There are so many health factors to consider and food choices to make to eat optimal food combinations. And it is not surprising that so many people suffer from overweight and ebesity.

Let’s take a brief look at healthy eating or what food we should eat:

Antioxidants – we all know they are necessary to keep optimal health and it’s good for us to eat lots of colorful fruits and vegetables. They have a rich content of phytochemicals like carotenoids and flavonoids which neutralize the free radicals in our body and help prevent the age-related degenerative diseases.

We know that from the food we eat we not always get all the antioxidants we need therefore we have to take supplements to ensure an adequate supply of antioxidants.

However, does the knowledge help us actually eat the food that is good for us?

One of the major problems with food we eat today is that our food is tasty because of this combination of saturated fats and highly processed and quickly digested carbohydrates. However, in the last several years, we become more cautious and many people have become so concerned with diet they eat.

Many of them reduced content of fats in their diet, avoided carbohydrates substituted a red meat with lean meat, and increased content of the good unsaturated fats such as olive oil and other plant oils.

Today everybody around me seems to be eating a medium- to high-carbohydrate diet but they still do not give proper attention to the type of carbs that they eat. And that’s another problem that can lead to low digestion and more fat deposits on our bodies.

Unfortunately not all carbohydrates behave the same in our bodies.

For years we avoided simple carbs like honey and white bread. Experts taught us eat complex carbohydrates that our body doesn’t digest and turn to glucose as quickly. But how can we determine how quickly a food containing carbohydrates is absorbed and raises our blood sugar? This is not intuitive at all.

Scientists have done a lot study and rigorous testing over the past several years and have found a new helpful information. Now they claim that bread and baked potatoes are bad for us! They raise our blood sugar level much faster than honey, jams and even chocolate bars.

New finding were based to developing of a numerical index called the Glycemic Index or GI. It is supposed to compare the ability of different carbohydrate containing foods to raise the body’s blood sugar levels.

What does this mean in simple English? Now we can compare the how fast the food we eat is converted into glucose in our body.

Why is this important? It helps you choose foods that are not digested too quickly and thus cut your calorie consumption.

How GI values are determined? Human subjects have fasted overnight a fixed amount of the food and then scientists measured their blood glucose levels at fixed intervals of time.

Pure glucose is set at 100 and then other foods are compared to this profile. The testing took time and the tests have to be averaged for a number of individuals.

However, these studies have yielded surprising results.

For example: the fact that the starches in rice, bread, potatoes and many types of cereals were absorbed and raised blood sugars very quickly but the sugars in fruit, candy, chocolate and ice cream did not result in prolonged rises in blood sugars.

In other words many of the starchy foods had a much higher Glycemic Index than many of the sugary foods. Needless to say the results have caused a lot of controversy in the food industry. The rate of absorption is very dependent on how the carbs are bound up with the food fiber and the particle size.

For example:

1. Less gelatinized products like al dente spaghetti and oatmeal have lower GI values and stone ground flours have lower GI values than finely ground flours.
2. The fibrous coat surrounding beans and seeds stop enzymes from getting at the starchy carbs inside and will slow the digestion of grainy breads, legumes and barley.
3. The acidity of foods also slows down digestion and vinegar, lemon juice, pickles and sourdough bread will result in lower GI meal values.

The Glycemic Index is important not only for healthy dieters but for those who suffer from diabetes.

It’s crucial for diabetics to know what foods will keep the blood sugars on an even keel and not raise them too high and then have them plummet down again causing hunger.

The information about how to slow digestion by eating of low GI foods that gradually rise and fall in blood-glucose is helping people with diabetes control their blood sugar levels and increase their sensitivity to insulin.

Furthermore, low GI foods can help healthy people delay hunger pangs and promote weight loss in obese and overweight individuals.

And there is and an additional benefit you can enjoy by eating the low GI carbohydrates: they reduce blood cholesterol levels and also reduce the risk of heart disease.

Why high blood sugar spikes can be harmful for healthy people?
It turns out that high blood sugar levels result highly oxidative stress in the body that in turn leads to the formation of plaque causing atherosclerosis and even blood clots.This way healthy eating will keep your blood sugar levels low and reduce the risk of any of the health complications we discussed above.

So, how can we achieve this?

• The first step — look at what carbohydrates you are eating. Start consuming meals with the low GI levels.
• The second step — Try and ensure you have at least one low GI food in each meal to keep the overall meal GI close to 50.

IMPORTANT: Most fats and proteins have no effect on the GI level of our meal because they don’t contain carbs. However watch out for saturated fats and too many calories.

Let’s take a look at some meals and see what substitutions we could make — The GI values are shown in brackets.

Breakfast

Cut back on:
Corn Flakes (92),
Rice Krispies (82)
Substitute
All-Bran (32) or
Switch to
Cereal based on oats, Barley or Bran.

Stop eating
white bagels (72), white bread (70) or whole-wheat bread (77)
Switch to pumpernickel (50) or sourdough (55).

*** Fruits are mostly low GI foods and surprisingly orange juice (46) is very good.

Lunch and Dinner

Enrich your meal with colored vegetables in your salad dressings with olive oil and vinegar.

Avoid
parsnips (97)
Substitute pastas like al dente white spaghetti (38), linguini (46) or macaroni (47) for
Instant white rice (87) and potatoes – baked (85), red-skin peeled and boiled (88).

NOTE: Except for parsnips and potatoes most vegetables have a low GI value.

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I hope these simple guidelines will help you not only reduce your weight and help you avoid obesity with healthy eating.

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