Control Weight With The Glycemic Index Chart

By Kathleen Adams


If you want to lose weight, have energy throughout the day, and stay healthy, you need to choose the food you eat carefully. There are many things to consider, like freshness, pesticide and herbicide load, fiber content, and protein count, but perhaps the first is a food's place on the glycemic index chart. This information will tell you how consuming any particular food will impact your blood sugar.

Digestion and metabolism are complex processes, but you only need to understand the basics. When a food is digested, glucose passes into the bloodstream. When more glucose is released than can be burned for energy, the pancreas releases its hormone, insulin, to signal that the extra be stored in fat cells. Some of this overload will later be used in energy production, but some may linger in your fat cells forever.

It's important to understand that not all food is digested in the same way. That's why simply counting calories doesn't always result in weight loss. For example, a bagel is primarily white flour and water. This combination digests very quickly, causing a quick rise in blood sugar. In fact, a bagel will trigger a faster rise that a jelly doughnut. The process of digesting flour, sugar, and fruit is more complicated and proceeds more slowly, so less glucose is released at one time. This is why a Snickers candy bar is lower on the glycemic index than popcorn.

Of course, eating a peanut candy bar is not a good choice. Just eat the peanuts, avoiding tooth decay and addiction to sweets. Choose the dry roasted kind that are seasoned with a moderate amount of sea salt.

When planning a weight-loss program, knowing how a particular food impacts your system is helpful. The trick is to select healthy foods with a low rating on the chart. If the major part of your diet comes from low-index foods that are also full of fiber, high in protein, and packed with vitamins and minerals, you will lose those extra pounds and feel good doing it.

It'll be no surprise that you already know to avoid foods that top the chart. Candy, dried fruit, sodas, french fries, and ice cream are obviously not diet foods. However, you may be surprised at some of the foods in the 55 and up range that you should omit or limit. Orange juice, raisins, rice, flavored instant oatmeal and yogurt, and granola are in this too-high range.

That's one reason these charts are so helpful. You can avoid mistakes (like thinking a plain baked potato is OK, or a slice of watermelon) while getting menu suggestions. You may have forgotten about lentils, sweet potatoes, and hummus. Planning a week's worth of meals off the chart is fun, and you can eat a lot of hummus before you derail your weight loss momentum.

Use the index to lose unwanted pounds, boost health, and have fun with your menus. At the same time, knowing the glycemic ranking of foods can help you cut the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions you might have thought an inevitable part of growing older.




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