The Glycemic Index: Is it Helpful?
Saturday May 10, 2008
Many low-carb diets talk about the glycemic index. What does this mean? The glycemic index is a way of trying to figure out how much a food will raise your blood glucose. Since low-carb diets work by producing a smaller rise in blood sugar (all carbohydrates are broken down into sugar in your body), knowing the right foods to eat is important. However, the glycemic index has real problems when it comes to predicting how any one person's blood glucose will react to a food. Come learn about the glycemic index -- its promises and problems, and the GI of some common foods.
Photo © Eugene Bochkarev
I didn’t find the Glycemic Index particularly helpful. The Glycemic Load is a different story, however. On February 21 — a week or so short of three months ago — I began a diet and exercise regimen that included a diet based on the use of the Glycemic Load numbers. To date, sticking to the diet and exercising three times a week, I’ve lost 31 pounds. We were told to try to eat 5–6 times a day and to try to keep our GL for any particular meal to below 20. After I got the hang of it, which I’ll admit took a few days, it became pretty easy and it was an unusual day on which I went over 50. While I was to limit myself to 1,800 calories per day, I often only consumed 1,300 or 1,400 and never felt hungry! While there were a few foods whose GL surprised me, I found it pretty easy to keep track of what I was eating. I did fudge sometimes. As an example, our book didn’t have a GL value for nectarines. I figured that a nectarine is nothing but a larger peach with a smooth skin, so I gave it a couple more points and moved on.
Nonetheless, it bothered me that there were so many holes in the data we had been given, so I began searching the internet for some sort of a solution. It particularly bothered me that I couldn’t figure the GL for a recipe that I might make for dinner. I could find the GLs for the major ingredients, and I could guesstimate the GLs for some of the others, but it still left me not knowing well enough what the total might be. Then I discovered . This site displays a calculated or estimated GL for every food listed using some sort of proprietary algorithm. It even allows you to enter recipes and get an estimated GL per serving. That has helped tremendously.
I don’t think about GLs too much any longer, though. Slowly, it sank in that mostly what I had to do was eliminate all of the processed foods that I could from my diet, substituting lean meats, poultry, fish, no-fat or reduced-fat dairy products, nuts, legumes and fresh fruits and vegetables. Except for cereals, occasionally rice, and — very rarely — whole grain pastas with low GLs, I’ve found no real reason to use much in the way of grains or what used to be called “starches”.
Frankly, this is the easiest diet that I’ve ever been on. Every time I’ve tried to lose weight in the past, I’ve been consumed by counting calories and grams. I often felt more like a bookkeeper than a person trying to find a healthy lifestyle. With this I don’t have to keep track of everything — just calories and GL. Getting enough protein seems to take care of itself and if I should slip and have something sinful like desert or candy, I just fold it into my GL for the day and plan the rest of my eating around it.
The health and lifestyle effects have been dramatic as well. I’m diabetic. When I started this diet and exercise program my A1C was 7.3. Ten weeks later I had my labs done again. My A1C is now 5.6. I’m shooting for an A1C of 5.0 by the end of July. By the end of the first week, based on my blood sugar readings, I felt comfortable with going off insulin. Within another week, I dropped Byetta. In another week and a half, I dropped Metformin (this was all done in consultation with my endocrinologist). I was off all of my diabetes meds.
Given what’s happened to me, I can’t say enough good things about approaching eating through the use of the Glycemic Load — it really has been a godsend.