Glycemic Index Explained

Glycemic Index Explained

There have been diet fads after diet fads, but I think this Glycemic Index (GI) is one of the best diet ideas that’s come around since the 1970’s. As you may know, the Glycemic Index is a way to test the amount your blood sugar goes up after eating a certain amount of a certain food. For instance, in most of the older studies the researchers used a slice of white bread as the basis of their studies, stating that the amount a persons’ blood sugar goes up after eating one slice of white bread (which is almost completely pure carbohydrates) is a GI score of 100. All other foods are compared to that. Today they use the same test using a certain amount of drinkable glucose, which is a more precise serving than a slice of bread.

What does this matter? Well, I have at least 4 books on low carbohydrate eating, and “The New Glucose Revolution: Shopper’s guide to GI values 2006” by Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller and Kaye Foster-Powel said it best. “…Could carbohydrates be implicated in the development of obesity, are all carbohydrates the same, are all starches good for health and all sugars bad? To investigate, they began to study the effects of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels. They wanted to know which carbohydrate foods were associated with the least fluctuation in blood glucose levels and the best overall health, including reduced risk of diabetes and hart disease.”

They go on to explain that bad carbs are digested quickly in the stomach and release glucose into the bloodstream very quickly, while good carbs are digested more slowly and cause a more gradual raise in blood glucose.

There is more and more evidence that all of the major chronic diseases, including type II diabetes, heart disease, obesity, stroke, and even neurological diseases of the modern age are caused by the effects of a highly processed high carbohydrate diet, not from a high fat diet.

What is all this talk about whole foods? This is actually related to the Glycemic index, and this is actually the point I really want to make today: The more “whole” or unprocessed the food you eat the lower GI it has. The more processed the food you eat the higher the GI value usually is.

Case in point: from the “New Glucose Revolution” book mentioned above, let me list the same foods, just processed differently.

Bread:
All breads list that the serving size is one slice, even to the pint that the serving size of a hamburger bun is ½ bun. Generally, the more fiber a food has in it the slower it is digested, and thus the lower the GI value.

White bread GI value 71
9 grain multigrain bread 43
bagel 72
Pumpernickel 50
Whole wheat 71
Whole wheat, stone ground 59
Sourdough wheat 54
Rye bread 51

Oatmeal (all made with water)
Instant oatmeal 82
Old-fashioned oatmeal 58
Steel cut oatmeal 52

This is an excellent case for eating the least processed variety.

Rice
White rice, depending on the type: Average GI 60 – 65
White rice, instant 87
Brown rice, quick cooking 80

This makes it look like the instant rice has a much higher GI value than the regular cooking rices, which makes sense if you think the instant rice is more processed and thus breaks down in your stomach faster. I have to note that the books also lists “glutinous rice, white, cooked” as having a GI value of 98 and Jasmine rice as having a GI of 109. No wonder I’ve always loved Jasmine rice! It’s insanely high in carbohydrates. And this simply makes the point that all carbs are not created equal, and even putting a GI value to foods doesn’t make eating and shopping that much easier. Although I do hope this article makes your understanding of the GI factor easier.

The Real Mediteranean Diet

I found myself on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. It was an amazing spring day and my dear husband and I were walking through a flea market near a marina. Yes, there were the typical flea market vendors, lots of touristy clothes, some really nice handmade jewelry, sandals and hats… and then we got to the farmers market.

Oh, if only we had something like this every day at home! At home we have too many vendors selling the same vegetables and fruit each weekend. But here on this rather remote island we had (count them) three different kinds of artichokes! Two different kinds of radishes, eggplants of many sizes and colors including striped, 4 or 5 varieties of tomatoes, countless greens, celery with their roots, citrus galore, onions aplenty, bounties of beans both dried and string, … I had found farmers market heaven.

But then there was the spice merchant and I think my vision got tunneled and my ears began to buzz. The local citizens buy their spices fresh ground, used them liberally, knew how to use them, and bought them fresh weekly. Epiphany!

It was at that moment that I realized that the magic of the commonly discussed health benefits of “the Mediterranean Diet” is not in simply drinking an occasional glass of red wine, eating pasta, lots of olive oil, and don’t forget the fish. The real power might just come from the fact that the people of these temperate locales bought their veggies and meats fresh daily and cooked them right away. There were no grocery stores to spray their foods with preservatives, no food factories. Their foods were not grown a continent away, picked long before ripe weeks ago, wrapped in plastic, air freighted and trucked to the local store. They bought their meats from the butcher two blocks away, their bread daily from the bakery, and their vegetables at this market.

The food was, in a word, fresh.

I went home from that trip and threw out all of my old spices, went to a local store that sold fresh spices by the ounce, and started my culinary life over again fresh. Pink Himalayan salt? Into the pasta sauce with you! Cumin? On eggs? You betcha! Cinnamon in my chili instead of sugar? Why didn’t I try it sooner? Dill and oregano on my salad? Mmmm. And I just munch away and imagine those healthy spices and fresh vegetables working their Mediterranean spell.