The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [22]
Pointers for fiber newbies
If you aren't used to eating a high-fiber diet, or if you plan on increasing your fiber intake, you should keep a few key things in mind:
Drink eight to ten glasses of water a day. Fiber holds onto water like a sponge as it "sweeps" your intestinal track, so keeping up with your daily water intake helps fiber work more efficiently. An added bonus: Drinking enough water helps you avoid feeling gassy or bloated.
Ease into fiber instead of jumping in all at once. If you're only eating an average of about 10 grams of fiber a day, you'll feel gassy and bloated if you suddenly increase your fiber intake to 35 grams. Gradually start eating more fiber over the course of a week and see how you feel.
Note that a significant amount of high-fiber foods can fill children up quickly. Although fiber is an important part of a child's diet, you should make sure she doesn't end up eating too few calories because she feels full from too much fiber. A high-fiber diet is good for adults who want to lose weight, but it may affect growing children differently.
Check with your doctor if you've had any intestinal issues or gastrointestinal surgery. In either case, increasing your fiber intake may have undesirable consequences for you, so talk to your doctor before pumping up your fiber servings.
To create similar meal plans on youwn, cross-reference your fruit and veggie choices with a glycemic index chart to make sure the foods you're picking are low-glycemic as well as high in fiber. Then think of a way to add a serving of legumes into your day (perhaps by tossing a cup of beans into your lunchtime salad). Finally, as you're choosing your whole grains, remember this rule of thumb: the higher the fiber (generally) the better.
Not really sure how to incorporate more low-glycemic foods into your diet? Check out Chapter 7 for some ideas. Also take a look at Chapter 15, which provides some simple recipe makeovers to illustrate how high-glycemic meals can become lower-glycemic ones with a few basic swaps.
Chapter 3: Why and How a Low-Glycemic Diet Works for Weight Loss
In This Chapter
Understanding how a low-glycemic diet moderates insulin and blood sugar levels
Discovering how a low-glycemic diet acts as a natural appetite suppressant
Staying aware of your calorie intake while enjoying low-glycemic foods
Making the best food choices for optimum health and weight loss
A quick search for "low-glycemic diet" on the Internet tells you that this diet is being used for weight loss in everything from fad diets to hospital-based programs. Conflicting information can leave you wondering whether a low-glycemic diet is just another fad or a legitimate, evidence-based piece of the weight-loss puzzle. This chapter highlights several reasons why and how a low-glycemic diet works for weight loss as part of a complete dietary plan — one that includes calorie control, lots of fruits and veggies, and an appropriate intake of healthy fat and lean protein as well.
Regulating Insulin and Blood Glucose
A low-glycemic diet helps regulate insulin and blood glucose levels that become unstable due to either a health condition or consumption of an excess amount of carbohydrate calories. Anytime you eat foods containing carbohydrates, your body naturally breaks those carbs down into blood glucose (blood sugar), releasing insulin in the process. Insulin acts like a key that unlocks your cells' doors to allow blood glucose to enter in and provide your cells with energy (see Figure 3-1).
Even though insulin transports blood glucose to your cells, your body doesn't turn all of that blood glucose into energy at once. When blood glucose levels rise above normal, insulin signals your liver, muscles, and other cells to store the extra. Some of this excess blood glucose gets stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen, and some of