Low Glycemic Diets
It seems that for the past several years, low carb (and now low glycemic) diets are all the rage. As with most diets, they probably work just fine as long as you follow them!
What is a low-glycemic diet?
Foods that are low on the glycemic scale have less of an effect on blood sugar. So, a cookie is relatively high on the glycemic index because it’s likely to give you a pretty quick, intense jump in blood sugar. A stalk of celery is very low; it’s not likely to bump your blood sugar up at all.
Diets that are low glycemic focus on eating foods that don’t interfere with your blood sugar as much. It’s not a matter of avoiding certain foods altogether, but of planning your food so as to make the least impact on blood sugar.
Deciding what to eat
A site like The Glycemic Index can help you make better food choices. Another site to look at is Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load. Fiber helps slow down digestion, so that will help lower the GI of your food.
Use the lists to help you decide what to eat, or if your favorite snack is worth it.
Why you should care about blood sugar
This is a scenario you’re probably familiar with. You eat lunch around noon, but by mid-afternoon, you have the munchies again. Maybe you feel tired and sluggish. You grab something sweet from the vending machine to tide you over.
The candy does the trick. You feel better, but before dinner, you start to feel bad again. Maybe you feel even worse than before. You’re tired and hungry all over, and you still have the commute before dinner. What’s up?
You’ve experienced one of the bad effects of allowing your blood sugar to fluctuate widely. When you eat something high on the glycemic index, your blood sugar goes up very quickly. Unfortunately, once that initial boost is over, it also goes down very quickly. So, the initial feel-good burst of energy ends with your feeling worse in the long run.
Making the change
Switching to whole grains is a good start. They have a lower GI, and they’re usually more nutritious as well. Substitute fruits and vegetables for sweets and snack foods. It can take a long time to get used to the changes, so don’t give up. It may be easier to choose just one or two things at a time to change.
What I do
I try to follow a low-GI diet, in general. As you know if you’ve been reading for a while, I’ve been working on giving up sweets and junk food, two big culprits when it comes to wreaking havoc on blood sugar.
I can say that I feel better eating low GI. The sweets are particularly hard for me to give up, but after a while, they just don’t seem worth it. I know I’ll occasionally eat sweets, but I hope to never be quite so hooked on them as I have been in the past.
What types of changes have you made, that work for you?
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