I recently found out that low GI foods are less 'aging' than high GI foods.
So if you're interested in looking and feeling younger, then it may be time to get to know your low GI carbs.
Studies have shown that high GI foods cause more free radicals than low GI foods, and as a result, proteins in the body gets sugar coated (glycoslyated) and become damaged. This includes collagen in the skin, and they also turn the supple collagen to a more brittle form as well.
So if you want better skin, then switch to low GI.
I used to have high GI foods, but when I became aware of every high GI food and substituted for low GI, I found that the benefits included:
- Much more energy and mental alertness (no more sugar spikes)
- Fat loss (especially if you have a high GI carb in the evenings, or worse, late at night)
- Much longer concentration spans
- Skin became more translucent and younger
- No more sugar cravings and uncontrollable appetite
Here's my personal checklist that I use mentally:
High GI foods
- White bread, Turkish bread, wholemeal bread (yes, whole meal is high GI!)
- Sugar
- Jasmine rice
- Biscuits, pretzels
- Potatoes
- Fruit juice, soft drinks
- Refined cereals
Low GI (simply use these instead of above)
- Multigrain or sourdough bread
- Unprocessed honey
- Basmati rice
- Yoghurt
- Green leafy vegetables
- Fruit (can be low or medium GI)
- Oats or muesli with bran flakes or psyllium husks
For example, have yoghurt with fruit (eg blueberries) as a snack, instead of just fruit.
Or have cereal with a boiled egg, or cereal with some yoghurt.
The biggest mistake I see people make is settling for a white roll or white bread for their sandwich for lunch (and so many lunch places do not offer any other choice!) and following it up with fruit juice afterwards.
Even 1 GI meal can cause all the problems with a high GI diet (including increased risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, etc)
So try it out if you haven't already and feel the difference.
For me, it was possibly one of the most important changes I made to my diet.
I agree! I changed to low GI carbs a few years ago and have so much more control over sugar cravings. I would always feel tired in the afternoons and have a real 'energy slump' which found me eating sugar to get some energy back.
If I have a low Gi lunch and avo snack it doesn't happen. Though, if I eat lunch out and have normal bread I really notice the difference. By the afternoon I'm hungry for sugar and grumpy. I love low Gi!
ReplyI love this. Sugar has a GI of 61. The GI is meaningless. The GI values are from fasted subjects who eat the food being measured all by itself. Hello? Nobody does that! Eating the supposedly high GI food with fiber, fats and protein drastically reduces the GI of the meal.
Besides, why is everyone afraid of getting old? You're going to die one day. Get used to it.
ReplyDon't you think the very fact that the author of this article thinks sugar (sucrose) has a high GI indicates that this author simply doesn't know what he's talking about?
Among other things in my wide and varied diet, I eat potatoes, pasta, bagels, fruity pebbles, and all of the other supposedly horrible food that the GI zealots say you should avoid and guess what? I'm very lean, muscular, and I have an absolute ton of energy, consistently all day long. Why? I exercise. Having energy comes primarily from intense bouts of exercise, like lifting weights or interval sprinting.
ReplyAlso if you're really worried about getting old and you'd like something to really get your panties in a twist over, google "advanced glycation end products".
ReplyI do eat a lot of low GI foods but in this case, I have to agree with Barry to some extent. Combining foods & most of us do that when eating something, brings down the GI index as mentioned in this article. I tend to be eating something that brings down the higher GI index anyway if I am eating a high GI food. I try to do my best but I don't get too caught up on this. Yes, I know the GI values & try to eat lower ones but in the long run I think it all balances out with my food program.
But, as always, we are all different & if it works for you & it helps you lose weight & maintain that, go for it. Nothing wrong with that!
ReplyJody you are so right. All of us on diets or trying to eat healty are trying to climb the "mountain". Though there are many paths to the top. We are all different and if it works for you - then, go for it.
I find rice and bread makes my heart beat faster. I cut them out. I am not a hard core GI person but believe it is something to think about. Here in Okinawa, where some of the oldest people live, older people eat a very low GI diet. If it works for them it is not prudent to bash it.
ReplyMike, yup, I hear you on this. I really do not eat a lot of high GI food so in general, for me, I don't have to worry too much. I like that study you mentioned!
ReplyI'm with Barry on this one as well...GI is a sort of meaningless statistic that doesn't always translate really well in real life. Well, ok, maybe if you eat only plain rice all the time or something, but like Barry said...who does that? I try to eat the foods on that list that are "low GI" index, but not always. I tend to combine any high GI food that I eat with low GI foods, so I don't get the energy spikes either. As far as getting old, I think the antioxidants that are present in fruits and vegetables are more responsible for antiaging effects than simply the GI score.
ReplyOf even more importance than the GI alone is the GL (glycemic load; the amount of the food you eat times its GI). A lower GL meal which also contains moderate amounts of lean protein and monounsaturated fat allows insulin levels to lower, which is where most of the anti-aging benefit comes from. What I've just described is the basis of the Zone diet. The Zone diet is a clinically proven anti-inflammatory anti-aging diet and lifestyle.
Replyto clarify a point: while sucrose is low GI, most table sugar the we encounter has been treated with bleach and is no longer sucrose but has been refined to maltose and fructose.
ReplyYes sucrose has a GI of about 60 according to the data tables - BUT this is for 10g. Since 1 oz is about 28.5g this is quite a small amount of sucrose. The more of a particular simple carbohydrate foodstuff in a portion the more it is going to raise blood sugar. One crystal of sugar is not going to raise your blood sugar much, but several ounces is going to have a dramatic effect. AMOUNT IS CRUCIAL. Glycemic Load kind of addresses this. But it too has its problems.
There ain't a hell of a lot of difference between basmati rice and jasmine rice. They are both white rice polished to remove fiber.
Also remember when people design a scale they have to designate a cut off point somewhere. As a made-up example lets say above 60 is the high category and 60 and below is the low category. If one rice is 61 and the other is 59,they fall in different categories, but are not really that different. Get the actual values and then make a decision. Also as pointed out the way the numbers are generated are artificial. Is a good dollop of honey raw or processed really not going to spike your blood sugar under normal conditions?
Sure we are going to get old - but we want to be healthy in old age.
Why is high blood glucose, which is what the original post was all about, aging. The main answer is advanced glycation end products (AGEs). The wikipedia entry on AGEs is good, though not exactly easy reading.
Luci - sugar is not bleached it is white. Plus sucrose is a disaccharide, a fructose and a glucose linked together. Maltose is a disaccharide made of two glucoses.
ReplyAddendum
Sucrose, table sugar, is white. Brown sugar is brown due to the presence of molasses. Molasses certainly has some nutrients - but molasses is a high calorie food.
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