Constantly Craving

Which types of carbs are bad? Are there such a thing as fast or slow carbs? The world or sugar and carbohydrates have been constantly changing over the past 20 years. So, what is the best way to make sure that your diet has a consistent set of micros in it? Doctors, nutritionists, and scientists have come to an agreement that using the Glycemic index is one of the best ways to understand the differences in carbohydrates and how they will affect your body. In the end all sugars and the starches that you eat daily turn into the same thing, glucose. This is how glucose is found inside of your bloodstream.

What is the Glycemic Index? A simple way to explain the Glycemic index is, that it is a way to measure how quickly food can cause our blood sugar levels to rise and fall. Although there have been many studies trying to create new styles of the Glycemic index many factors still stay the same. In both women and in men the amount of alcohol and the amount of water consumed did not affect the ratings of the studies. There also was no difference in between the naturally occurring sugars that are found and processed ones.

A great way to measure your Glycemic index is comparing it to white bread. Scientists have created a conversion for Glycemic index to white bread so that you could track it. To track your glucose index (GI) all you need to do is 1.43 by your Glycemic index. Foods that we often eat like potatoes, rice, and pasta all have multiple Glycemic indexes. This can be due to the way that they are cooked or even the plant species that they can be found in. It is known to make sure you have good cholesterol it is important to stay at or above 20 mg/dl levels of blood glucose in the body.

The Glycemic index can be very beneficial to those with high carbohydrate diets as well as those who are diabetic. The Glycemic index helps to track the triglycerides in your body, which would help to determine if you have good or bad cholesterol. Eating a balance of low GI and high GI is the best way to keep yourself away from health scares like heart disease. A great way to improve your health is by using the GI and the Glycemic index to make sure that you choose to eat the right carbohydrates at the right time. Another great way to make sure you are staying in balance in through a mixed GI formula. The formula is as follows

Mixed GI = (( Single food carb/total meal carb cal) x (single GI)) + other carb sources

This may seem more complicated than it really is! Basically, you need to make sure that you are balancing foods with high GI’s like Honey for example with foods that have a lower GI like skim milk. Mixing these different GI’s can help your total GI to be much lower than just eating one of these items by themselves.

Overall in tracking your food intake make sure that you are keeping your carbohydrate intake balanced with other food groups. This will help you to stay in within a comfortable range for your doctor.