Nutrition, Diet, and Superfoods – Glycemic Index

2012/08/28

Let’s go over the basics of the glycemic index.  Its a valuable tool to use when assessing the effects that certain foods have on our body.  Simply put, the glycemic index is a numerical representation of how quickly carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose and enter our blood stream.  This is important because it helps us know if certain foods spike up our blood sugar.  On the long term, these constant spikes have been linked to diabetes.  In the short term, it can help determine if a certain food will give us long lasting energy for our day, and really make us feel satisfied.  As well, foods with a lower score tend to be healthier for us.  This information will also play a key role in establishing lifestyle and diet plans which fall in between the two that I suggested these past two weeks.  

I strongly urge you to look online for basic tables which outline the glycemic index of most common foods.  You might be surprised how much you’ve been stressing your internal system.

Next week I will give you 5 basic guidelines to quickly assess the glycemic index of certain foods.  Furthermore, I’ll explain how to evaluate the glycemic loads of foods, since the glycemic index is really just half the equation.