The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies - Meri Raffetto [68]
Saturated fat: A subgroup of total fat that's considered unhealthy. Increased saturated fats in the diet are linked with heart disease and certain types of cancer. Try to get no more than 10 percent of your daily fat intake from saturated fats.
A good rule of thumb is to only consume 1 gram of saturated fats per 100 calories. So if you're eating a food that has 200 calories, it should ideally have no more than 2 grams of saturated fats.
Trans fat: A man-made fat that's linked with heart disease. Do your best to purchase products without trans fats. If they aren't listed on the label, go to the ingredients list and look for the terms hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil; these terms are another way of saying a food has trans fats.
You may notice that the label says 0 trans fats, yet you still see hydrogenated oils listed among the ingredients. That means the food is made with trans fats, but for that portion size the amount of trans fats adds up to less than 0.5 grams. If you use more than the listed portion size, that minimal amount of trans fats will add up.
Fiber: The indigestible portion of a plant that provides roughage. The more the better! Fiber helps control your blood sugar and helps you feel full for a longer period of time. It provides denseness to foods, has no calories, and can be found in fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, and foods made with grains such as cereal, pasta, bread, and rice. Shoot for 3 grams of fiber or more per serving.
Sodium: A flavor-enhancing preservative. Sodium can cause your body to retain fluid, making you feel heavy and bloated. Scientific research shows that it may even stimulate your appetite. Avoid these negative effects by going easy on the salt shaker, choosing lower-sodium items, and limiting your sodium intake to 240 milligrams per serving.
Staying at or below 240 milligrams of sodium per serving tends to be difficult when you're dealing with packaged and canned foods because they often use sodium as a preservative. Do the best you can by finding the lowest sodium content available.
Using the ingredients list
Although nutrition facts labels include data on total carbohydrates and sugars, that doesn't give you much to go on as far as glycemic load. To determine that, you really need to know what the food is made up of. For instance, if you find whole-grain bread, you need to know what grain was used to make it — wheat, oats, or millet. Wheat and oats are fairly low-glycemic, but millet can be medium- to high-glycemic. Fortunately a food's ingredients list can give you a good idea whether you're buying a product that uses low-glycemic foods.
You can typically find the ingredients list at the bottom of the nutrition facts label, like in Figure 10-1. (However, you may find it in a different spot on the package depending on the available space.) Ingredients are listed from highest content to lowest. So the first ingredient makes up most of that food, and the last ingredient makes up the least amount.
Figure 10-1: Check the ingredients list to know exactly what you're getting in your food.
What about mixed foods?
Looking at the ingredients list for bread and pasta is one thing, but what on earth do you do with an entire entree that uses many different foods (think lasagna or a frozen dinner)? Well, unless these items have been tested, you must make your best-educated choice by looking at the glycemic load of the individual ingredients. Of course, the glycemic load of foods can change when the foods are combined together. Fortunately there's no need to get too hung up on the small details because using low-glycemic foods in moderation is shown to provide benefits to blood sugar levels and heart health. So just take your best guess when it comes to mixed foods and stock up on the foods you know to be low-glycemic (like most fruits and veggies).
Unless a product is