Health Alert 296
If you are trying to lose body fat, it may be better for you to eat a "decadent" bowl of peaches and cream for breakfast than a "healthy" bowl of cornflakes. Hard to believe?
Read through today’s Health Alert and you’ll see some unexpected pearls from the glycemic index to help you shed extra body fat.
Most of my patients have heard of the glycemic index but many think it’s all about sweets. I get them to think again. Facts emerging from this new science may surprise you.
Losing weight is usually not easy but it may NOT be as hard as you think. Most "experts" miss the point completely. When you’re considering which modern foods to avoid, it’s not about fat or sweetness… It’s more about a food’s "starchiness”. It’s starches that have the highest scores on the glycemic index.
The glycemic index measures how the carbohydrates in certain foods increase your blood sugar. Foods with a high GI will spike your blood sugar. Foods with a low GI have carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing a more manageable trickle of glucose into your bloodstream.(1)
Why is this important?
When your blood sugar rises, it triggers a release of insulin. Insulin is not just the hormone problem in diabetes. Its role in normal metabolism is to take care of blood sugar and build body fat. All other things being equal, more insulin will direct your body to store more of the calories you consume as body fat.
Here’s the point in its simplest form: Excess insulin makes you fat. We have a nation of excess insulin secretors –that’s how we make ourselves so fat.
There are also related problems: As a reaction to the rapid release of insulin, your blood sugar will often crash – just as quickly as it spiked from the high GI food. This sudden drop of blood sugar will make you crave the same foods that spiked your blood sugar in the first place. If you’re not watching your diet, this cycle repeats endlessly. Before you know it, you’re fat and tired. If continued, you’re sick with heart disease and diabetes.
What are the worst offenders? Breakfast cereals, bagels, breads, white rice and potatoes have some of the highest GI scores. Not sweets but starches.
Meat, fish, poultry, eggs and nuts continue to be some of the best foods you can eat. They are very low on the glycemic index – so enjoy that steak. Plain yogurt and most kinds of fruit are also excellent choices. The sweetness you taste from berries is a guilt-free pleasure because the total load of carbs will be low and they rank very low on the glycemic index.
For a complete listing, visit the glycemic index on my website.
I put this list together myself from research at our Foundation. It will give you all the latest numbers and avoid the bias over sweets so common in other lists.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
(1) Whyte JJ. The Glycemic Index: How Useful Is It? Peer-Reviewed Consultations in Primary Care. Apr 15, 2005. Vol.45. 558-560.