The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [145]
For many people who are serious about weight loss, the desire to shed pounds goes beyond just wanting to fit into "skinny jeans." It's about helping manage an existing health issue. Most of these issues center on insulin resistance, a condition in which the body can't handle the sugar in the blood provided by the food you eat (see Chapter 5 for full details). Insulin resistance can make losing weight difficult. Then again, if you gain too much weight, the insulin resistance gets worse. It's a vicious cycle that can become quite frustrating. If you're in the middle of this cycle right now, I'm sure you can relate to the challenges it creates. But hope is here. Following a low-glycemic diet has been found to be of great success for those dealing with insulin resistance because eating low-glycemic foods keeps blood sugar from spiking as much, thereby requiring much less insulin.
Research is also pointing out benefits of a low-glycemic diet for other health issues such as heart disease and even hypothyroidism. The sections that follow focus on several specific health issues and how following a low-glycemic diet can improve your quality of life if you have one of them.
If you have diabetes, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, hypothyroidism, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, or hypoglycemia, be sure to consult your doctor before diving headfirst into a low-glycemic diet. He or she may want to monitor your health condition more closely as you make changes to your diet.
Regardless of your specific health condition, there are several signs that following a low-glycemic diet is doing your body good. Celebrate your transition to a low-glycemic diet if you experience any of the following:
Fewer food cravings
Increased energy
Weight loss
Decreased insulin levels
Decreased blood sugars
Improvement in disease management
Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which the body either doesn't produce enough insulin or doesn't use it properly. The human body uses insulin to convert sugars into the energy needed for daily life. Think of it as a key that unlocks the door to your cells so the sugars from the food you eat can enter your bloodstream and be used as energy. This system is impaired in people with diabetes, causing them to have excess blood sugar and high insulin levels. Following a low-glycemic diet helps you avoid large blood sugar spikes so you can more easily control your blood sugar with less insulin. (Why? Because low-glycemic foods release sugar into your body more slowly than high-glycemic foods.)
Scientists haven't always been certain that low-glycemic diets make a big impact on diabetes because of all the variables involved, such as portion size and the individual way people metabolize sugars. A recent review of current research looked at whether a low-glycemic diet or a low glycemic load diet (which takes portion size into account; see Chapter 4 for details on glycemic load) helped people with Type 1 diabetes and people with Type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugars. The results showed that a low-glycemic diet helps with both types of diabetes. Researchers found that following a low-glycemic diet decreased Hgb A1C levels by .5 percent. (Hgb A1C is a lab measurement that gives a big picture of a person's blood sugar over several weeks or months.) Another review of research studies found that a low-glycemic diet resulted in decreased Hgb A1C levels by .43 percent compared to diets touting high-glycemic foods. The conclusion from this review? Following a low-glycemic diet has a small but clinically useful effect on blood sugar control. More research is needed, but clearly studies are showing that a low-glycemic diet can be helpful in managing both types of diabetes.
If you have diabetes, you're probably familiar with carbohydrate counting. Don't throw that out the window; doing so could be detrimental to your health (and could get you in trouble with your doctor!). Instead, continue using carbohydrate counting and other tools while also using a low-glycemic diet as a way to choose good carbohydrate sources.