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Glycemic
Index (G.I)
Glycemic
Index is a
carbohydrates quality indicator
Glycemic Index (G.I)
is a novel relative
numerical scale. It ranks carbohydrate foods based on how
much they
raise the glucose level in your blood within two hours of consuming the
food.
Glycemic
Index
(G.I)
concept is believed to have been developed by David J.
Jenkins at the University of Toronto in Canada as early as
1981.
The
Glycemic Index (G.I) weight loss tool
was later picked up by others and further developed by the likes of
Jean Brand-Miller of Australia.
Different
carbohydrates have different effects on blood glucose levels. And
though nutritionist believed that the effect was all dependent as
whether the carb is a simple carbohydrate or complex carbohydrate,
glycemic index has shown significant deviations to this
assumption.
G.I
today has been popularized as a weight loss tools and a weight loss
calculator with the advent of weight loss
diets based on glycemic index. Such diets are identified as
one of the better weight loss diets by
Fat Loss 4 Idiots (lose 40 lbs with Calorie Shifting )
.
Fluctuations
of blood in your body have proven to have consequences on
your body composition as far as body fat is concerned. In weight loss,
your target to lose body fat and consequently improve health. The
levels of blood glucose at any one time have significant implications
whether you lose body fat or deposit fat.
Your
body works best within a particular narrow range of glucose in the
blood. This glucose is used as a constant supply of energy. The body
regulates this blood glucose level by reducing it when it is in excess
and increasing it when it is in deficit. To accomplish this regulation,
it uses hormones.
One
of the hormones used in regulating levels of blood glucose is
insulin. It is particularly released to reduce levels of elevated
glucose. It does this by encouraging your body to convert the glucose
into body fat. Body fat is actually your body’s energy
reserve.
When
you eat carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose in your
digestive tract and absorbed into the blood system. The rate of the
carbohydrate breakdown determines how much glucose is released into the
blood stream for a particular duration of time. Some carbohydrates are
quickly digested and end up dumping a lot of glucose into the blood,
while other are slowly digested and release glucose into the blood
stream slowly.
The
quickly digested carbohydrates result to a rapid increase of
glucose in blood. This spike induces insulin production to turn it into
fat. These kinds of carbohydrates are considered high G.I foods.
Calculating the Glycemic Index (G.I)
Glycemic
Index value is mostly determined physiologically by feeding
10
healthy people a portion of the test food containing 50grms of
digestible carbohydrate. They are fed after an overnight fast. The
effect of the test food on blood glucose is then measured over the next
two hours after feeding to get a graph. This is then compared to the
response of 50 grams of which is the reference food. It is considered
to have a G.I value of 100. One can also use white bread.
The average valuation from the 10 individuals you
get by dividing Area
Under Glucose (AUG) for the test food and that of pure glucose is the
Glycemic Index of the food.
Glycemic Index can only be determined for a food that contains some
amount of carbohydrates. Some foods like animal proteins e.g. meat and
fish, have so little carbohydrates in them that their G.I is literally
zero. Below are the ranges of G.I.
- Low
G.I = 55 and below e.g. skim yoghurt, aldente`
pasta, chick peas
- Medium
G.I = 56 - 69 e.g.
Banana, Pineapple, Basmati Rice, whole meal Bread
- High
G.I = 70 - 100 e.g. water melon, dried fruit, French fries, digestive
cookies.
- Very
High G.I = 100 and above e.g. table sugar;
dextrose.
The
G.I of a food is influenced by a number of
factors, for example the structure of the carbohydrate. However unlike
previously thought, the fact that a carbohydrate is simple does not
necessarily make it high G.I. Glyceric Index is also influenced by how
ripe a food is for example a more ripe fruit will have a higher G.I
than a less ripe one. This is because ripened fruits have more sugars
like fructose, which makes them sweeter.
How a food is prepared also has influence. A common
example is pasta.
Well cooked pasta (Aldente`) which is firm when you chew has a lower
G.I than overcooked pasta that is soft when you chew it. Evidently
overcooking pasta breaks most of its structure that expose its starch
for easy and quick digestion.
Length of storage is another influence on G.I.
Carbohydrates tend to
get depleted the longer the food is stored. Similarly processing does
affect G.I and more often than not increases G.I. Processing tend to
remove fibers and grind the carbohydrates into small particles
increasing the surface area available for digestion. These
automatically increase the speed the food is digested and absorbed
consequently increasing its G.I.
As much as the glycemic index scale is a handy weight loss
calculator, it has its limitations. To start with G.I is
based on 50 grams of digestible carbohydrate in the food. This is not
exactly practical in helping you make food choices. You can rarely be
able to tell how much of a food serving or portion contains 50grams of
digestible carbohydrates. Though doubling portion doesn’t
double G.I
(G.I is based on 50g) it does double the effect of the food on your
blood glucose. This means you could eat 25g of cookies and not induce
insulin, but 50 grams would induce insulin to bring down the blood
glucose level. This particular problem resulted to the development of a
complementing scale called Glycemic
Load.
Secondly there is yet a comprehensive list of G.I
value for common
food. Considering how G.I is influenced, it may take some time to get
this list. But all in all, it is a good index to use together with
other tools in choosing your carbohydrates as recommended by
Fat Loss 4 Idiots (lose 40 lbs with Calorie Shifting )
.
In the next page, you learn about Calorie Shifting You will discover;
Weight loss is based on science but you need to execute it
artistically. You need to know when to apply which principle to apply
when. So, in addition this Calorie Shifting will show you . . .
Next Page:
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To
learn more on Glycemic
Index as well
as related
subjects use the links below.
Alternatively
you can use the Google search tool further below.
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Weight
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