The Glycemic Index: An Intelligent Alternative to Dieting

The Glycemic Index (GI) measures how quickly foods that contain carbohydrates, raise your blood glucose level. The GI is measured by taking a person's blood glucose levels at regular intervals. Foods like cooked white potatoes have a high GI because they raise blood glucose at almost the same rate as eating pure sugar. Foods like raw broccoli have a low GI because it takes a long time for those carbohydrates to increase blood glucose levels.

When we eat high GI foods, our bodies respond by releasing insulin, the hormone that transports glucose to your cells. Here's why this is so important: Our bodies are in fact designed to use glucose as our fuel, when we eat low GI foods, this fuel is absorbed at a gradual pace, allowing our body to burn this fuel as we need it. On the other hand when we eat high GI foods, they are converted to glucose very rapidly, which will often trigger a release of too much insulin into the blood, otherwise known as an insulin reaction.

Eating a lot of high GI foods can be detrimental to your health because it pushes your body to extremes. This is especially true if you are overweight and sedentary. Switching to eating mainly low GI carbs that slowly trickle glucose into your blood stream keeps your energy levels balanced and means you will feel fuller for longer between meals.

• Low GI diets help people lose and control weight
• Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin
• Low GI carbs reduce the risk of heart disease
• Low GI carbs reduce blood cholesterol levels
• Low GI carbs reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
• Low GI carbs prolong physical endurance

High GI carbs help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise.

The basic technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this for that" approach - ie, swapping high GI carbs for low GI carbs. You don't need to count numbers or do any sort of mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet.

• Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran
• Use breads with wholegrains, stone-ground flour, sour dough
• Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat
• Enjoy all other types of fruit and vegetables
• Use Basmati rice
• Enjoy pasta, noodles, quinoa

Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing.

Information taken from www.glycemicindex.com , The Official Website of the Glycemic Index and GI Database