The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [100]
Livening up your grains and pastas
As you try some new grains, they may taste bland or in some cases too strong. Don't give up right away. Whole grains can be delicious with the right seasoning and preparation. Here are some suggestions for adding a bit more flavor to your grains:
Use rice, grains, or pasta with stir-fry, or mix them with other foods.
Try chicken or vegetable broth (low-sodium or regular) in place of water, but don't add salt because broth already has enough sodium.
Use fresh or dried herbs to liven up your plain grain dishes, especially pearl barley, quinoa, or wild rice.
Try adding some toasted nuts to your pasta, rice, and grains to create a heartier flavor.
If you want to improve the flavor of quinoa, which has a natural bitter taste that decreases with soaking, wash it prior to cooking and let it soak for 30 minutes.
Experimenting with Vegetables
Vegetables are an important part of losing weight with a low-glycemic diet. They're low-glycemic, high-fiber, and low-calorie; they also provide an abundant amount of nutrients. Indulging in a variety of vegetables is truly the way to eat more volume and not feel deprived while losing weight.
Other than most root vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams), all vegetables are considered low-glycemic. They contain such a small amount of carbohydrates per serving that researchers don't even bother testing their glycemic loads. So feel free to load up on the veggies you enjoy, be they broccoli, salad fixings, asparagus, or cauliflower, because almost any vegetable is a good choice for your low-glycemic diet.
Cooking vegetables the low-glycemic way isn't really too different from the way you may be used to. The following sections cover a few preparation and cooking tips to help you figure out how to do it.
Preparing low-glycemic vegetables
Many vegetables, both raw and cooked, have been tested for their glycemic load, and the difference in levels between the raw and cooked veggies (regardless of how they're cooked) is far from drastic. But that doesn't mean there aren't better ways to cook veggies than others. The best cooking methods for vegetables include steaming, baking, broiling, grilling, microwaving, or lightly sautéing.
Here are two specific healthy-cooking tips for vegetables:
Wash vegetables thoroughly with warm water. Although your veggies may be low-glycemic, they may also have pesticides on them. If you choose organic, your veggies can also have some dirt, debris, or even small worms. Washing is a good first step with all vegetables, regardless of whether you're eating them raw or cooked.
Avoid frying your vegetables. Frying veggies adds more fat and calories and interferes with your weight-loss progress.
Boiling versus other cooking methods
Although the difference isn't large, boiled vegetables tend to come up higher in glycemic load than vegetables prepared by other methods. For example, boiled corn has a glycemic load of 9.7, and corn that's previously frozen and reheated in the microwave has a glycemic load of 7.6. Both glycemic loads are low, but there's a subtle difference.
Boiling vegetables often causes them to lose more vitamins and minerals into the water compared to other cooking methods. I'm not saying you can't ever boil a vegetable, but if you have a choice, choose a different method to keep your glycemic load down and nutrients up.
How long you cook your vegetables can also affect glycemic load. Most veggies retain more nutrients when cooked al dente. The longer you cook most vegetables, the more nutrients you can lose. (Onions, garlic, and tomatoes are a few of the exceptions to this rule.) For the most part, a good rule of thumb is to cook your vegetables lightly.
Introducing Beans, the Truly Magical Fruit
If you're not familiar with the class of foods known as legumes (which includes beans, lentils, and peas), you're missing out. The all-star legumes, beans,