Low glycemic diet
June 27, 2009 by Lena
Filed under Low glycemic diet
A low glycemic diet is a diet where you eat foods that have a low effect on your blood sugar. In practice, that means eating a balanced meal consisting of proteins, healthy fat and mostly carbohydrates with a low glycemic index (GI). This is a key to good health and long term weight loss. It also reduces your risk of heart disease, diabetes and other illness.
Glycemic index is a ranking of how much different carbs affect your blood glucose level. The quicker the carbohydrates can be absorbed by your body, the higher the GI of the food is. The index value is found by giving test persons 50 grams of carbohydrate from a certain food and comparing it to the effect 50 grams of glucose has on the blood sugar. Foods containing only fat and proteins therefore have no glycemic index. Fiber, which is a type of carbohydrate, cannot be digested by the body and therefore does not affect your blood sugar.
Examples of foods with a high GI are white bread, sugar, potatoes and instant white rice. Most vegetables and many fruits have a low GI.
Glycemic load takes both the GI of a food, the amount of carbohydrates the food contain and the amount of that food you eat into account. A food can have a high GI, but a low amount of carbohydrate pr 100 grams compared to other foods. Therefore the GL is more interesting as it tells you something about the total load on your blood sugar.
When your blood sugar increases, your body has to produce insulin to absorb the glucose into your cells. Therefore, the higher glycemic load, the more insulin your body must produce. This is negative for your health and the cause of obesity.
This all may sound a little complicated, so don’t let it confuse you too much. I will cover more practical information and tips in other articles.
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I would love to see a little concentration applied to finding substitutes for some of the basic easy to prepare comfort foods. The list would include a good tasting bread, mashed potato substitute, and a better breakfast cereal. I have seen items listed as “substitutes” elsewhere on the web but the recipe usually starts something like: First rent a hyperbaric chamber and obtain a supply of breathing air sufficient for several hours. Send the kids to the nearest relative and crush the dust from the wings of newts…… …… blah blah blah…………………BYW: If we recognize that carbs are not good, is there a specific number that might be acceptable for a meal, or day? I can remember trying to limit each meal to 15 carbs when I started and that was hell…………..Now I just do the best I can without regard to numbers..
Hi John,
Thanks for a great comment.
It has been a while since I posted any updates to my blog as I have been on vacation for 3 weeks. Also have been a bit lazy during summer and made very simple food, a lot of oven baked chicken and vegetables with sour cream.
I do know of some good bread recipes. At least I think they are good as I like grainy breads. I will try to post one soon. You can make a mashed potato substitute using cauliflower. I like to add butter and creme fraiche. Herbs, spices and feta cheese are some other ingredients I sometimes add.
Personally I don’t count the carbs either. When I started changing my diet back in 2005 I ate a lot of carbs compared to a lot of other people. I followed a low glycemic diet and avoided the quick carbohydrates. I feel I am still on a journey to find my own “optimal” diet.
I think the acceptable number of carbohydrates one should eat in a day is different from person to person and depends on your goal. For instance if you want to loose weight you may have to be more careful with your carbohydrate intake than if you are going to maintain your weight, and different people also have a different carbohydrate tolerance. I think another important factor is concidering what is ideal for you and what is possible for you to maintain long term. After all we are social beings and have a lot of other things to spend time on than just eating the proper foods.
Generally on a low carb diet people eat somewhere between 20-80 grams of carbohydrate pr day (on a low glycemic diet this number can be even higher, as the main focus here is just to avoid the high glycemic carbs).