Good morning America!
Welcome to my blog on the Glycemic Index. I have committed myself to write a blog because Americans need a Low GI wake up call, every morning. Each day more of us are joining the ranks of the obese and diabetic.
The statistics are frightening with 66% of adults being overweight or obese, 60 million Americans being diabetic or pre-diabetic, 9 out of 10 Type 2 diabetics being obese and one in three children born in the year 2000 projected to develop diabetes in their lifetime. These interlinked epidemics are out of control, and the phenomenon is being called "Diabesity". To see the full story on why I am writing this blog, click on the ABOUT icon at the top left corner of the screen.
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Blood sugar balance is intricately controlled by your body’s hormonal systems; most importantly being insulin. This important hormone evolved as the "survival" hormone for our prehistoric ancestors to help them survive during times of famine, allowing fat to be stored, and utilized later when needed. Jumping forward 40,000 years, the situation is drastically different, where modernization has literally created the "land of plenty".
Insulin was designed to create blood sugar homeostasis in the body, but cannot cope with the overabundance and onslaught of highly refined, sugary and high GI foods being consumed on a daily basis. When food is eaten, the end product of carbohydrate digestion is glucose, our body’s preferred source of energy. The role of insulin is to facilitate the entry of glucose from the blood into the tissues of the body for energy, or convert and store any excess as fat, for later use. Our modern diet contains exceptionally abundant levels of high GI foods (refined grains such as white bread and crackers, super-sized sodas, and many highly processed convenient foods) which are digested quickly, causing rapid spikes in blood sugar, subsequently taxing our insulin-producing mechanism.
Over time, the cells of the body do not work as efficiently, and can become "insulin resistant", resulting in increased circulating levels of insulin and/or sugar in the blood. Not only does this lead to the appearance of the symptoms of diabetes, but the high level of glucose in the blood decreases the sensitivity of the target cell receptors for insulin and so makes the situation worse. Being that insulin is also involved in fat storage and inhibiting the release of fat from fat cells, the increased levels will inevitably promote weight gain. At the same time, efforts to lose the excess weight will likely be unsuccessful and a vicious cycle results with increased levels of weight gain, often leading to obesity and other associated conditions such as heart disease and type II diabetes.
The good news is that it doesn’t take long to turn insulin resistance around, lose the weight you want, and prevent further metabolic disease. With a low glycemic diet and physical activity, you can recover your fat burning ability and achieve optimal health. Consuming low GI foods more often, ones that do not spike your blood sugar, but deliver energy in a steady sustained manner will reduce the demand on your body to produce insulin. It’s not a matter of will power; we need to get your body back to the way it is supposed to function through the proper regulation of your hormones. This can be achieved with the adoption of a low glycemic diet. Tomorrow I will talk about the importance of physical activity for improved blood sugar control and enhanced weight loss. Stay tuned…
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