Guest guest Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Hello all, Glycemic indexing is a method to measure how much a given food raises your blood sugar and insulin response. This measurement is significant because the rate at which your blood sugar rises after eating is extremely important in the total equation of weight management. When you consume a food with a high-glycemic load or index number, it causes your blood sugar to rise above normal level. This blood sugar increase has many negative effects besides the more obvious ones. Foods that have a high-glycemic load raise blood sugar abnormally, and higher blood sugar increases your appetite and contributes to mood swings and an increase of both stored fat and circulating fat by increasing triglyceride production. The basis of our diet should be low-glycemic fruits and vegetables. All fruits other than those listed here are rated as low-glycemic and can be consumed even in extreme weight loss scenarios. The only fresh fruits and vegetables that do not qualify as low-glycemic are watermelon - the highest of all fruits on the index - and apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, mango, papaya, pawpaw, pineapple, raisins and sultanas. These are all rated as moderately glycemic and are certainly acceptable in limited amounts when you are on a maintenance diet. But you might not want to eat them while you are initially working on getting the fat off. All legumes are low-glycemic, so that's easy to remember. All green vegetables are low-glycemic, so that's also easy to remember. Most yellow and orange vegetables are rated as moderate on the index. Some, if consumed in their natural state, such as raw carrots are low. Pumpkin, however, is always high. White potatoes are the worst of all vegetables on the glycemic index. If you really want to be healthy and optimize your body composition, you should eat few or none of them in any form. If you want to lose fat, stop eating white potatoes altogether! There are suitable substitutes, however, such as sweet potatoes, which are low-glycemic I work in nutricion field and I will be happy to help if someone has some specific question about weight management. Blessing Kali kalikamir05 SBC DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Thanks, Kali, for sharing this info. It's very much on the mark about blood sugar modulation. Allow me to add my two cents. A bigger health issue involves the variations of the insulin-cortisol cycle where blood sugar plays a major role. As blood sugar varies, either insulin or cortisol is secreted to move the blood sugar level in the other direction. For the moment I don't remember which does which, but they operate as a team to keep our blood sugar level within a comfortable thus healthy zone. When we get a glycemic spike from certain foods, the zone is violated and we have a response--either a " sugar high " or a feeling of having all your energy zapped away. Repeating this response over many years causes one's body to become resistant to the secretion of these bodily chemicals. One result among others is adult onset of diabetes--Type II Diabetes, I think. Also, foods higher on the glycemic index seem to add extra pounds to us quicker. Dave Kali Kamir [kalikamir05] Thursday, June 19, 2003 7:32 AM Effective Diet Strategy Hello all, Glycemic indexing is a method to measure how much a given food raises your blood sugar and insulin response. This measurement is significant because the rate at which your ----clipped---- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 I just found a very interesting website about sugar and all of its ills. www.sugarshock.com Enjoy it!! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Hi Dave, Do you have any references for this? I ask because my body produces almost no cortisol at all (or maybe none, they're still trying to find out for sure, since I take prednisone long term to treat RA and it skews the results somewhat). I've never watched sugar intake (other than knowing that I am at times prone to low blood sugar, but I think that's because I forget to eat quite often, or simply have no appetite), and my physicians have never expressed any concern about my diet during all the testing I've been going through to see if I have Addison's Disease or something similar. I've been steadily losing weight, without altering my eating habits much if at all, which is unusual for me and the docs think probably related to the extremely low cortisol levels I have. Used to be that walking past a donut store would make one appear around my hips! Any additional information would be greatly appreciated! Sherri " I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking. " - Joan Rivers " daveo " <daveo@m...> wrote: > > Thanks, Kali, for sharing this info. It's very much on the mark about blood > sugar modulation. Allow me to add my two cents. > > A bigger health issue involves the variations of the insulin-cortisol cycle > where blood sugar plays a major role. As blood sugar varies, either insulin > or cortisol is secreted to move the blood sugar level in the other > direction. For the moment I don't remember which does which, but they > operate as a team to keep our blood sugar level within a comfortable thus > healthy zone. > > When we get a glycemic spike from certain foods, the zone is violated and we > have a response--either a " sugar high " or a feeling of having all your > energy zapped away. Repeating this response over many years causes one's > body to become resistant to the secretion of these bodily chemicals. One > result among others is adult onset of diabetes--Type II Diabetes, I think. > > Also, foods higher on the glycemic index seem to add extra pounds to us > quicker. -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Off the top of my head, I think it was " The Age-Free Zone " book by Dr. Barry Sears. Some on this list will nix him, but check out his ideas for yourself and the extensive references (sometimes on every sentence) he makes into the medical literature. I tend to believe the reports directly from the researchers rather than from a non referenced third or fourth hand report on some anonymous website. Okay, I pulled out my copy of the book for some more details. Insulin drives down the blood glucose levels. Cortisol levels are also influenced by this process, as well as a number of other rather complicated processes. Specifically, you'll need to check out Chapter 15 of the above reference for more influences. Give that info to your doctors. Over the past few years, I've learned that our body is simply a vast chemical engine. As we age, many chemical functions are easily impaired by poor diet, lack of exercise, and the myrid of other things we inflict on ourselves. Sadly, most physicians do not have the current knowledge to deal with these issues, so we need to do some of the research on our own. This book is a good resource for those who are not intiminated by the details of how we function. I am well-read in this area, but this book's complexity slows me down to a crawl at times. I hope this helps, Sherri. Dave Sherri [sherria] Thursday, June 19, 2003 9:09 AM Re: Effective Diet Strategy Hi Dave, Do you have any references for this? I ask because my body produces almost no cortisol at all (or maybe none, they're still trying to find out for sure, since I take prednisone long term to treat RA and it skews the results somewhat). I've never watched sugar intake (other than knowing that I am at times prone to low blood sugar, but I think that's because I forget to eat quite often, or simply have no appetite), and my physicians have never expressed any concern about my diet during all the testing I've been going through to see if I have Addison's Disease or something similar. I've been steadily losing weight, without altering my eating habits much if at all, which is unusual for me and the docs think probably related to the extremely low cortisol levels I have. Used to be that walking past a donut store would make one appear around my hips! Any additional information would be greatly appreciated! Sherri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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