Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Carbohydrates

By knowing a small amount about the GI you can both prevent diabetes in the future, but also boost your energy levels now.

While the GI can sound complicated, you don’t need to know numbers and figures. Instead there are simple guidelines you can use to switch to low GI foods. You’ll start feeling the benefits immediately, through improved energy levels during the day. Plus you’ll be preventing diabetes and other health nasties in the future.

The importance of controlling insulin

In the last two posts in this series I looked at the foods which contain carbohydrates, and how it’s impossible to avoid them. I also gave an outline of how your body breaks carbohydrate up into glucose molecules, which are then absorbed into your bloodstream.

However, glucose is of no use just sitting in your bloodstream. Instead it’s needed by the cells of your body, to fuel their functions. This is where insulin enters the story. It’s the hormone insulin which pushes glucose from your bloodstream into your cells.

Without insulin, there would be too much glucose in your bloodstream. While at the same time, your cells would be starved of fuel.

However, producing too much insulin is also a problem. In the short-term, high levels of insulin will prevent you from losing weight and increase your risk of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and cardiovascular disease. Over long periods of time, churning out too much insulin will exhaust your poor pancreas, leading to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Why is the GI important?

In the 1980s the Glycemic Index, or GI, was developed as a way of measuring the effect carbohydrates have on blood sugar levels. It’s a classification system, where all carbohydrate containing foods are given a number.

Carbohydrates that are digested slowly, release their glucose into the bloodstream over a longer period of time. Therefore, only small amounts of insulin are needed to move this glucose from the blood into the cells. As the glucose from low GI foods is released slowly and steadily over a longer period of time, it provides you with a slow and steady supply of energy. In contrast foods with a high GI release their glucose very quickly. Energy from these foods is short-lived, plus your pancreas has to churn out high levels of insulin to deal with it.

Therefore, with a small amount of GI knowledge you can:

• have better energy levels thoughout the day
• minimise energy lulls and troughs
• help your weight loss programme
• minimise the amount of insulin your body creates and prevent the problems associated with excess insulin.

Switching to low GI foods

Making the switch to low GI foods, to improve your energy levels, doesn’t require a major diet overhaul. Instead it’s about tweaking some of the food choices you already make.

• Bread: change your bread to multigrain, sourdough or fruit bread. These have a lower GI than white bread.
• Crispbreads and crackers: use multigrain crackers, like 9-grain Vita-Weats.
• Rice: choose basmati or brown rice instead of jasmine. Or use noodles instead of rice.
• Potatoes: Nicola potatoes have the lowest GI, otherwise use sweet potato or pasta. Mash together half potato and half white beans or sweet potato.
• Cereals: choose lower GI cereals, including porridge oats and muesli.
• Snacks: eat nuts, fruit and yoghurt instead of lollies, biscuits and cakes.

More information

• Foods with a low GI (below 55) have a smaller effect on blood sugar levels than foods with a high GI (above 70).
• To check the GI of different foods use the Sydney University database.

02 October, 2007