What is Glycemic Index

The saying is “abs are made in the kitchen,” 80% of weight loss goals are made in your kitchen and only 20% are your daily workouts. Yes building muscle does raise your metabolic rate “metabolism” and you do burn tons of calories doing HIIT but you cannot out train a bad diet.

This week’s topic is glycemic index, which is how much the food will raise your blood sugar levels. “The higher a food’s GI is, the more rapidly it elevates blood glucose. A high GI food can cause blood sugar spikes, followed by rapid declines in blood sugar.As blood sugar declines, a person may feel hungry. Eating only high GI foods can cause a person to overeat since they will quickly feel hungry again after eating.” ( Medical News Today)

The Glycemic Index are as follows

low GI foods: 55 or less

medium GI foods: 56–69

high GI foods: 70 or above

Several factors can influence glycemic index rates in food:

Cooking tends to raise GI. The same type of pasta will have a lower GI if it is al dente than it will if a person cooks it to the point of softness.

Processing typically raises GI. For example, fruit juice typically has a higher GI than whole fruit.

Riper foods usually have a higher GI. The GI of a banana, for example, will get higher as the banana ripens.

The foods a person eats together can affect GI. Fiber lowers the total GI of a meal.

High glycemic foods to limit:

heavily processed grains, such as white rice, white bread, and white pasta

puffed rice

instant oatmeal

popcorn

saltine crackers

pretzels

starchy vegetables, such as potatoes

pumpkin

corn flakes

melons

pineapple

bran flakes

Low glycemic index foods to include:

non-starchy vegetables, such as sweet potatoes and carrots

barley

whole grain pasta

bulgar

whole grains, such as whole wheat bread, pumpernickel bread, and pita bread

legumes

lentils

many beans, such as lima and butter beans

oat bran

steel-cut oatmeal

muesli

brown or wild rice

most fruit

Buckwheat (GF)

Quinoa (GF) and the closest to a complete protein

Sorghum(GF)

Teff Flour (GF)

#glycemicindex