Can The Low Glycemic Diet Assist Weight Loss and
Maintain Health?

The low glycemic diet uses the Glycemic Index as the basis of a menu-planning system that intends to curb cravings by eliminating blood sugar spikes.

What is Glycemic Index?

Glycemic index is a scale that ranks foods by how fast your levels of blood sugar is raised. Glucose is set at a GI level of 100, and all other foods are compared against it. If you eat food with a lower index number, it means that it raises your blood sugar levels slower.

Foods are listed in a GI database with their index numbers. When you are planning your meals, with the low glycemic diet, simply substitute food with high index number and chose food with the lower numbers. You can get a glycemic index food list from several sources.

Foods below GI 55 in the glycemic index list raises your blood sugar very slowly and is good for your body. Foods with GI above 70 raises your bloodsugar very fast and elevates your insulin evels, and we know that this is not good for you.

But you have to look at the overall nutritions in food as well. You can find food with low GI that contains a lot of fat, and food with high GI that contains very important nutritions. So you have to make intelligent decisions.

With the low glycemic diet you don't have to exclude all high GI foods, but try to include more low and intermediate GI foods in your meals.

Eating more low GI foods curbs your appetite so you lose weight, because you eliminate the spikes in your blood sugar which causes your insulin levels to rise.

Is it easy to use GI in meal planning?

The answer is "Yes".

Written by Rick Gallop, a former President of The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, The Glycemic Index Diet claims:

• "if you can understand a traffic light, you'll understand this diet".

Gallop divides food into three groups based on their glycemic index, how fast they cause spikes in blood sugar levels. He separates food into green light, yellow light and red light foods.

• Red light foods should be avoided.
  
  
• Yellow light foods are avoided during the initial weight loss phase and eaten occasionally during the ongoing maintenance phase.
  
  
• Green light foods should form the basis of your diet throughout.

No special foods need to be purchased on the low glycemic diet. Simply look up where your favorite foods fit in the plan, eat green, sample some yellow and avoid red. Period. Gallop says dieters should expect to lose one to two pounds per week and need not start with a crash diet.

While the low glycemic diet is a low carb diet it is not as high protein as most of the other diets and encourages dieters to cut fats as well as carbs.

The author also encourages exercising for 30 minutes each day and eating three balanced meals that include carbs, proteins and fats.

The low glycemic diet is more a lifestyle than a diet

According to Gallop, followers of the GI diet should consider it a lifestyle change that they will adhere to for the rest of their lives, not a diet.

Do you want a Glycemic Index and Calorie Counter in your cellphone?