Low Glycemic Diet Review: Easy-to-follow Meal Plan Samples, Lowest GI Foods to Eat and Avoid, Dietary Health Benefits

Low Glycemic Diet

Low glycemic index plan review: meal plan samples that are simple to follow; low-gi foods to eat and avoid, and nutritional health advantages.

Why follow a low glycemic nutrition plan? Using a low glycemic index diet can help people who need to lose weight, or who have been diagnosed with diabetes. The idea is that by avoiding high glycemic index foods, weight loss can be achieved, and diabetes controlled.

What Is It?

What Is the Glycemic Index?

First, a plain ordinary definition of the glycemic index (GI) in dietary terms.

♥ The glycemic index is a system of measurement used by nutritionists to gauge the levels of sugar found in food that cause the body’s blood sugar levels to rise.

Heart Disease and Cancer

Low Glycemic Index Plan, Heart Disease and Cancer

Some scientists and researchers also believe that adopting a low glycemic index plan can help prevent heart disease and reduce the risk of cancer. But not all believe this, and there is certainly another side to this story for those poor misfortunate foods that are rated in the glycemic index danger zone.

The basic idea is that the low glycemic index helps people choose low glycemic index foods because it is high glycemic index foods that cause weight gain and build-up of harmful toxins.

The Science

Low Glycemic Index Plan Research

Research has shown that high glycemic foods:

♥ Such as white bread, white rice, cornflakes, donuts, ice cream, have high glycemic rankings of over 70 (out of 100).

♥ Whereas spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, and zucchini rank as low as 10-15 (out of 100).

The main point is that high glycemic index foods are digested more quickly into the bloodstream, thus making us feel hungrier more quickly.

Low glycemic index foods take longer to digest, and therefore enable us to go longer without eating.

After all, regarding putting on weight, it is the sheer act of eating too much (calories), and too many of the wrong foods (that usually contain high glycemic components) that causes weight gain.

Diet and Hunger

Low Glycemic Index Plan and Hunger

The idea behind the low glycemic index nutrition plan, then, is to eat more low glycemic index foods, and thus stave off hunger. It is no coincidence that these low glycemic index foods are also the foods that would appear on any good dietician’s roll call for healthy grub.

♥ Glycemic index foods are also exclusive to foods that contain carbohydrates and do not relate to protein-based foods.

♥ All foods that contain an element of natural sugar will find themselves on the glycemic index list.

♥ Foods designated 55 or lower are low glycemic; those that are ranked 59-69 are deemed medium glycemic; and those that score 70 and above are in the red zone of high glycemic.

Many of the foods that are generally regarded as essential for good nutrition fall within the low glycemic index ranking, with many others in the medium glycemic index category.

Not surprisingly, those foods in the danger zone are generally the ones we should all be avoiding as much as possible for a healthy diet, in theory.

But theories aren't always correct, and there is certainly some controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the glycemic index formula.

Indeed, there are some scientists, and dieticians who have come right out, and questioned the validity of the glycemic index as a credible way to measure what one eats.

That’s because it’s so darn confusing.

High Glycemic Vegetables

Take the humble potato, for instance.

♥ Ordinarily, the potato would be viewed as a healthy vegetable to eat because it is packed with fiber and has dense alkaline properties which help balance the acidity that comes in many other foods.

♥ Yet the potato scores at best a low rating of 60 when boiled, though ranks in the 90s if baked.

♥ In contrast, a sweet potato (which tastes sweeter, hence the name) is as low as 48.

♥ To most people the potato would be something good to eat, yet according to the glycemic index, it isn't.

Another anomaly arises in the fact that there isn't one universal ranking for each food.

Take the carrot.

♥ On some charts it is ranked as low as 35; on others it’s as high as 90.

♥ And yet the jellybean scores a relatively modest 80 on the heart disease Richter scale.

♥ Much seems to depend on the way foods are cooked and combined too and let’s face it, seldom one eats just a carrot on its own, which in theory makes determining the total glycemic index score during a meal, confusing.

Which makes creating a healthy diet based solely on the glycemic index highly complex, and virtually impossible.

Sample Plan

Easy-to-follow Low Glycemic Index Plan Plan Sample

Simple low glycemic index menu and recipes.

The Scientist

Glycemic Index Creator

♥ Even scientist David Jenkins, who developed the glycemic index in 1981, has acknowledged that the glycemic index was never intended to be the ultimate plan for eating, or the final say on food in general.

He is even quick to point out that a food with a high glycemic index can contain a lot of important vitamins and minerals, which is good for us to eat.

Most importantly, in Jenkins' view, is that the glycemic index might cause people to become confused about whether to eat vegetables and fruit, or not, given that some produce (such as the potato and carrot) carry high glycemic index rankings.

♥ But the fact is, any fresh fruit or vegetable is better than a plateful of fried chips or a slice of cake, regardless of its glycemic index rating.

There is no substitute for fresh fruit and vegetables any day of the week, or indeed all week.

So, although the low glycemic index might have possibilities in the way of providing some useful guidelines regarding formulating diets, and eating plans, it is by no means the dietary solution you have been looking for.

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