Snickers Cookies

With the Glycemic Index Diet, it is the quality of carbohydrates that matters. Its concept is to make individuals feel fuller by indulging in low-GI good carbohydrates together with healthy fats and lean protein. Good carbohydrates include whole grains, whole fruits, legumes, and vegetables. Avoiding foods high in Glycemic Index is necessary especially since most of them are processed and made from white flour.

However, some nutrition experts claim that having a low GI score is not an effective assurance of being healthy. Carrots have glycemic index between 16 and 92, while sugar or candy can have lower GI score than a potato. Candy bars like Snickers are categorized as low GI food. However, when you check its GI score, it is 55. On the other hand, foods with high GI can also be nutritious, like corn, baked potatoes and fruits juices. The point here is to use common sense.

Glycemic index diets are popular in the weight loss industry. It is based on the concept that high GI foods increase the levels of blood sugar, cause the body to produce excess insulin, and encourage fat storage. Another reason why the glycemic index diet is controversial is the fact that GI scores can be altered by several factors like ripeness and cooking method. For instance, the riper the banana is, the higher is the score. Rachel Johnson, PhD, MPH, RD expound that al dente pasta has a higher GI than well cooked pasta. When fats are added, the GI scores become lower, or when a food product is made with fructose and not sucrose, it is ingested more slowly; hence, it has a lower GI score.

Also, GI response to a particular food varies widely from individual to individual. It can also vary within the same individual from day to day as reported by the June 2007 issue of Diabetes Care.

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Glycemic Index - Why you need to know it for the sake of your health and Longevity.

The glycemic index will tell you how fast a particular food is broken down into blood sugar (glucose). For health and longevity reasons this is important for you to know.

Sugar being the fastest is set at 100 and all other foods are measured against it. Therefore when a foods glycemic ranking is close to 100 it is turned to blood sugar rapidly. The closer to zero the slower it is turned to blood sugar.

The breakdown is as follows: Foods which rank between 70 and 100 are considered high, 56 and 69 intermediate and 55 and less is low (and are turned to blood sugar slow).

As an example here are some foods and their glycemic rankings.

High Glycemic Index Foods

Sugar 100

Rice Chex 89

Corn flakes 84

French fries 75

Cheerios 74

White bread 70

Intermediate glycemic ranking

Whole wheat bread 69

Mars bar 68

Beets 64

Hamburger bun 61

Low Glycemic Index foods

Oatmeal cookie 55

Frosted flakes 55

Potato chips 54

Macaroni 47

Spaghetti 42

Snickers bar 41

Ravioli, meat 39

Apple 38

Pear 38

M&Ms peanut 33

Peach 33

Skim milk 32

Whole milk 27

Cherries 22

Peanuts 14

If you are like most people you are amazed by this chart. If you find it riveting don't worry you are normal. It is riveting.

Some of the stuff you might think is a misprint. Skim milk is 32 and whole milk is lower at 27 how can that be? Whole wheat bread is 69 and white bread is only one point higher at 70. Oatmeal cookies, those sweet sugar coated frosted flakes and potato chips all squeak in under the low ranking? You got to be kidding. And if you are pasta lover the great news is pretty much every kind of pasta is in the low ranking.

And perhaps the biggest surprise is a candy bar, Snickers, is only 41, and M&Ms peanuts are only 33 this is impossible we're talking about CANDY here. Well a Snickers bar and M&Ms peanuts both have peanuts in them. Look where peanuts are, 14. If you have candy combined with a protein the protein will actually slow down the rise in blood sugar. Waist watchers take note this is a very important tip for losing weight.

By now you may have gotten the idea that a high glycemic ranking is bad and a low one is good and you would be right.

The high glycemic foods cause "spikes" in the blood sugar. The blood sugar rises rapidly and you may experience a sugar high but then the body responds by pumping out lots of insulin which immediately lowers the blood sugar but it lowers it too far and then you experience the depression and tiredness of the "sugar blues."

Foods in the Low glycemic category release blood sugar slowly so you feel full LONGER and your energy remains steady. You are not as ferociously hungry for your next meal so won't consume as many calories plus you will be less inclined to snack between meals thus lowering your daily caloric intake in an easy effortless way.

The ideal situation for someone trying to lose weight!

There are so many books, articles, theories and opinions on weight loss most of them contradicting each other it is impossible to know which direction to take. It is fantastic to finally have a system devoid of all opinion that ranks foods scientifically according to the glycemic index.

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