# Glycemic Index



## jack hust (Dec 19, 2003)

What is the Glycemic Index? 

The glycemic index ranks foods on how they affect our blood sugar levels. This index 
measures how much your blood sugar increases in the two or three hours after eating. 

The glycemic index is about foods high in carbohydrates. Foods high in fat or protein don cause your blood sugar level to rise much. 

When you make use of the glycemic index to prepare healthy meals, it helps to keep your 
blood sugar levels under control. This is especially important for people with diabetes, although athletes and people who are overweight also stand to benefit from knowing about this relatively new concept in good nutrition. 

Not all carbohydrates act the same. Some are quickly broken down in the intestine, causing the blood sugar level to rise rapidly. These carbohydrates have a high glycemic index. 

Pease note, however, that a GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. 

Reprinted from: http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm 

List of carbs and their GI. 
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm 

Point of interest from experience: Use low to moderate GI carbs in proportion with high proteins and friendly fat sources to balance your meals and reduce the GI of those carbs. 
This will stabilize blood sugar levels to prevent fat storage but also keep muscle glycogen levels satisfied to prevent muscle wasting.

Carbohydrate Addiction. 

Yes this is a real addiction and is as serious as alcohol. It follows up with the glycemic index. 

What it is? 

When an invdividual at a meal begins the meal with high glycemic carbohydrate it is readily converted into insulin. When this happens in some individuals your insulin spike up very high and fast. What happens is once the insulin is spiked the chemical reaction in the body is to demand more insulin. Thus the eater ends up with a craving to eat more high glycemic carbohydrates to satiate the chemical in balance. 

How does this relate to real life? 

Ever eat a half dozen cookies, and then before you know it the whole bag is gone. 
Same with ice cream. Do you find yourself eating 3 rolls or pieces of bread and then devouring several other pieces. And afterwards you feel frustrated because you told yourself only one or two pieces and youve done this same thing a thousand times. 
Well, most likely it is not your will power, it is the insulin spike. 

What really happens? 

Your body likes to remain in homeostasis. 
Which is a state of constancy. It does not like to fluctuate up and down, because then your body has to work harder to function. 

When gobbling up high glycemic food at meals your insulin is jumping all over the place, and the insulin overrides the chemical in your brain that signals you that you are full. Thus high glycemic carbs scramble the ability of your brain to give you the signal that you are full, which leads to "I can believe I ate the whole thing, and now I feel like crap." 

What to do? 

Eat more low glycemic carbohydrate foods and your insulin will level out, and eating less will be a breeze. 

When eating high glycemic carbohydrate foods there is a trigger that spikes the insulin, ie 2 - rolls are okay, 3 puts you at the limit of possible eating the whole basket. So, always stop at 2, and because your insulin will not spike you will not feel compelled to eat more. 

Drink 1 to 1-1/2 gallon of water a day. 

Note: Knowledge Learned from 
"Carbohydrate Addiciton" 
by - some smart folks



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