Bagel or egg?
Sub or salad?
Pasta or Chicken with vegetables?

Wouldn’t it be super if you could just look at food and know what it would do to you in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 months and 5 years?  Well I’m going to share my xray vision goggles with you in the form of GLCYEMIC INDEX.

What’s the deal with Glycemic Index (GI)?

Eating 4 Better Health isn’t just about losing weight – it’s about preventing and reversing chronic disease conditions which shorten lives.

Functional Medicine = root cause and many times the root cause of chronic conditions is an imbalance in glucose control.  Diabetes, Heart attacks, Strokes… Thankfully not typically fatal – but boy do they scare us.  They cost a lot of money, take time out of our work week (and vacation time) for doctor’s appointments and hospitalizations. They decrease our energy, focus, and strength which inturn decreases our time to optimally enjoy life…and often lead to shorter lives.

Sugar, sweeteners and sugar substitutes are a MAIN focus for anyone who is trying to lose weight (well, for those not silly enough to follow the ‘low calorie – fat free” rules).  But what about sugar in foods like fruit (and bread!)?

Introducing the GLYCEMIC INDEX

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement for carbohydrate-containing foods and their impact on our blood sugar. GI is a better (easier) way than counting carbs to know which foods will effect our blood sugar.  GI measures the actual impact of these foods on our blood sugar instead of the carbohydrates before we eat them.

Sugar’s connection to chronic disease

According to Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (USCF), sugar acts as a chronic, dose-dependent liver toxin (poison) when consumed in excess.  But it’s not just sugar that causes excess burden on our life saving organs… it’s the Glycemic load (or index) that each thing we eat contains.

As Dr. Lustig notes, of the 70 percent of Americans who are normal weight (168 million people), 40 percent of them (67 million people) have insulin resistance on lab testing, and they manifest aspects of the metabolic syndrome as well.  Even the ‘thin healthy’ people will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia.

The prevalence of metabolic disease among normal weight people is not as great as among obese people (40 percent versus 80 percent) but most of my thin clients and patients aren’t aware that they, too are going down the roller coaster of American statistics. Eating for GI is an easy, proven way to redirect this statistic.

Is GI Important?

Research proves that sugar and high glycemic foods increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, stroke, depression, chronic kidney disease, gall stones, and cancers. Taking advantage of the health benefits of eating a low GI diet can be as simple as sticking with whole foods (in the state they are grown).

Bonus and immediate benefits of eating low glycemic is the lack of surge and crash you will feel with eating a lower glycemic diet.  No yawn, exhausted and brain fog feelings 1-2 hour after you eat. And sadly … It’s a cycle – you eat- you crash – you crave- you eat – you crash – you crave

GI 4 Better Health

Focusing on Low GI foods is the easiest way to reverse and prevent chronic conditions.  Check out this graph

This diagram will help to guide you with choosing lower GI meals and snacks. Health is cumulative (as is disease). Making a solid choice to eat a consistent low GI diet can –  and will – offer you benefits 4 Better Health.