Can A Low Glycemic Index Diet Help You Lose Weigh

                       

A Glycemic Index diet and eating plan provides an excellent nutritional choice for people who want to lose weight. By eating a diet composed of carbohydrate rich foods with a low GI value and avoiding refined carbohydrates, you are providing the best possible combination of better blood glucose control.

Just to give you a background on low glycemic index diets, this was first developed in 1981 to help people maintain stable blood sugar levels. The GI or glycemic index is on a scale from 0 to 100 which is measured in terms of your blood sugar after eating.

Best aspect of the glycemic index diet 

Small amounts of moderate and even highly glycemic foods when mixed with lower glycemic foods can be incorporated into the diet. This means that favorite foods need not be totally eliminated. This helps avoid cravings that can doom some people's diets. I personally tried the low glycemic index diet that many books are recommending and felt amazing. I had more energy and I felt that my life was in more balance. Although I didn't need to reverse diabetes naturally, I tried the diet as a preventative measure. It makes sense to simply not spike your blood sugar levels with a high amount of carbohydrates.

Diabetics should use the glycemic index to select foods

Especially among carbohydrates. The glycemic index ranks carbohydrates, certain foods or food groups, according to the effects they have on your glycemia, which can help you decide the best things to include in your diabetes diet plan. The glycemic index helps determine which carbohydrate containing foods raise blood glucose levels more or less quickly after a meal. That is the basement of the low glycemic index diet. A major analysis suggested that choosing foods with low glycemic index scores may have a significant effect on controlling the surge in blood sugar after meals. Substituting low for high glycemic index foods may also help prevent weight gain.

The glycemic index diet is particularly attractive, as it regulates the blood sugar levels of those who have been affected by diabetes. It's easy to understand why people are drawn to this style of dieting, as it has a clear ability to regulate weight control. If we opt to consume foods from the lower part of the index, blood glucose levels will be better regulated, the sugar levels will be more balanced over a longer period of time and this will help to avoid peaks and troughs, hunger pangs, cravings and other issues.

Start out slow 

When you get into a low glycemic index diet program, start out slow by making sure it is low in fats, moderate in carbohydrate and protein. It should also be rich in fiber that is available in a variety of food that provides the right amount

The bottom line: 

One of the main advantages of following a low glycemic index diet is its versatility. You are not limited to a particular food type or restricting your carbohydrate intake. As a result the drop out rate will be much lower, with glycemic index diet, you are sure to find the benefits, and very few compromises... which is exactly what an ideal weight loss system should be.

The Low Glycemic Diet: Great for Shedding Extra Pounds

This glycemic index system of measuring the effect the carbohydrate content of certain foods has on blood sugar levels was developed in the 80s by Dr. David J. Jenkins, a nutrition professor at the University of Toronto. The system was developed to help diabetics manage their diets and their weight.

I know what your thinking: But I’m not diabetic! Unless of course, you are. In either case, what I have to say is worth a listen.

Whether you are a diabetic or not, the low glycemic diet is great for shedding those extra pounds and controlling blood sugar levels.

The Glycemic Index (GI), is nothing more than a way of measuring the effect the carbohydrate content of certain foods affect your body. Specifically, it determines how these impact your blood sugar levels, which in turn affects how much energy you have, your mood, and yes, your weight.

This is good news. This is very good news, because it means if you are on one of those skimpy, carb restrictive diets, the range of things you can eat, just got a whole lot bigger.

The advantage of the GI Diet is that it involves a very simple eating plan composed largely of lean meat, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. The things your parents said were good for you, they were right!

Glycemic Load and How it Differs from Glycemic Index

Knowledge is key when choosing a diet plan, so the “fad diet effect” can be avoided. Some people have problems understanding the glycemic index for a few reasons.

Firstly - It's not perfect. 
Keep in mind that the index is calculated on approximately 50 grams of food. Certain foods people will eat much less. For this reason, it is an indicator and not an absolute, when choosing foods. Secondly it may underestimate the effect certain high carbohydrates have on blood sugar levels while giving undue credit to low carbohydrates.

The difference 
The glycemic index measures how fast foods are digested by our system and how fast they are converted into glucose or simple sugar. The glycemic load is the measurement of how much carbohydrate there is per serving size of food. Because both the amount and the type of carbohydrate are needed to predict blood glucose responses to a meal.

The glycemic load needs the help of the glycemic index in order to make an accurate calculation. The glycemic load, therefore cannot function without the measurement supplied by the glycemic index. Although differing in function, they work together in helping to provide a formula to measure healthy portions of food per serving and by giving us an accurate idea of how to identify bad carbs from the good ones.

In other words, the glycemic index in itself provides us great information, but in practicality, it really does not do much for us in terms of determining the quantity of food to eat. The glycemic load accounts for the number of grams of carbohydrate per serving, combined together with the glycemic index, gives us a real life tool to make healthier choices for food intake.

Here is a good book I found: The Low Glycemic Diet. It will answer all your questions and more....

Will a low Glycemic diet?

* Reduce the risk of getting heart disease
* Increase energy and metabolism
* Create delicious meals you can easily and quickly make
* Fight off the affects diabetes
* Moderate and control blood sugar & insulin levels
* Promote Weight loss

If you are looking for a very powerful diet plan, the low glycemic diet is IT!

Click here for The Low glycemic Diet on Barnes and Noble

More interesting reading from John Matonis, the author of The Low Glycemic Diet