Low Glycemic Diet

How Can it Help You?

A glycemic diet uses the glycemic index (GI) to ranks carbohydrate foods according to how much and how fast these foods affect blood glucose levels. How can eating a low GI diet help you? 

A low glycemic diet may help you:

• Lower blood sugars (especially 2 hr pc)
• Lose weight 
• Reduce insulin resistance
• Reduce symptoms of PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome - annoying and uncomfortable.)
• Improve endurance training and sports performance
• Reduce heart disease
• Lower lipids
• Prevent diabetes
• Prevent heart disease
• Reduce hunger

In diabetes, lower glycemic index foods can help lower blood sugars because they raise the blood glucose less compared to equal amounts of carbohydrate  from higher glycemic index foods.  This is particularly useful for controlling 2 hr post prandial blood sugars.  Here, take a look at a few examples that show the effects on blood sugar of equal amounts of carbohydrate from different foods.

Cornflakes are NOT a low glycemic diet food . .  .

 I've seen blood sugars improve dramatically after breakfast by switching from cornflakes (most flakes are fast changing into glucose)  to oatmeal or All Bran Buds ( both "slow" carbs and raise blood sugar to a lesser extent).  Or switching from two 100% whole wheat bread (fast) to one slice of corky pumpernickel (which is so heavy and requires sooo much chewing it is equal to two bread - but it is "slow" and tastes great with peanut butter!). 

Neither is 100% whole wheat bread.

Don't think I'm bad mouthing the typical 60% or 100% whole wheat bread just because it's a high glycemic index food. It does have the great benefits of being high fibre and low fat! However,  because the grain is ground into such a fine powder, it is fast in raising the blood sugar compared to the corky pumpernickel.  Generally speaking, the more intact and coarse the grains are in the bread, the slower the bread.

Blood Sugars While Trying  a Low Glycemic Diet

If you're thinking of trying lower GI foods to help blood sugars, be sure to consider testing your blood glucose levels before and 2 hr after the meal to see the total effect on the blood sugar. (as well as talking with your health educator as per the disclaimer.) To make sense of your readings, you need to know blood sugar targets for before and after eating.  I can think of hundreds of patients over the years who panicked unnecessarily about blood sugars of 7.8  mmol/L or 142 mg/dL which were 2 hr after eating. Always compare your blood glucose level to targets before deciding if it's in target or not in target. And verify your targets with your physician.
Keep in mind that you may find no difference in blood sugar 2 hr after the low glycemic diet meal  compared to  2 hr after a high glycemic meal. This means  your pancreas was able to release enough insulin to cover the fast entering glucose from the high glycemic meal. Which is great and lucky, however, your pancreas likely had to work harder to do that.  This may poop your pancreas out faster.
This could explain why people who eat a more low glycemic diet get diabetes less than those who regularly eat a high glycemic diet.  Low glycemic diets are less work for the pancreas since not as much insulin needs to be released. The pancreas then works better for longer. 
For people who don't have insulin resistance and who have a "Cadillac" for a pancreas (works great for years)  this means nothing. But for those with type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes or insulin resistance (and most people with this don't know they have it), any rest or relaxation that you can give the pancreas is beneficial since those medical conditions exhaust the "Chrysler K-car" pancreas - a pancreas that  is errr . . . unreliable and not the longest lasting model on the market to begin with.
How successful can a low glycemic diet be in lowering blood sugars? Successful enough. There are studies to show that people with diabetes who eat a lower glycemic diet do have lower A1cs! Lower hemoglobin A1cs mean lower risk for diabetes complications. Do remember that everyone is individual.