Glycemic Index

So, what is it and what is its importance?

The glycemic index of a food relates to how quickly the calories from that particular food are burned up or metabolized. Foods with a high index burn up quickly. Those with a low index burn up slowly. Here is an example. Lets say you are late and want to have something to eat quickly in the morning to get started for the day. If you have something like a glass of juice and a donut the calories will be burned up very quickly resulting in you feeling ravenously hungry in perhaps one hour. If you don't have something else to eat, you will actually burn fewer calories with subsequent recreational activity, since your body has gone into conservation mode. Additionally, you will feel very badly since your blood sugar will be very low and you may feel dizzy, lightheaded, nauseous, depressed or weak.

The bad part about having the high glycemic foods is that it causes your blood sugar to spike very quickly, and this causes your body to release a large amount of insulin to get the sugar out of your blood stream and into your cells. Unfortunately, insulin is also the major fat storage hormone, so a lot of these refined carbohydrate calories are shunted off to be stored as fat. When your blood sugar swings from high to low back to high quickly, this can affect your mood, as well as your ability to think clearly. This can also affect your ability to stabilize your weight.

On the other hand, foods with a low glycemic index can make you feel satisfied longer, stabilize your mood and your ability to think clearly. Nowhere was this better shown, than a recent study of children in the San Diego area. This study showed that children who had a high glycemic index breakfast not only did not perform well in school after about 90 minutes, but also consumed up to 80% more calories for the rest of the day. This is not a good thing when lack of activity and subsequent overweight and obesity is such a growing problem in America.

So what are some high glycemic foods? High glycemic foods are those that come from white sugar or white flour products. Staying away from starchy foods - bread, pasta, noodles, white bread, white rice and potatoes, can go a long way to stabilizing blood sugar levels, energy levels and ability to think clearly.

Some low glycemic fruits are cherries, apples, pears and berries.

Eating in a healthy way is a major part of feeling well and optimizing your health.

If you have further questions, these may be addressed to Dr. Gerald Miller @ 1960 NW 167th Place Suite 103, Beaverton, Oregon, 97006-4805 or docshar@aol.com.

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