| Some currently popular eating plans like The | | | | corn, potatoes, rice and watermelon. |
| Perricone Prescription, A Week in the Zone and | | | | You can read more about the glycemic index (GI) |
| The Protein Power Lifeplan recommend low | | | | and view the whole table here. This site is |
| glycemic foods. | | | | authored by David Mendoza, a freelance medical |
| The theory is that sugar and high glycemic carbs | | | | writer and consultant specializing in diabetes. The |
| that rapidly convert to sugar trigger a release of | | | | site is a gold mine of information. |
| insulin to control the level of sugar in the | | | | Mr. Mendoza points out that a food's glycemic |
| bloodstream. Excess sugar in the bloodstream is | | | | index tells you how rapidly a particular carb turns |
| inflammatory and causes a cascade of free | | | | into sugar, but not how much of that |
| radical damage. | | | | carbohydrate is in a serving. In other words, it's |
| To explain how dangerous this is, Dr, Perricone | | | | not just the quality of the carb, but also the |
| points out that diabetics with poorly controlled | | | | quantity, that counts. |
| blood sugar age one third faster than nondiabetics | | | | The version of glycemic index on his site |
| and are prone to kidney failure, blindness, heart | | | | (courtesy of Professor Jennie-Brand Miller of the |
| attack and stroke. | | | | University of Sydney) includes a column called |
| So insulin comes to the rescue to clear the | | | | glycemic load (GL) as well as a column of serving |
| excess sugar from the bloodstream. And what do | | | | size in grams. A glycemic load of 20 or more is |
| you suppose the insulin does with all this sugar? It | | | | considered high; 11 to 19 is medium; and 10 or |
| stores it as fat. And worse yet, until the insulin | | | | less is low. |
| sweeps up the excess sugar, it runs rampant | | | | Looking at this bigger picture, some of the "bad" |
| throughout the body causing glycation and | | | | carbs in low-glycemic food diets turn out to be |
| cross-linking of the body's collagen. | | | | not so bad. A 120g serving of watermelon has a |
| The effect is visible on the skin, which becomes | | | | horrible GI of 74 but a very low GL of 4. A |
| leathery and inflexible as we age. Though it can't | | | | medium banana (129g) has a bad GI of 51 but a |
| be seen, the same damage is taking place inside | | | | medium GL of 13. An 80g serving of carrots has |
| the body where it affects other vital organs | | | | a borderline GI of 47 but a low GL of only 3. The |
| including the kidneys, lungs and brain. | | | | same amount of corn has a GI of 47 but a low |
| So far, so good. Nutritionists have recommended | | | | GL of 7. |
| that people cut their consumption of sugar for | | | | On the other hand, some carb foods look bad |
| decades. The surprise when one ranks sugars and | | | | whether you go by the GI or the GL. A 70g bagel |
| carbs by their glycemic index, is that some foods | | | | has a high GI (72) as well as a high GL (25). A |
| we normally think of as healthy show up as being | | | | 150g serving of boiled white rice has a GI of 56 |
| bad for you. | | | | and a GL of 24. A medium baked potato (159g) |
| The glycemic index is a ranking from 1 to 100, | | | | has a high GI (60) and a marginal GL (18). |
| with 100 indicating the increase in blood sugar | | | | If you decide to concentrate on low-glycemic |
| from eating table sugar (or white bread in one | | | | foods, I recommend you focus on a food's |
| scale). Whichever scale is used, the important | | | | glycemic load. Just be careful to adhere to the |
| thing is a rank ordering of a food's effect on | | | | indicated serving sizes (or adjust the calculation |
| blood sugar. | | | | accordingly), GL is a better measure of how |
| The low glycemic food diets mentioned above | | | | much sugar in total is being poured into the |
| have different cut off points. For example, Dr. | | | | bloodstream and the amount of sugar that will be |
| Perricone's 28-day program prohibits any foods | | | | stored as fat. |
| that score above 50 on the glycemic scale. That | | | | This article is for informational purposes only. It |
| leaves out such things as bananas, bagels, carrots, | | | | does not purport to offer medical advice. |