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