Weight Loss - Diet
Have you heard of The Glycemic Index: (GI)?
I get questions about this all the time ... is the GI really the best guideline or criteria for choosing carbs? The (correct) answer might surprise you...
The glycemic index (GI) ranks foods on a scale from 1 to 100 based on how much the blood sugar increases after each food is consumed. In particular, the index is concerned with carbohydrates because fats and proteins have little effect on blood sugar levels. The higher the number, the greater the increase in blood sugar.
The GI has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness, and weight-loss world. Many popular weight-loss diets base their entire program on the index as their primary criteria for choosing carbohydrates.
According to advocates of the GI system, foods that are high on the scale such as rice cakes, carrots, potatoes, or grape juice are "unfavourable" and should be avoided because they are absorbed so rapidly and are therefore more likely to convert to fat. Instead, you are urged to consume carbohydrates that are low on the GI such as black-eyed peas, oatmeal, peanuts, apples, and beans (all good foods, by the way).
Foods with a high GI increase insulin output more than those with a lower GI. Because high levels of insulin are associated with increased fat storage and suppressed fat burning, it is hypothesized that eating high GI foods can make you fatter than eating low GI foods.
Low GI foods are thought to reduce fat storage because they cause slower release of sugar into the bloodstream and therefore less insulin production.
While the GI should be given consideration in your carbohydrate choices, it's not a good idea to make it your only criteria for choosing carbs. The mistake in strictly adhering to the GI to dictate all your carb choices is that the index is based on carbohydrates being eaten by themselves in a fasting state ... and as I'm sure you know by now, that's a problem in of itself.
An effective fat-burning and/or muscle-preserving/building diet is always based on combining carbs and protein together - this is very important. When carbs are eaten in mixed meals that contain protein and small amounts of fat, the glycemic index loses its significance, because the protein and fat slow the absorption of the carbohydrates.
For example, mashed potatoes have a GI that is near that of pure glucose, but if you combine the potatoes with a chicken breast and vegetables, the GI of the entire meal is much lower than the potato by itself. Rice cakes also have a high GI. But if you spread a little peanut butter on them, the fat slows the absorption of the carbs, thereby lowering the GI of the combination.
A fat-burning and/or muscle-preserving/building diet is also based on eating small frequent meals that are spaced out 2.5 - 3 hours apart. This also lowers the significance of the GI because on such an eating schedule, you are never eating at a truly fasted state, except for breakfast (i.e after 8 hours of sleep).
So, as you can see, if you're including a good protein source at each meal, and you're eating small meals frequently throughout the day (4 to 5 meals, every 2.5 - 3 hours),the carb's GI is much less of a concern.
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