containing foods are rated from a scale of 1 to 100. A score of 100 is the highest, and this is akin to eating glucose in its pure form. A score of 55 or lower means a food is classified as having a low glycemic index. Thus, it theoretically breaks down in the body more slowly.

I write theoretically, because the picture is a little more complicated than that. For example, fat lowers the GI of foods. Potato crisps have a lower GI than do oven roasted jacket potatoes. However, that does not mean that potato crisps are a better choice, in terms of nutritional and fat content. So, it's important to look at the whole equation when considering meal choices and the glycemic index.

Some suggestions for using the glycemic index in terms of one's diet is to balance a high glycemic index food in a meal with a low one. And try to make more low or mid range GI choices than high.

Other factors that can affect a food's glycemic index, beyond its GI rating, are the amount of food eaten. Chocolate has a low GI, but it is 30% fat. And any excess nutrients, whether they are fat, protein or carbohydrates, will be stored in the body as fat. So eating too much of low GI foods that are high in calories is not going to help with weight loss.

Another issue when considering using the GI of food, is that the time of day we eat a food may also impact its effect on blood sugar levels. This is because the GI rating given to a food is based on fasting. So, for example, we fast at night - meaning we are asleep and thus not eating for a period of hours. A food thus eaten in the morning may more accurately reflect the GI given to it than at other times of the day, when we haven't been fasting.

Yet the GI does have benefits. One study on obese young adults found that a low glycemic index diet was associated with a reduction in the risk factors associated with heart disease, when compared to similar children with a low fat diet. Both groups lost weight, and kept it off, which is good news for dieters! And the researchers suggested that a low glycemic index diet may not lower metabolism as much compared to low fat diets. This is important for dieters as it means they would feel less cold, tired and hungry, and as a result, would find it easier to stick with the changes made during the diet period.

The GI should not be used in isolation. Both common sense and other food guidelines, like avoiding excess fat and salt,and making sure foods are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, should still be used with the glycemic index.

References:

1. Australian Healthy Food, November 2005

2. nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=66151

3. nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=60035

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article keywords: glycemic index, weight loss, lose weight, heart health

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Rebecca Prescott's website presents more articles on weight loss, diets, and fad diets here.

Top Weight Loss Articles
1). Every Diet Gets Harder - The Self-fulfilling Prophecy Of Failure By : Helene Desruisseaux The two reasons why every diet gets harder, and what to do to about it.
2). How To Drop Weight and Become Healthier Using These 7 Simple Everyday Life Tips? By : Monty Lee These days more and more people are getting intellectual instead of physical jobs. Sitting in the office chairs all-day long has become a norm for many of us. Stress, busyness and rush make us forget about regular food and stuff our stomachs with cheeseburgers and sodas, which don’t do anything good for our bodies. As a result of such crazy life rhythm, we rarely find time for exercises, gyms or balanced nutrition.
3). Is there Any Hoodia in that Hoodia Weight Loss Product? By : Richard Keir Copyright 2006 Richard Keir Gotten any email spam lately with a 'warning' about buying fake Hoodia products or Hoodia products with a variety of fillers? Of course, they assure you that THEIR product is 'the original product.' It may be the original product, whatever that might mean, but the chances of it containing Hoodia are pretty close to zero.
4). The Difference Between Liquid Hoodia And Hoodia Pills By : Rand Hanes For those interested in taking hoodia, they will be presented with a choice between pill and liquid forms. As with any natural supplements taken, there are certain distinctive differences between liquid and pill forms of consumption. Similarly to taking multivitamin supplements, hoodia in liquid form is more expensive but has been shown to assimilate into the body system faster and have a greater amount of the substance used by the body than when it is taken in pill form.
5). Can Hoodia Help You Lose Weight ? By : Ken Black How can Hoodia help you lose weight, or is there more to it than that?
6). 8 Ways To Create Balance To Achieve Lasting Weight Loss By : Meri Raffetto Need to lose weight? Dreading the thought of another diet program? You don’t have to follow diets to lose weight. There are many people discovering this for themselves and they are the ones who are finding long term weight loss apposed to short term fixes. The key to weight loss is finding the right balance of what you eat, what you think, and what activity you do.
7). The Secrets of Long-Term Weight Reduction and Disease Prevention By : John Savage The Mediterranean Diet is probably the most realistic and safest way not only to lose weight, but to also prevent serious disease.
8). Weight Loss Myths Exposed By : Kim Beardsmore It probably won’t come as a surprise to hear there is a great deal of confusion around nutrition. In fact, many people reading this article will have only a scant idea about the different food types and what our body actually needs to keep healthy. One of the simplest systems I’ve encountered is this. If the food tastes good, then it has to be ‘bad’ for you! And then there’s its counterpart, “If the food tastes ‘bad’ then it must be ‘good’ for you”.
9). Your Anchors & How They Keep You From Your Weight Loss Goals By : Kelly Burris Anchors are the reasons that attach you to any behavior. Your anchors originated from extremely strong repetitive memory associations, which are triggered by your five senses of hearing, vision, smell, taste, and touch. You are constantly being anchored in different ways through out your life. For example, when you hear a certain song and it brings back a memory of a certain person, or a place in time, this is an audio anchor or an anchor triggered by your sense of hearing.
10). Overweight and Dying - Mummy Stay With Me A Little Longer By : kacycarr Scientists have now discovered that skeletal frame humans are more vulnerable to bouts of anxiety than that of oversized happy porkers that at the time of study were found to be less prone to depression in their recent research. Then in the same article a snippet revealed how a 16 year study stated that slim people are more confident and content, surely this is a great factor for happiness denoting a safe healthy life.

