The low glycemic diet is a diet that uses foods that are low glycemic in order to help you lose weight. Glycemic foods are those that have a very small effect on your blood sugar levels.
The Glycemic Index
This is also known simply as the GI, and it is a term used to refer to carbohydrate-based foods. These foods are pushed into your body as sugar when they are digested, which is your body’s primary source of energy. Things like protein and fat do not have any glycemic index value, because they do not release any sugar into your body and are instead digested as amino and fatty acids.
Using the Glycemic Index
The lower the level, the faster the food will be digested and the slower the release into the blood stream will be. Higher values mean they will be released faster. Examples of low numbers on the GI scale include grapefruit, which has a GI of 25. At the other end, there’s regular white bread with a GI of 95. Charts detailing this information are all over the web, and you simply find the food you are eating on the chart in order to decide if it is worth eating.
The Value of the Glycemic Index
The action of releasing sugar into your blood stream will cause insulin to be created and sent out to lower the levels of sugar in your blood by taking the sugar to places in your body that need the energy it can give. This is how your metabolism handles turning your food into energy, but there can be a problem if too much sugar is put in your blood stream at once. Too much sugar in your blood stream will cause your body to create mass amounts of insulin to shuttle this sugar. This will cause your body to go directly into fat storing mode, which will cause you to store all the sugar as fat instead of turning it into energy.
Another side effect of having so much insulin in your body is the after-craving, which will leave you with such low blood sugar that you will begin to crave foods with high GI levels like bread. A bad long term complication is that over time, your body can become immune to the effects given by insulin, which can lead to Adult Type Two diabetes. By using the Glycemic Index, you can choose to ingest lower GI levels, which will allow your body to stay as far away from fat-storing mode.
The basic idea of using the GI is to consume the least amount of high GI carbs, and add more of the low GI foods into your diet. This diet is unique in that it does not focus on not eating carbs, but it helps you choose carbs to eat that are better for you. This will give you a steady and balanced amount of energy throughout the day, and it can give you just the amount of energy you need for high energy activities like working out and playing sports.
