CAROL’S CORNER

Welcome back to my little corner in cyberspace. I hope you are blessed by what you find here when you stop by. If there is anything you want to see me talk about, please leave me a message in the comment section and I will see what I can come up with. I am committed to helping as many people as I am able, as they go on their own journey to health and fitness. In today’s picture I’m wearing a blouse that’s been in my closet for awhile, but just hadn’t worn it yet. I love the bling and how it flows. The back is cool too.

My FitBit combo for the day. Like the embossed pattern on the band.

For today’s blog I am going to try and cover the Glysemic Index Diet. I’m taking this information from a publication called weight resources based in the UK. There is all kinds of diet information available for you to persue at your leisure , so before we get started I will link the site. http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/gi_diet.htm

Now, let’s get started. This is not another “celebrity slimming craze”. This diet is liked by both dieticians and nutritionists. Just what exactly then, is the Glycaemic Index? Now being a Type 2 Diabetic this will be of interest to me as we explore this,and just in this next section I found something that I have found to be true when testing my own blood sugar. In 1981, a professor of nutrition, Dr David Jenkins was looking at how different carbohydrate-rich foods affected blood sugar levels in people with Diabetes and discovered that, contrary to popular belief, many starchy foods affected blood sugar levels quite dramatically, while some sugary foods had little affect. This is something I have found to be true in my own testing. Something sweet might have way lower blood sugar levels than a high starch meal. From his research he developed a scale called the Glycaemic Index, which simply ranked foods by the affect they had on blood sugar levels.

HOW IT WORKS

The glycaemic index runs from 0 to100 and usually uses glucose which has a GI value of 100-as the reference. The affect other foods have on blood sugar levels are then compared with this. In simple terms the GI index tells us whether a food raises blood sugars dramatically, moderately, or a little bit. Foods that only have a slow, small affect have a low GI value, while those causing a rapid and massive rise in blood sugar, have a high GI value.

SO WHAT’S THE LINK WITH WEIGHT LOSS?

The theory behind diets based on the index, is that foods with a low GI value slowly release sugar in the blood, providing you with an steady supply of energy, leaving you feeling satisfied longer, so that you’re less likely to reach for a snack. In contrast, foods with a high GI value, cause a rapid-but-short lived-rise in blood sugar. This leaves you lacking in energy, and feeling hungry in a short time, with the result being that you end up reaching for a snack. If this pattern is frequently repeated, you’re likely to gain weight as a result of constantly overeating.

GLYCSAEMIC INDEX OF FOODS

There are many books and websites that list the GI index for certain foods. Different sources may vary, but in general they should all be the same. Many lists divide the foods into low, medium/moderate, and high categories. Foods in the low category usually have a value of 55 or less; in the medium category, a value of 56-69, and in the high category of 70 or more. Here is a link to a Glycsaemic Index Table that is also found on this site. http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/gi_diet/glycaemic_index_tables.htm. Look through this and see some of the surprises. Here’s one such surprise -healthy rice cakes and bran flakes have a high GI value, where as salted peanuts and milk chocolate have a low GI value. Since this is a long study we will end here and continue on tomorrow. We will see then whether this will take 1 or 2 days to finish. Hope you all have a productive week planned ahead. Anybody that’s in the Artic Freeze like we are at the moment, stay safe and stay warm. For those of you who may be struggling in your journey, I leave you with this.