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• Controlling Diabetes with the Glycemic Index
Controlling Diabetes with the Glycemic Index
The glycemic index ranks foods on how they affect our blood glucose levels. This index measures how much your blood glucose increases in the two or three hours after eating. The glycemic index is about foods high in carbohydrates. Foods high in fat or protein don't cause your blood glucose level to rise very much. The glycemic index is about the quality of the carbohydrates, not the quantity. A lot of people still think that it is plain table sugar that people with diabetes need to avoid. The experts used to say that, but the glycemic index shows that complex carbohydrates, like baked potatoes, can be even worse. Scientists have measured the glycemic indexes of about 750 high-carbohydrate foods. The key is to eat little of those foods with a high glycemic index and more of those foods with a low index.
So, is the Glycemic Index beneficial for people with diabetes?
The Glycemic Index is especially useful to people with diabetes who want to plan their diets to minimize the incidence of high blood glucose, or spikes. It measures how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers. The lower the number the less effect it has.
When you make use of the glycemic index to prepare healthy meals, it helps to keep your blood glucose levels under control. This is especially important for people with diabetes, although athletes and people who are overweight also stand to benefit from knowing about this relatively new concept in good nutrition.
Recent studies of large numbers of people with diabetes show that those who keep their blood glucose under tight control best avoid the complications that this disease can lead to. Most experts agree that what works best for people with diabetes—and probably the rest of us as well—is regular exercise, little saturated or trans fat (partially hydrogenated oils), and a high-fiber diet.
The recommendations to exercise and eat more fiber and less saturated and trans fats is excellent advice—as far as it goes. Not all carbohydrates act the same. Some are quickly broken down in the intestine, causing the blood glucose level to rise rapidly. These carbohydrates have a high glycemic index.
What about portion size?The glycemic index is about the quality of the carbohydrates, not the quantity. Obviously, quantity matters too—and that is the reason for the glycemic load values—but the measurement of the glycemic index of a food is not related to portion size.
Are there other important diet considerations?
The glycemic index should not be your only criterion when selecting what to eat. The total amount of carbohydrate, the amount and type of fat, and the fiber and salt content are also important dietary considerations. The glycemic index is most useful when deciding which high-carbohydrate foods to eat. But don't let the glycemic index lull you into eating more carbohydrates than your body can handle, particularly if you have diabetes. The number of grams of carbohydrate we consume is awfully important. Make sure you know the carbohydrate content of the foods you eat—study the nutritional information on the package.
But first you need to decide the composition of your diet in terms of carbohydrate, fat, and protein. Almost all the experts agree that we should minimize our intake of saturated and trans fat and eat a lot more fiber than we do. The problem is that even among the complex carbohydrates not all are created equal. Some break down quickly during digestion and can raise blood glucose to dangerous levels. These are the foods that have higher glycemic indexes. Other carbohydrates break down more slowly, releasing glucose gradually into our blood streams and are said to have lower glycemic indexes.
In addition, the glucose response to a particular food may be somewhat individual. So it is probably a good idea to carefully watch your own blood glucose level after eating foods you have questions about and determine if they have high or low GI for you.
Where can you find what the Glycemic Index of a food is?
Search glycemic index on your favorite search engine.
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