The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [25]
Feeling fuller with fiber
Fiber is nature's natural appetite suppressant. It provides bulk and slows down digestion to help you feel full for a longer period of time. So what does fiber have to do with a low-glycemic diet? Well, many low-glycemic foods are also higher in fiber.
Not all low-glycemic foods are high in fiber, but you may naturally increase your fiber intake as you begin following a low-glycemic diet. (To discover foods that are both low-glycemic and high in fiber, head to Chapter 2.)
Another reason why fiber makes you feel fuller is that high-fiber foods take longer to chew, causing you to take a little longer with your meal. Your brain needs 20 minutes before it can register that you're full, and many people can wolf down a second helping before that 20-minute mark is up. High-fiber foods take a bit more time to get through.
Bumping up your fullness hormones with low-glycemic foods
Appetite is controlled by an intricate dance of hormones that trigger hunger and fullness. Have you ever felt that "way too full" feeling for hours after a big meal? You know, like when you've eaten a huge Thanksgiving dinner and all you want to do is curl up on the couch like a beached whale afterward. That feeling is the effect of your fullness hormones.
One of these fullness hormones, called GLP-1, has been shown to be of particular importance in preliminary studies with a low-glycemic diet. GLP-1 is one of two hormones that works by telling your brain you've had enough. It really brings things to a halt by telling your stomach to stop moving anything along to your intestines until what's already there has been broken down.
Early in 2009, researchers from King's College in London took a closer look at GLP-1 in respect to a low-glycemic diet. Volunteers who ate a low-glycemic breakfast ended up with 20 percent higher levels of GLP-1 in their blood afterward compared to those who ate a high-glycemic breakfast. This preliminary study shows a direct correlation between a low-glycemic diet and GLP-1, but more research is needed to confirm this finding.
Until that research is available, why not conduct your own experiment? Here's how:
1. Maintain your current diet for several days and keep food records.
2. Rate your level of fullness/satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being hungry and 10 being full) two to three hours after a meal or snack.
3. As you begin including more low-glycemic foods in your meals, note any differences in your overall hunger/fullness levels.
Combining Low-Glycemic Foods with Calorie Awareness
Following a low-glycemic diet isn't a stand-alone solution for weight loss. Like it or not, you still need to pay attention to the amount of calories you take in each day.
If you eat a low-glycemic diet that's still high in calories, you aren't going to get very far with your weight-loss goals. A low-glycemic diet is an important piece of the weight-loss puzzle, but it's not the solution to the puzzle. Successfully losing weight requires a holistic approach that includes eating a combination of low-glycemic carbs, healthy protein, and fats; counting calories; exercising; and doing what you can to pump up your metabolism.
In the sections that follow, I explain why paying attention to calories is still essential on a low-glycemic diet and how to get the most out of your daily calorie allotment.
Understanding why calories still count
Calories are always going to be one of the most important aspects of weight loss. If you consume more calories than your body can convert into energy, your body turns that unspent energy into body fat and stores it somewhere. Think of it like a car. Gasoline is similar to calories in that it provides energy for the car to function just like calories provide you with the energy