Welcome back to all my wonderful reader's. It has been exciting to me in the past week to see reader's from so many different countries. Beside's my usual visitor's from the U.S. and Canada, there have been visitor's from the UK, Ireland, Australia,Germany, Turkey, India, and before that even one from Malta,Ceylon, and Pakistan. Kind of amazing for this 64 year old Sr from Central NY. Really liking today's picture. I love everything about my outfit. It makes me feel young and perky. I love the colors and the style is kind of intriguing. My daughter had ordered this skirt from Old Navy, and it didn't work for her. It is my style skirt, so I snagged it before she could send it back. Like it with my black tights and the boots I practically live in this winter. It was cool that the rest of my FitBit bands arrived from China today , just in time to go with this outfit. And I already had a set of jewelry to match it. A good portion of jewelry you see on me is made by me.

Isn't that band the cutest?

The next picture shows this and the other two that arrived from China today. Wait till you see the flowered one. Probably won't get to wear that until spring or summer.

Ok , time to get down to business. Let's see where we left off last night. We left off talking about the Glycaemic Index Table. Next we will explore the diet built around the index.

HOW DO GI DIETS WORK?

Diets based on the GI Index simply encourage you to eat plenty of foods with a low GI value and avoid those with a high GI value. This helps to prevent swings in blood sugar, helping you feel fuller for longer. However must GI diets reccomend cutting down on fats, especially saturated fats. This means that foods with a low GI value, but a high fat content are limited. Examples would be milk and chocolates, to name a few.

WHAT AFFECTS THE GI VALUE OF A FOOD?

There are several things. Firstly , the overall nutrient content of a food will affect it's GI. For example, fat and protein affect the absorption of a carbohydrate. That helps to explain why chocolate ,which is high in fat has a low GI value. Whole milk has a low GI value because it is packed with protein and fat. How you cook a food, the degree of processing, and the variety and ripeness of a fruit, for example, also affect it's GI. Even the structure of the carbohydrate itself, influences the GI. For instance, processed instant oatmeal has a higher GI, than using tradional rolled oats to make your oatmeal. That is because, as a result of the processing,the starch in instant oats is more easily exposed to digestive enzymes, causing it to break down and enter the bloodstream more rapidly. Meanwhile some foods have low GI values because they are packed with fiber, which acts as a physical barrier, slowing down the absorption of carbohydrate into the bloodstream.

SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I EAT A MEAL?

GI index charts only identify the effect different foods have on the blood sugar levels when eaten on their own, so consequently, many nutritionists believe this is one of the main problems with the GI diets. Basically when you eat a mixture of foods together as in a meal, the GI value of that meal changes. As a guideline though, the more low GI foods you include in a meal, the lower overall the GI value of that meal will be.

ARE THERE ANY CONS TO THE GI DIET?

As per above, one of the main limitations to GI diets is that it's difficult to identify the GI value of a meal. Meanwhile, some foods with a low GI value are also packed with fat and /or salt and contain few nutrients. Chocolate and chips for example are high in fat and contain few vitamins and minerals. Meanwhile a 50g pack of salted peanuts contain almost 5 grams of salt- that's almost the maximum amount recommended by nutritionists for good health. Consequently, it's possible to follow a GI diet that's packed with fat and lacking in many of the nutrients you need to stay healthy. However,most GI diet plans come with advice to cut down on the amount of fat you eat, and recommend avoiding many of the high- fat low GI foods. For example, they recommended choosing skim milk over whole milk.

WHAT DO THE EXPERTS THINK?

In general most nutritionists and dieticians are supportive of the basic principals of the GI diet. They do,however, believe you shouldn't get too hung up about avoiding all high GI foods,because when foods are eaten together in a meal, that meal can have a very different GI value to the individual foods it contains. So that is where we are going to leave off for tonight and tomorrow will be the third and last segment. I hope you are enjoying learning different aspects of nutrition. In this journey that we all find ourselves on, knowledge is power. Everything we learn, enables us to be successful in the undertakings of weight loss, better health, and the fitness goals we set for ourselves. Have a healthy and productive day. Stay focused , stay strong. This is your journey. Love it, live it, do it. Till next time, God Bless.

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