The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [151]
Table 22-1 lists some low-glycemic foods that are rich in certain antioxidant vitamins.
The beauty of embracing a low-glycemic diet for weight loss is that the better you follow the guidelines of filling up your plate with veggies and incorporating more fruits and whole grains into your meals, the more you naturally up your antioxidant intake. You don't have to go out of your way to add something new. Instead, just get a good variety, which is more fun for your taste buds anyway!
Factoring in phytonutrients
Besides vitamins and minerals, plant-based foods offer phytonutrients, naturally occurring compounds with potential health benefits. To date, certain phytonutrients have been shown to work as antioxidants, contain anti-inflammatory properties, and promote heart health. Phytonutrients are found abundantly in fruits and vegetables, making your low-glycemic diet strategy a win-win.
Care to know a cool fact about phytonutrients? Well, in addition to providing great health benefits, they provide the pigment for fruits and vegetables, which means you can basically determine the health benefits a food offers simply by looking at its color. Adding a variety of color to your plate can motivate you to diversify the types of plant-based foods you eat as well. Table 22-2 highlights the health benefits of certain colors of foods.
What's your disease risk?
I'm guessing that someone you know (maybe even you yourself) has heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, or some type of cancer. Nowadays even children and young adults have some of these issues. The good news is that making simple lifestyle changes can help reduce your risk for these conditions. That's right — lifestyle changes, not some magic cure or fad health or diet craze. Take the following quiz to determine your risk for disease and see what you can do to reduce it:
Do you have a family history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, or cancer?
These conditions have a genetic connection, so if your sibling, parent, grandparent, or other relative has, say, heart disease, you're at greater risk for developing that too. I know many people take family medical history lightly, but knowing yours and acting on that knowledge is a good way to optimize your health now so you can avoid future complications.
Do you smoke cigarettes?
Smoking has a direct correlation with some cancers (particularly lung cancer), cardiovascular disease, and emphysema. If you're a smoker, you can help protect yourself from these conditions by quitting. I know giving up smoking is often easier said than done for many. Find some help at www.smokefree.gov.
For women, do you drink more than one alcoholic beverage a day? For men, do you drink more than two alcoholic beverages a day?
Alcohol is tricky when it comes to health. On one side, there have been reports that drinking alcohol, specifically red wine, can be beneficial to your health. However, these benefits only occur when you drink in moderation, meaning one beverage a day for women and two a day for men. When you go past this amount on a regular basis, you begin to have long-term health risks such as dementia, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Keep your alcohol consumption to a moderate level to help avoid these problems.
Do you eat at least three to five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, as well as whole-grain products?
Without these foods in your diet, you have little antioxidants at work for you. Start by making a list of all the fruits and veggies that you enjoy and begin incorporating them with every meal and snack. The recipe chapters in Part IV feature several ways to add delicious and nutritious fruits, veggies, and whole grains to your diet.