Healthy Living Tips

MikeA April 24th, 2010

Foreword By The Author

This is the fourth in a series of articles about branded diet plans for the overweight. This time, the topic of attention is the GI (Glycemic Index) diet, which was first established to aid diabetics. Diabetics need programs which are able to prevent blood sugar levels from changing too much. As a result researchers created a system to determine how a specific food influences blood sugar. It is now gaining in popularity as a general weight loss diet.
Mike Alexander
For all your content needs go to ClipCopy Content Solutions

Interpretation

The Glycemic Index categorizes foods rich in carbohydrates by allocating them a number ranging from 0 to 100. The number indicates the rate at which the food increases blood glucose levels during its absorption. The greater the number, or index, the quicker the sugar is absorbed.

A food is considered to have an elevated GI value if its rate is 70 or more. A medium Glycemic Index food has a value of 56 to 69 and a GI value of 55 or lower is considered low. Foods with a low GI value are best as they digest more naturally and help provide a steady supply of energy over the course of several hours, making you feel full longer.

Difficulties

However, the major difficulty with the GI diet is that there isn’t a clear-cut rate fixed for every existing food. There are several online sites which give numbers for a specific food, but the numbers given are quite far from each other. It is certainly not apparent where the rates emanated from.

One more negative comment about the Glycemic Index is that the rates don’t suggest the concrete means meals are supposed to be consumed. People don’t consume a food item one by one, particularly in curiously big quantities taken during the study. The effect of the whole meal is more important than the GI of each individual food in the meal. Fats and protein decelerates absorption of food. The GI diet doesn’t consider that, neither does it take the variations in everyone’s absorption of food or diverse ways in preparing meals.

Effort

For all the effort a GI diet requires, there is little apparent pay-off in terms of improved weight control. The Glycemic Index diet has not been shown to affect weight loss, despite the belief that controlling blood sugar will control appetite and insulin, and therefore control food intake and fat storage.

However, in spite of everything, a lot of doctors concur that the GI diet, if used accurately, could be an excellent method in losing weight, particularly in those who battle with typical low-calorie diets or weight watchers who have a hard time restraining their desire for food.

Summary

The Glycemic Index diet is like the low-carbohydrate diet, although not as rigorous, and aims at the kind of carbohydrates, not the amount of them in every food. There is also a focus on the correct timing of the two basic types of meals, a carb or protein meal. The science behind the timing and types of meal makes GI dieting a potent way to help lose fat stores, safely and relatively quickly.

This diet is a good choice for anyone who wants to maintain stable blood sugar levels, or who has obesity, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, PCOS, and who wants to lose weight as fast as achievable. Although it’s really more of a way of eating than a diet, a growing number of folks follow the GI way to achieve their weight loss goals.

Tags: diet, exercise, insulin, obesity, weight loss

• Healthy Bodies
• Comments(3)