By Russel Nouveau
It is a famous saying that 'we are what we eat' and it is needless to say that while we try to satisfy our hunger and taste buds we should also be cautious about our health when we select what we eat. The glycemic index otherwise known as GI is one of the vital indicators that should be considered by us when we select meal items in our daily lives. It measures the blood sugar levels that increase in our body by consumption of different food items that contain different kinds of carbohydrates.
And each food item that contains carbohydrates would have a specific glycemic index rating and the healthier choice would be to consume healthy snack items that have a lower glycemic index rating. And that would be irrespective of the fact whether a person suffers from diabetes or just simply one would want to be cautious about not becoming one. Keep in mind that in any case that prevention is a much wiser option than cure.
Although how the measurement is done is purely scientific and would not be of much use being explained, it is important for all consumers to have a basic idea of glycemic index levels. In a general sense any food item that is lower than an indication of 55 is deemed to Low GI in other words most healthy. Most fruits and vegetables fall under this category along with legumes, grains, nuts, tagatose, fructose and few varieties of beans.
Any food item that contains a GI indication in the range of 56-69 would fall under the category of Medium GI, and that category includes whole wheat products, pita bread, Basmati rice, grapes, sucrose, raisins, pumpernickel bread, cranberry juice and regular ice creams. Finally we should try to avoid or at least cut down on consumption of any food item that has a GI rating above 70 such as white bread, most white rice, corn flakes, extruded breakfast cereals, glucose, maltose, wh
ite potatoes, pretzels etcetera. The logic behind glycemic index is that food items with lower GI levels would release glucose into our blood streams more slowly and steadily while food items with higher levels of GI would release higher levels of glucose into our blood streams rapidly soon after the meal. In conclusion consuming food with lower GI would be beneficial to our health, disease prevention as well as weight control.
Although some facts would point that a low carbohydrate diet would be the healthiest option we could consider but that has its own set of difficulties. Deficiency of essential nutrients should be one of main concerns among few other complications arising from high fat consumption. Extra expenses are another reason of low carbohydrate diets. And battling one's craving for certain food items with higher carbohydrates would be another headache. So much better option would be to eat healthy as well as smartly by choosing better combinations of low GI healthy food for a healthier lifestyle.
