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low glycemic foods


The kind of food an individual consumes plays a significant role in the kind of lifestyle he or she leads. To elaborate, eating the kinds of junk food that most of us do will see an individual put on a significant amount of weight as the empty calories contribute to nothing more than the reserves of fat in the human body. However, consuming a healthy meal with significant amounts of vitamins, minerals as well as nutrients can have a revitalizing effect on most of the organs in the body. Given the fact that obesity is considered to be a pandemic in most parts of the world, nutritionists all over the globe have studied and analyzed the different foods we eat as well as the effects that they have on our health in significant detail. One of the more important and useful pieces of data that they have been able to come up with is known as the Glycemic Index.
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Also known as the GI index, the glycemic index is essentially a numerical method of measuring the speed with which an ingested carbohydrate triggers a rise in the circulatin blood sugar. As per the table, the higher the number, the more prominent the blood sugar response. Low glycemic foods are seen to cause a rather minimal rise while the higher GI foods are seen to cause a rather dramatic spike in the blood sugar. The glycemic values are primarily representations of the speed with which the carbohydrate is broken down in order to allow the glucose content into the blood stream. From a perspective of health maintenance, the Glycemic index helps an individual control a number of possible complications by informing him or her of the foods that are going to be of greater benefit in certain scenarios. For example, a patient suffering from diabetes is often advised to mainly follow a low GI foods diet as it will control the blood sugar rise. Most athletes, on the other hand, are often advised to consume high GI foods as they help replenish the carbohydrate stores in the body after a period of intense physical exercise. As a result, it may be harder than it seems to decide on what kind of foods and their respective GI values are better for you, so choosing to consult a dietician or health care professional will probably give you better insight on the foods that will be more of a benefit to your lifestyle.

Some tips on the best methods of moving to a low GI diet include having a breakfast that is based primarily on wheat bran, barley and oats while also usually only having breads that are grainy and made of whole seeds. Instead of eating potatoes, replacing them with pasta and rice is a very highly regarded substitution.

It is important to keep in mind the fact that the glycemic value of a certain food source is not necessarily a major indicator of how healthy a certain type of food is as other conditions also need to be considered. Some of these other factors include the saturated fat content as well as the overall nutritional content of the food. One common question that a lot of people interested in learning about low glycemic foods have is generally whether undertaking a low glycemic food plan requires the ban of all sugars. While some diet books may advise against the intake of sugar in almost any form, the low GI food plans do not and as much as about 5 tablespoons of refined sugar can be taken as part of your regular diet without compromising the blood sugar control. Honey is considered to be a superior alternative as it contains natural sugars that are easy to digest.

Submitted on September 18, 2010
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