What Is A Low Glycemic Diet?

Diets come and go like fashion trends – Atkinson’s diet, Low carb diet, Zone diet, the Hollywood Tapeworm diet and so on. Many of them have been tried by celebrities but are often not meant for common people – just because they either require too strict a regimen or are meant for people whose only preoccupation is their body. There are, however, other kinds of ‘diets’ which do not involve any major change in food plans except the portions and the timings – those who ate five chapattis at ten in the night were advised to take three chapattis at quarter past seven, people were asked to increase their intake of water and so on – and many such diet plans actually worked. Many, except those who suffered from diabetes. Since their main problem was the inability to metabolize sugars, no matter how less they might take of it, they did not feel any benefits. For such people "low glycemic diet plan" is perfect. In this plan, people are supposed to consume foods that are rated lower on the glycemic index (GI). If you would like to clear your head of the jargon related to nutrition and fitness, read on to know more about low glycemic diets.

 

The glycemic index diet plan works on the principle that any kind of carbohydrate that humans consume will cause a temporary rise in the blood sugars, or the glycemic levels – some raise is too high while others do not raise it too high. The glycemic index measures how much each of the foods causes the blood sugars to rise. This rise is called the glycemic response and, under it the foods are rated on a scale of 1 to 100 where 100 represents the glycemic response of pure glucose. Those that have an index higher than seventy are called high glycemic foods and those that are lower than fifty are called low glycemic foods.

 

Many must have gathered that a low glycemic diet involves a high intake of low glycemic foods and reducing the intake of high glycemic foods. The question now arises, which foods show less glycemic response and which show a high response.

 

Here are some foods that are low on glycemic response:

On the other hand, here are some foods that give a high glycemic response:

Significance
Low-GI foods are said to help control appetite and weight and could prove to be useful for people with diabetes or diabetes like symptoms. The idea is that low-GI foods are absorbed into the bloodstream more slowly, allowing dieters to feel full for a longer time and making them less likely to overeat. It is especially significant for those who fear the onset of type 2 diabetes, the one that is independent of insulin injections. However, they can also help those who suffer from type 1 diabetes by decreasing their dependence on insulin injections. Here are some other ways in which a low glycemic diet is supposed to be helpful for us: