Saul Katz: Low Glycemic for Life!

SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST!

Why are we getting fatter and fatter, as a society?  In Nature’s infinite wisdom, survival of the fittest may have been in fact survival of the fattest. No wonder we are in the midst of a growing obesity epidemic.

We are the product of our genetic inheritance.  The obesity epidemic is in large part driven by similar mechanisms that ensured the survival of our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors some 40,000 years ago. Those of us who are predisposed to fat storage and weight gain may possess a special gene that promotes cravings and fat storage. Selective breeding over the millennia ensured the survival of those individuals (2/3's of Americans) which carry that special frugal gene which helped our ancestors make it through periods of drought and food scarcity.

Today however, this same mechanism is compromising our health as food is in abundance year round - and we don’t burn many calories driving to the grocery store.  I remember my wife Genoa attending a speaking engagement I had in Seattle for Mannatech (a leading nutracetical company). She wasn’t feeling well until we go to the Mall, when she proclaimed “I FEEL ALIVE!” No wonder; what a great place to hunt and gather.    

This theory is supported by a new study that suggests genetic and heritability may account for 77% of obesity, while environmental factors make up less than 25% according. Researchers at the University College London (UCL) reported after studying 5,092 twin pairs of children, that although contemporary environments have made today’s children fatter than 20 years ago, the primary explanation for variations within the population, then and now, is genetic differences between individual children (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2008, Volume 87, No2).

Coomenting on the study, Dr. David Ludwig* of Harvard Medical School stated: “The bottom line is we can’t change our genes, but we can change our environment where we and our kids spend much of our time. ‘Protecting the home environment’ is in fact the primary parenting practice we recommend in our 9-week family weight loss program here at the Children’s Hospital Boston.”

Clearing your home of high GI snacks and replacing them with fresh fruit and vegetables is a good start on changing your home environment. If on-the-go garb and give your kids a nutritionally balanced Low GI nutrition bar.  Dr. Ludwig is lead investigator of a new study that uses SoLo Gi® Nutrition Bars in a Low GI diet to prevent maternal gestational diabetes and a disposition to infant obesity and diabetes early in life.

*David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D. Endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program, Children’s Hospital Boston. Author of Ending the Food Fight, Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food / Fake Food World (2007) “Dr. Ludwig pioneered the use of a Low Glycemic Diet in Combating Obesity.”

Low Glycemic Index (GI) and Low Glycemic Load (GL) foods have been proven in studies to be beneficial: dieting; weight loss; obesity; diabetes; balancing blood sugar; sustained energy; sport nutrition; mental performance; acne; eye health; macular degeneration; heart disease and forms of cancer. See also Low GI Diet, Low GI Recipes, Low GI Food, Low GI Eating.

Copyright 2008, Saul Katz

GUIDELINES FOR ADOPTING A LOW GI LIFESTYLE

A low GI diet can help you lose weight and keep it off, but there are a number of principles and guidelines that should be adopted to ensure long-term success. They are designed to enhance the quality of your new low GI lifestyle by improving and maintaining your health and well-being for your lifetime. The goal is to equip you with the tools you need to design your own low GI lifestyle by providing healthy eating strategies and lifestyle principles. Please embrace each one with care, and with time you will be equipped to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and fight illness and disease at the same time. You should live fully and enjoy all that life has to offer; including good food and physical activity.

1. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits every day

2. Eat low GI breads and grains

3. Eat more legumes such as beans, chickpeas and lentils

4. Choose healthy proteins

5. Choose healthy fat sources

6. Choose packaged and prepared foods carefully

7. Stay hydrated

8. Get active

9. Eat mindfully all day long

Tip of the Day:

Water is quickly becoming the forgotten "nutrient" in the American diet. More than half of the human body is composed of water and we could not live without it for more than a few days. Interestingly, the consumption of sodas far exceeds the consumption of water in our society. I challenge you to try increasing your consumption of water by one glass every few days until you reach approximately 8 cups (more for increased activity), to see how different if makes you feel. You might even find that you naturally reduce your food intake, as sometimes a signal for "hunger" is actually one of thirst when you are not properly hydrated. When you feel hungry between meals, it may actually be dehydration that is causing you to feel this way. To "spice" it up, try adding a splash lemon or lime juice, or treat yourself to a bottle of sparking water. Supplied by: Carla Poirier, Manager, Research & Development, Solo GI Nutrition

LOW GI MEALS MADE EASY WITH SIMPLE CHANGES

Today I would like to provide you with some helpful information and tips on how to reduce the GI of your meals, while paying careful attention to the nutritional balance and health impact at the same time.

As you are now aware, the Glycemic Index is based on the manner in which carbohydrate-containing foods are digested in the body and how quickly or slowly the energy is released. Most foods do not contain carbohydrates exclusively; often they will also have fiber, protein, fat and various types of micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Foods such as whole grains, legumes, nuts, many fruits and vegetables, and clinically-validated packaged products such as SoLo Gi® Low Glycemic Nutrition Bars contain carbohydrate, fiber, protein and fat and are therefore more likely to be nutritionally balanced. Not only are these foods low GI, but the balanced nutrition contributes additional benefits such as increased satiety (feeling of fullness), less cravings, promote regularity, and add diversity to your meals.

It is also helpful to note that because protein and fat do not contain carbohydrates, they do not contribute to the GI and will not immediately impact your blood glucose levels. The case with fiber is a little different because although it doesn’t raise your blood sugar, it affects how fast glucose from other foods enters your blood stream. Fiber-containing foods help to slow the digestion process, promoting blood sugar balance, while also keeping you full for longer. Therefore, adding some fiber, protein or fat (within reason) to your meals and snacks will help to reduce the GI, keep blood glucose levels stable, provide additional nutrients, and keep you satisfied for longer thereby promoting weight loss.

To help with your meal preparation, I have provided some suggestions for changes you can make in your meals to help you learn the principles of adopting a low GI lifestyle. Please click here to see the list. Stay tuned tomorrow to learn more about the guidelines and principles of the low GI diet.

Tip of the Day:

To add some "food for thought" to your dinner plate this evening, consider how you would feel about consuming food products from cloned animals. The FDA recently ruled that foods from healthy cloned animals and their offspring are as safe as those from ordinary animals. The 968-page "final risk assessment" not yet released, finds no evidence to support opponents’ concerns that food from clones may harbor hidden risks. Read the full story as published in the Washinton Post Jan 14, 2008, then you decide. There will certainly be more to come on this topic!

LOW GI DIET - MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES

According to recent research looking at consumer buying habits, American consumers make their food choices based on taste, price, convenience, appearance and shelf life. Notice that none of these have anything to do with health! Justifiably so, as most people have good intentions for sticking to a weight loss plan, but often it is too difficult to understand or cumbersome to plan and organize your food choices. Because the GI diet is not a plan but more a way of life, with proper guidance on food choice and selection, you will see how easy it can be to change your way of thinking.

One of the problems with many popular diet plans is the reduction or elimination of entire food groups. The GI diet is about balance and should contain adequate amounts from all of the food groups. When combining meals, you should not only choose low GI carbohydrates but also healthy choices of protein and fat. This will not only reduce the GI of your meal but also enhance the satiety value by keeping you full for longer. It is also very important to watch your portion sizes because we all know calories count for weight loss! To help get you going, please see the following attachment adapted from the SoLo Gi® Low Glycemic Nutrition website, which contains great ideas and tips on how to switch from a high GI to a low GI diet.

Also, because one of the biggest problems with weight loss is the between-meal period, I have created a list of "convenient" low GI choices below. This should help take some of the guesswork out of making low GI choices and adopting the low GI lifestyle.

1. Trail mix with nuts and dried fruit

2. Fruit (i.e. apple, orange, peach, pear)

3. Cheese sticks

4. Low fat milk or soy milk latte (watch the sugar)

5. Smoothies (i.e. blend with low fat milk, scoop of peanut butter and fruit)

6. Low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit

7. Hummus with whole grain crackers or pita bread

8. SoLo Gi™ Low Glycemic Nutrition Bars

Tip of the Day: When making food choices, I encourage you to think not only about the GI of the food, but also how much "nutritional" bang you are getting for your "calorie buck".

Low Glycemic Index (GI) and Low Glycemic Load (GL) foods have been proven in studies to be beneficial: dieting; weight loss; obesity; diabetes; balancing blood sugar; sustained energy; sport nutrition; mental performance; acne; eye health; macular degeneration; heart disease and forms of cancer. See also Low GI Diet, Low GI Recipes, Low GI Food, Low GI Eating.

Copyright 2008, Saul Katz

ARE YOUR HORMONES MAKING YOU FAT?

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…

Tip of the day:

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that dieters lost 5 times more weight on a low glycemic diet vs. a traditional low fat diet. Click on the links below for more on this story.

Low Glycemic Diet better for weight loss than low fat diet

JAMA article

TO SPEED UP FAT LOSS, YOU NEED TO SLOW DOWN BLOOD SUGAR!

To lose weight and keep it off you need to adopt a sensible and healthy approach to weight loss that is sustainable for life.  Highly restrictive diets (i.e. low fat, low carb, low calorie) are largely ineffective in the long term as they work against the body’s survival program, and often result in rebound weight gain and yo-yo dieting, notwithstanding the best intentions. In fact, for many people it is about one failed diet after another.  Let’s have a look at how the Glycemic Index (GI) works with the body to achieve effortless weight loss by regulating blood sugar levels. The Glycemic Index (GI) is a scientific measurement that ranks how fast a particular carbohydrate containing food elevates blood sugar, on a scale where a reference food (glucose) is fixed at 100.

The key to sustainable weight loss is proper carb selection, NOT reduction or elimination as promoted by popular low-carb diets. The key is in learning which carbohydrates are low GI, what makes them so, and how they impact your ability to lose weight.  Carbs should optimally comprise 45-65% of the calories in your diet. They are your body’s preferred source of energy and provide ingredients vital to health such as fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients.

Just as modern science showed us that not all fats are evil, we are now learning that not all carbs are created equal.  The fat promoting carbs (high GI carbs) are digested rapidly, elevating blood sugar and insulin levels.  Insulin is a powerful hormone that shuttles sugar into the cells of the body for energy, and helps convert and store surplus sugar as fat, as an energy storehouse, for later use.  High GI diets are primarily responsible for that mid-afternoon blood sugar (energy) crash which sends you reaching for more high GI carbs to lift you back up, taxing your body’s insulin-regulating response and sending you into a blood sugar roller coaster. To avoid this from happening, you need to choose low GI carbs that are digested and metabolized more slowly, allowing for a gradual “time-release” of sugar and insulin into the blood stream – so your body is more likely to use the sugar for energy at that time, instead of converting it into fat.

In addition to preventing fat storage, low GI snacks such as SoLo Gi™ Low Glycemic Nutrition Bars, are ideal for weight loss because they also prevent the spike, crash and crave cycle, provide sustained energy, and keep you feeling satisfied so you can get to your next meal on fewer calories.

It is my goal is to educate you on the key elements of the Glycemic Index in relation to weight loss and how low GI carbs can help to facilitate this process. As the GI is something to be adopted for long term health, let’s first focus on making some simple yet important modifications in your diet so you can get started today. Even these small changes will result in improved energy levels, better concentration and the shedding of pounds.

Try, in general to cut back on products made from refined grains – white bread, bagels, crackers, as well as baked potatoes and white rice. These foods raise blood sugar faster table sugar. Instead, replace them with beans, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and when on-the-go clinically-validated snacks such as SoLo Gi™ Low Glycemic Nutrition Bars.

To speed up fat loss, you need to slow down your blood sugar! Tomorrow, you will learn more about how blood sugar balance is intricately regulated by the hormones in your body and how this relates to the magic behind weight loss using the GI.

Tip of the day: Remember that fiber is your friend. Fiber-containing foods (those recommended above) help to slow the digestion process (and the GI), promoting blood sugar balance. Additionally, fiber can help you to feel full for longer, so you’re less likely to get hunger pangs and reach for the cookie tin. Other benefits of fiber consumption include keeping your bowels healthy, helping to lower cholesterol levels, and promoting healthy gut bacteria. Contributed by: Carla Poirier, Food Scientist, Solo GI Nutrition.

