Lose Weight Easily With Low GI Foods

Jul 28
08:20

2010

James Okai

James Okai

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Have you ever heard of the glycemic index? While most people only focus on calories when trying to lose weight there are others who focus on the glycemic index of the foods they eat. The glycemic index is not as popular as counting calories but that is changing.

mediaimage
To put it simply,Lose Weight Easily With Low GI Foods Articles the glycemic index (GI) is a measure of how quickly a particular food raises a person’s sugar levels. The reason why this is important is because whenever a person eats (in particular carbohydrates), blood sugar level goes up.  Insulin, a hormone produced by the body, is released into the blood stream to shuttle the sugar into cells. These include fat cells. The more sugar rushes into your blood stream, the more insulin will be secreted to shuttle more sugar into the cells. All the excess sugar will be converted and stored in the fat cells. This is not good if you are really looking to lose weight.   

High GI foods are foods that produce a spike in your blood sugar levels whilst low GI foods do not create such a spike. The spike in blood sugar is what causes insulin to store more fat in your fat cells. This is why it is important to know the glycemic index values of the foods you eat. Eating low GI foods can definitely help you in your weight loss goals.

The glycemic index values of many foods are available online so you do not have to try and figure out what the GI values are. Some manufacturers now have the GI of the foods they produce on the labels so if you are in luck you will know whether the food you are buying is low or high GI.

The GI index ranges from 0 to 100. Pure glucose has a GI of 100. Any food that has a GI value of 70 above is considered high GI. Anything between 55 and 70 is considered medium GI whilst anything less than 55 is low GI. Most refined carbohydrate foods that are high in sugar are usually high GI. If you need to eat high GI foods try and add a low GI food to the meal to reduce the GI value of the whole meal.

By paying attention to the GI value of the foods you eat you will have more control over your weight loss.