I just turned 50 a couple of weeks ago and like most of my peers I am neither looking for the rocking chair nor ready to apply for my AARP card. I could stand to lose a little weight however and with that in mind I researched many of the myriad of weight loss programs that are out there and found a really interesting one. It is losing weight based around The Glycemic Index.
The Glycemic Index (or GI) is a list of foods, concentrating on carbohydrates, and their effects on your blood sugar level. Knowing which foods will dramatically increase your blood sugar quickly and which ones will only raise the blood sugar a little bit, can help you to lose weight.
However, knowledge of the GI will do more than that. It can help manage diabetes, lower the risk of heart disease and even help improve athletic performances.
Most food programs that we know about address only one issue at a time. There is this diet for lowering cholesterol, that diet to lose weight, another diet for diabetes and yet another for those who love to play sports. The GI rolls it all up into one.
To explain it a little more, foods have rankings from zero to 100 (with the exception of meats and nuts as they dont have natural sugars). The least desirable foods (for losing weight) have the highest ranking, with some of them over 100. For Example, a 4 oz serving of boiled peeled Desiree potatoes will have a GI rank of 101. In other words, the potatoes are digested rapidly and the glucose will hit your blood sugar like a freight train and quickly raising the glucose levels in your blood.
On the other hand, 3 oz of Cherries have a GI ranking order of 22. These are slowly digested and do not have much impact of your blood sugar level. The following examples are of 5 foods that are low or mid ranking in the Glycemic Index and 5 that are high ranking:
Low to medium
Baked Beans, 4oz- 48
Fettuccini, cooked, 6 oz-32
Strawberry jam, 1 TBL spoon, -51
Yoghurt, non-fat, flavored with sugar 8oz- 33
Rice, parboiled 6 oz - 48
High
Gatorade 8oz - 78
Dates, dried 1.5 oz 103
French Baguette 1oz - 95
Rice Cakes, plain 3 - 82
Tofu frozen desert, non dairy, low fat, 2 oz - 115
If you're training for a marathon and you eat a couple of hours before the event, choosing foods with a lower GI can give you an edge as the slowly digested food also slowly and steadily releases energy for your muscles to use and increases your endurance. After your marathon or any exercise workout where
a lot of calories and energy is used up, you can then eat foods high in the GI ranking and quickly replenish energy stores to your muscles.
Something else that I found interesting is that when it comes to sugars, they werent created equal. Some will have a low GI ranking and others will have a high one. For example, three packets of fructose will have a GI ranking of 22 while table sugar has a medium ranking of 60 and glucose will have a high ranking of 100.
How does one REALLY apply this toward a diet if youre trying to lose weight? Well, when dieting with the GI, one has to work out how many calories a day they are going to eat, then eat meals where 45 to 50% of your calories in carbohydrates, sticking mainly to the lower and mid ranking carbs. 30 to 35% of your calories will go towards fats and the rest will be applied to protein sources.Studies done with people on both a low fat diet and a diet based on the GI have found that both groups will lose approximately the same amount of weight, but the group whose diet was based on the GI was found to have also lowered their LDLs (bad cholesterol).
I tried out this diet and while a bit complicated in the practical application to a daily regime, I have found that I'm less hungry than on other diets, seem to have more energy and I have lost some weight, which is always good news. Being 50 with four children under the age of 14, I need all the energy I can get and of course, I will soon have the excuse to go clothes shopping.
Helpful websites:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
http://www.lowglycemicdiet.com/gifoodlist.html
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/foods/grains /gigl.html