New Research – Low Glycemic Diet Reduces Risk of Diabetes

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A 20 year study that looked at the association between a low glycemic load diet and the risk of acquiring Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) concluded that a low glycemic load diet decreased the risk of type 2 diabetes in women.

This study not only concluded that eating a low glycemic load diet has long term positive health benefits, but that a higher dietary glycemic load was strongly associated with an increased risk of T2DM.

Surprise, surprise

So what do you do with this information?

This is not going to sound original, but:

• Eat more fruits and vegetables
• Eat less bread, pasta, rice, fruit juice, beer, wine, candy, cake, pie…
• Eat more protein – healthy protein, not chicken fingers, bacon and hot dogs
• Eat more ‘non-animal’ based oils like coconut, olive, walnut, flax, and hemp. Fats from game animals are acceptable for all of you hunters out there. Fish oils (high in Omega 3 fatty acids) have also been shown to have a positive effect on blood sugar.
• Eliminate most processed foods in general

• If you can’t/won’t eliminate the high glycemic load foods, at least try to start each meal with the veggies. At least that way, you may get full before you get to the high glycemic load foods. Start with a big salad or some grilled veggies or a big bowl of soup.

So what is Glycemic Load?

Glycemic load (GL) is a measurement and ranking system for the carbohydrate content in different foods, based on their glycemic index (GI) and the portion size.

Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement of how quickly a fixed portion (usually 50g) of the carbohydrates in different foods breaks down into sugar.

So what the *&%#@ does that mean?

Carrots have a high glycemic index. That’s bad. That means that the carbohydrates in carrots are quickly digested into sugar. Oooh, scary. That is why some nutritionists actually advise their clients to avoid baby carrots as a snack food.

But, since carrots are loaded with water and fiber, the glycemic load is reduced to a low level.

Yay carrots.

Here is an abridged GI and GL list of foods:

Keep in Mind that a Glycemic Index of 55 is low and a Glycemic Load of 10 is low.

List of foods and their glycemic load, per 100g serving

For more info on this subject, check out David Mendosa’s site.

Or if you are really geeky on this subject, look no further than the queen bee of all things glycemic, Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller here or here.

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Thanks.

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