GI Diets
To show how the various types of carbohydrates affect your levels of blood glucose, the glycemic index diet was produced. When you choose to follow a low glycemic index diet, you have decided to eat only those carbohydrates which brings the least effect to the levels of your blood glucose, with the aim of controlling your type of diabetes. With some diets, the changes are very simple while there are those, like the South Beach Diet, which are not so simple.
The wonderful part of this diet which has to do with the glycemic index, anybody can make use of it to enjoy a healthier way of life. No, you do not have to get a chronic disease to enjoy its benefits. A diet with its attention focused on the glycemic index can assist anyone to avoid heart disease, obesity as well as diabetes, if the person has not yet fallen victim to such health problems. However, should you be a sufferer of any of the mentioned health problems, such a diet can help you to manage them well to have a longer, healthier life.
For a diabetic, the aim and results derived from the glycemic index diet are similar to those of the blood sugar diet. You want to constantly have a level of blood glucose in the healthy range without either sudden increases in the blood sugar levels or the levels of blood sugar going too low. To give you a complete knowledge on this diet so that you can use it in your way of life, we will provide the main facts on various high GI foods as well as low GI foods.
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High and Low GI Foods
Let us think of how blood glucose levels would react to different types of food and realize its impact on a diabetic’s health. High GI foods are easily digested and this results in sudden big increases of sugar in the bloodstream which brings a bad effect on diabetics, more so on type 2 diabetics. When it comes to low GI foods, the digestion of these foods is slow and so, they bring hardly any difference to the levels of blood sugar. And this is how this diet works. For everyone, there can be lots of benefit from this diet. For the type 2 diabetic, the greatest benefit is the lessened risk of complications.
Usually occurring among adults and older people of both sexes, type 2 diabetes may weaken the sufferer if the disease is not properly managed. Several researchers hold the belief that consuming a high glycemic index diet for many years can lead to type 2 diabetes when the overworked beta cells in your pancreas slow down its production of insulin required by your body.
Even though the above is merely a belief of those researchers, it helps you to see how your body can become overworked with so much high glycemic index food to digest as well as the effect this has on the important organs in your body. This, however, does not mean that you need to stop eating all high glycemic index foods. Once you realize the effect of too many of these foods on your body, you can reduce the amount, eat a moderate quantity and your health will be intact.
Many are the ways to easily use low GI foods in your meals, with just a little change to your food. On the internet are various lists as well as tables that shows both the glycemic index as well as the sugar levels of certain carbohydrates. The tables given are necessary for the right implementation of your glycemic index diet plan. Let us look at the list given below in which you are given various types of food you can use to those in your present diet.
- Wild rice or brown rice to replace white rice.
- Sweet potatoes to replace the usual white potatoes at dinner.
- Whole grain to replace white flour for baking to lessen carbohydrate.
- Fruit and vegetable to replace junk food as a healthy choice at any time of the day.
- There’s no need to forgo dessert. Just use dairy products together with fruit for dessert.
- Choose to have for dinner whole wheat pasta or pasta made from multi-grain, with a side dish of vegetable salad.
- Use tofu, lentils or barley for a healthy change.
- Do away with highly processed foods. Replace them with cereals made from whole grains for breakfast.
- Make it your choice to have a minimum of one food which is low glycemic each and every time you eat.
Be committed in making the changes to your diet although it can be difficult at first and you may not be used to the foods that replaces certain foods. Your determination to stay on course in this new diet will bring many benefits to your health. Remind yourself of the reason you have chosen this diet.
Remember that the glycemic index diet will assist you in the good management of your blood sugar levels.