Low Glycemic Index (GI), low Glycemic Load (GL) foods have been proven in studies to be beneficial for: diet, weight loss, obesity/diabetic, blood sugar management, sports/sport nutrition, energy foods, mental performance, concentration, acne, eye health, macular degeneration, disease prevention: diabetes, heart disease and forms of cancer.

THE GLYCEMIC INDEX - WHAT ALL DIETS HAVE IN COMMON

To lose weight and keep it off you need to adopt a sensible and healthy approach to weight loss that is sustainable for life. Highly restrictive diets (i.e. low fat, low carb, low calorie) are largely ineffective in the long term as they work against the body’s survival program, and often result in rebound weight gain and yo-yo dieting, notwithstanding the best intentions. In fact, for many people it is about one failed diet after another.

Let’s have a look at how the Glycemic Index (GI) works with the body to achieve effortless weight loss by regulating blood sugar levels. The Glycemic Index (GI) is a scientific measurement that ranks how fast a particular carbohydrate containing food elevates blood sugar, on a scale where a reference food (glucose) is fixed at 100. The key to sustainable weight loss is proper carb selection, NOT reduction or elimination as promoted by popular low-carb diets.

The key is in learning which carbohydrates are low GI, what makes them so, and how they impact your ability to lose weight. Carbs should optimally comprise 45-65% of the calories in your diet. They are your body’s preferred source of energy and provide ingredients vital to health such as fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients. Just as modern science showed us that not all fats are evil, we are now learning that not all carbs are created equal.

The fat promoting carbs (high GI carbs) are digested rapidly, elevating blood sugar and insulin levels. Insulin is a powerful hormone that shuttles sugar into the cells of the body for energy, and helps convert and store surplus sugar as fat, as an energy storehouse, for later use. High GI diets are primarily responsible for that mid-afternoon blood sugar (energy) crash which sends you reaching for more high GI carbs to lift you back up, taxing your body’s insulin-regulating response and sending you into a blood sugar roller coaster.

To avoid this from happening, you need to choose low GI carbs that are digested and metabolized more slowly, allowing for a gradual “time-release” of sugar and insulin into the blood stream – so your body is more likely to use the sugar for energy at that time, instead of converting it into fat. In addition to preventing fat storage, low GI snacks such as SoLo Gi™ Low Glycemic Nutrition Bars, are ideal for weight loss because they also prevent the spike, crash and crave cycle, provide sustained energy, and keep you feeling satisfied so you can get to your next meal on fewer calories. It is my goal is to educate you on the key elements of the Glycemic Index in relation to weight loss and how low GI carbs can help to facilitate this process.

As the GI is something to be adopted for long term health, let’s first focus on making some simple yet important modifications in your diet so you can get started today. Even these small changes will result in improved energy levels, better concentration and the shedding of pounds. Try, in general to cut back on products made from refined grains – white bread, bagels, crackers, as well as baked potatoes and white rice. These foods raise blood sugar faster table sugar. Instead, replace them with beans, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and when on-the-go clinically-validated snacks such as SoLo Gi™ Low Glycemic Nutrition Bars.

To speed up fat loss, you need to slow down your blood sugar! Tomorrow, you will learn more about how blood sugar balance is intricately regulated by the hormones in your body and how this relates to the magic behind weight loss using the GI. Tip of the day: Remember that fiber is your friend. Fiber-containing foods (those recommended above) help to slow the digestion process (and the GI), promoting blood sugar balance. Additionally, fiber can help you to feel full for longer, so you’re less likely to get hunger pangs and reach for the cookie tin. Other benefits of fiber consumption include keeping your bowels healthy, helping to lower cholesterol levels, and promoting healthy gut bacteria. Low Glycemic Index (GI), low Glycemic Load (GL) foods have been proven in studies to be beneficial for: diet, weight loss, obesity/diabetic, blood sugar management, sports/sport nutrition, energy foods, mental performance, concentration, acne, eye health, macular degeneration, disease prevention: diabetes, heart disease and forms of cancer.