New Weight Loss Articles
1). What Everybody Ought To Know About Doctors, Diets And Weight Loss By : Glenn Freiboth The truth of why a record number of doctors are prescribing drugs for weight loss to put a quick fix on very complicatied problem.
2). Fat Consequences In Children By : Mark Kimathi As the world battles with an epidemic that is proving difficult to manage and showing signs of becoming a costly affair, our children are getting caught in the cross fire. Adult onset diabetes, weight loss surgery and weight loss medication for children is not exactly what parent had in mind when planning for their posterity.
3). Exercise Is The Winding of a Spring to Help Your Body/Mind Clock Beat the Eroding Effects of TIME. By : Johan Tonsbeek Regular daily exercise, especially for Baby Boomers, can be compared to the winding up of a spring in a watch or a clock to help it display the proper time.
4). Some Healthy Tips To Lose Weight By : Abbas Abedi Learn about a few important tips to lose weight easily.
5). Weight Loss Tips Without Losing Your Appearance By : Casey McCarthy The top 7 weight losing tip are all here. If your looking for the best weight losing tip in a sure cut way to lose lots of weight you must read on.
6). How Your Big Stomach Is Breaking Your Heart, Literally By : Gregg Hall If you are anything like me you told yourself over and over that you would never let yourself get out of shape like your parent; totally inactive, major overweight, and also having the health problems that come along with it.
7). Why Herbal Weight Loss Is A Highly Effective And Natural Diet By : Clive Jenkins Before ingesting any herbs as part of a herbal weight loss programme it is important to check they are recognized medically as been safe for human consumption. There are some substances which should not be consumed, as they contain highly toxic properties which are potentially very dangerous for our vital organs.
8). Using the Safe and Natural Method of Self Hypnosis for Weight Loss, You Can Be Slim & Trim for Life By : John Leogue The strategy of slim people remains a mystery to anyone who battles their weight. Could it be that slim-and-trim folks simply approach food and eating with a different mindset?
9). Hypnosis For Weight Loss Works By : Joyce Jackson Learn why losing weight with hypnosis is not only effective but offers long term permanent weight loss results.
10). Before Considering Gastric Bypass Surgery Be Sure That It Is Covered By Your Insurance By : Gregg Hall The gastric bypass procedure can be very expensive; it can also have many complications. But the big question for so many is, "Will my insurance cover a Gastric Bypass operation?"