Glossary of Terms

Glycemic Index
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a system of ranking carbohydrate-containing foods based on their immediate effect on blood sugar levels. The GI ranks the quality of carbohydrates, on a scale from 0 to 100, with pure glucose having the highest GI value of 100. Choosing low GI carbs more often, the ones that produce only small fluctuations in blood sugar, is the key to achieving lasting weight loss, long term health and reducing the risk of disease. A GI of 55 or less ranks as low, a GI of 56 to 69 is medium, and a GI of 70 or more ranks as high.

Glycemic Load
The Glycemic Load takes into account both the quality (GI), as well as the quantity of carbohydrate being consumed in a serving of food. These two elements determine how much the blood glucose will rise after consuming a food or meal. How high your blood glucose rises, and how long it remains high, depends on the quality (GI) and quantity (GL) of carbohydrates you ate. Both measurements are useful. The GL helps you select portion sizes; while GI helps you differentiate between good and bad carbohydrate choices.

Dietary Macronutrients
Carbohydrate, protein, and fat are the major nutrients found in food. Being absolutely essential to the operation of the body, each is broken down and rearranged into forms the body can use. You could not live long without any of them

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy for your body. High carbohydrate foods include cereals, grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes and dairy products. When carbohydrates are digested, they are transformed into glucose, which is absorbed into the bloodstream where it has a profound effect on many operations of the body, like your muscles and your brain (glucose is the brain’s main source of nutrition).

Glucose
Being the body’s preferred source of fuel, glucose can be used immediately to provide energy (to run the body or to fuel activity, for example), or it can be stored in the liver and muscle cells as glycogen. When it is required for energy, the glycogen is converted back to glucose and burned as fuel. If all the storage space in the liver and muscles is filled, then the excess glucose will be sent to the fat cells.

Dietary Fiber
Dietary fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, beans, and the indigestible parts of whole grains such as wheat and oat bran. In addition to supporting intestinal health and proper elimination, fiber improves blood sugar balance, lowers cholesterol, reduces the risk of colon and breast cancer, and plays a role in weight management. Fiber is so complex in structure that it cannot be digested so it doesn’t provide energy. The presence of fiber helps to lower blood cholesterol and slow down food digestion and glucose absorption and hence, can have a profound effect on the GI value of a food. 

Fats
Unlike carbohydrates, fats are not reduced to glucose, instead they are broken down into fatty acids where they are either made into hormones and other chemicals that the body uses, or carried through the blood to be stored in fat cells where they can be used later to provide energy. The fat in these storage depots insulates the body and cushions the organs. Contrary to the widely help myth, fats do not necessarily make you fat, provided you pay attention to the amount and type you consume. The best types of fats are the unsaturated fats, namely, the monounsaturated fats (found in olives, peanuts, almonds, and olive and canola oils) and polyunsaturated fats. The polyunsaturated fats provide us with essential fatty acids (EFAs), which are the omega-3 fatty acids
(found in fatty fish such salmon, mackerel, herring, cod, sardines, and tuna) and omega-6 fatty acids (found in vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower, corn, hemp and canola oils). The bad fats, saturated fats and trans fats, should be limited or completely avoided in the diet as they increase the risk of unhealthy blood lipid levels, which, in turn, may increase the risk of coronary heart disease. Fats are not included in the GI because they have a minimal impact on blood sugar.

Protein
Protein is contained in animal products (meat and dairy), nuts, legumes, and, to a lesser extent, in grains and vegetables. Protein foods provide the only building blocks your body uses to restore and repair itself. Proteins are broken down into amino acids, which are used to manufacture and repair cells of all kinds, including those that make up the muscles, the skeleton, and the immune system. If your body were forced to use protein for energy because there weren’t enough available carbohydrates, it could, in extreme cases, such as during prolonged starvation. But breaking down protein for energy is a more complicated process and not one that your body easily performs. Like fat, protein is not included in the GI because it has a minimal effect on blood sugar.

Insulin
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and its role is to send glucose on its way for immediate use for energy, or for further processing and storage. The increase in glucose levels after eating prompts the body to release insulin, where the excess glucose is stored away as glycogen. Insulin is also used medically to treat some forms of diabetes mellitus. Insulin abnormalities are seen in both diabetes and obesity. They are also associated with inflammation and disordered blood coagulation that contribute to cardiovascular disease, especially heart attacks and strokes. 

Diabetes
Diabetes is a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both. Uncontrolled diabetes can cause serious health complications including eye damage which can lead to blindness, heart disease (including heart attacks), damage to the nerves, kidney failure, frequent infections, stroke, and foot problems. The total prevalence of diabetes in the United States (all ages) in 2005 was 20.8 million people, or 7% of the population. Of these, 14.6 million were diagnosed, with 6.2 million people being undiagnosed.

Types of Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes develops when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin that regulates blood glucose. To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by injection or a pump. This form of diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, although disease onset can occur at any age. Type 1 diabetes accounts for 5% to 10% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and accounts for about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.  Type 2 diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate due to poor diets and a sedentary lifestyle.   Type 2 diabetes is rooted early in life as insulin resistance or prediabetes, disorders in which the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells do not use insulin properly. Type 2 diabetes is also associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity. Approximately 90 percent of individuals categorized as having type 2 diabetes are obese. Obesity greatly reduces the sensitivity of cells to the hormone insulin.

Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is characterized as high blood sugar during pregnancy. The condition starts when the body is not able to make and use all the insulin it needs for pregnancy. It is not known exactly why this occurs but it is linked to the hormonal balance in the mother’s body. Hormones secreted by the placenta to help the baby develop cause the mother’s cells to become resistant to the effects of insulin and the problem is termed insulin resistance. This insulin resistance prevents the mother using the sugar in her blood as well as she should. Furthermore, gestational diabetes is found to predispose the child to type 2 diabetes later in life.  Research has shown that the condition may be controlled with a low GI diet and exercise.

Risk Factors for Diabetes
Prediabetes is characterized in people with blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet in the diabetic range. Risk factors for prediabetes include being overweight or obesity, abdominal obesity, first-degree family history of diabetes (parent, brother or sister), history of diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes), having polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), high blood pressure, and high cholesterol or triglyceride levels. The prediabetic stage is critical to identify as research has shown that if you take action to manage your blood glucose when you have prediabetes, you can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes from developing. There are 54 million people in the United States who have pre-diabetes.

Insulin Resistance, sometimes also referred to as the metabolic syndrome, happens when the cells of the body resist insulin. People with insulin resistance often have simultaneous health problems, including diabetes or prediabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol and triglycerides. This cluster of disorders raises a serious risk for developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes. People with insulin resistance are three times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as people without it, and they have five times more risk of developing type 2 diabetes.   

Overweight and Obesity
Overweight and obesity are both labels for ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems. Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used in classifying overweight and obesity in adult populations and individuals. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines “overweight” as a BMI equal to or greater than 25, and “obesity” as a BMI equal to or greater than 30. It is important to remember that although BMI correlates with the amount of body fat, BMI does not directly measure body fat. As a result, some people, such as athletes, may have a BMI that identifies them as overweight even though they do not have excess body fat.