Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies, 2nd Edition (For Dummies Series) - Softcover

Raffetto, Meri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1118790561 ISBN 13: 9781118790564

Verlag: For Dummies, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Get proven results from this safe, effective, and easy-to-follow diet

The glycemic load is a ranking system for carbohydrate-rich food that measures the amount of carbohydrates in a serving. The glycemic index indicates how rapidly a carbohydrate is digested and released as glucose (sugar) into the bloodstream. Using the Glycemic Index is a proven method for calculating the way carbohydrates act in your body to help you lose weight, safely, quickly, and effectively.

The second edition of The Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies presents this system in an easy-to-apply manner, giving you the tools and tips you need to shed unwanted pounds and improve your overall health. You'll not only discover how to apply the glycemic index to your existing diet plan, but you'll also get new and updated information on how to develop a healthy lifestyle.

• Recommends foods that boost metabolism, promote weight loss, and provide longer-lasting energy
• Features delicious GI recipes for glycemic-friendly cooking at home
• Includes exercises for maintaining glycemic index weight loss and promoting physical fitness
• Offers guidance on shopping for food as well as eating at restaurants and away from home

Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies, 2nd Edition is for anyone looking for an easy-to-apply guide to making the switch to this healthy lifestyle.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Meri Raffetto, RD, is the founder and developer of Real Living Nutrition Services, providing online weight loss programs to empower people to make small changes to achieve lasting results. Meri specializes in weight management and heart disease prevention and is a member of the American Dietetic Association.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

• Rate foods by their glycemic index and eat better
• Adjust your diet to improve health and increase energy
• Lose weight by following scientifically proven measures

Lose weight, increase your energy levels, and get healthy with the glycemic index diet

With Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies, you can discover how using the scientifically proven glycemic index will help you shed pounds, maintain your healthy weight, increase your energy level, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Dive into this simple, effective diet to learn which foods to eat and how to get and stay.

• Make the switch ― prepare yourself for a successful weight loss program by creating a plan centered on a low glycemic index
• Lose weight ― use portion control, detailed information about glycemic loads of various foods, and other tips to shed pounds
• Get healthy ― find out how a low glycemic index diet can help you lose weight, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and fight disease
• Increase energy levels ― if you’re fed up with being tired, discover how the low glycemic index diet will increase your energy throughout the day
• Overcome common challenges ― discover how to create a support system and overcome challenges like dining out and eating on special occasions

Open the book and find:

• Recipes that will keep you satisfied all day
• A list of foods and their glycemic load numbers
• Which foods are best for your diet
• How to revamp your favorite recipes to meet your diet
• Ways to lose weight, and keep your blood sugar in check
• How to decrease your daily glycemic load
• A chart of acidic foods that help you lose weight
• Comprehensive info on which carbs are beneficial and which aren’t

Aus dem Klappentext

• Rate foods by their glycemic index and eat better
• Adjust your diet to improve health and increase energy
• Lose weight by following scientifically proven measures

Lose weight, increase your energy levels, and get healthy with the glycemic index diet

With Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies, you can discover how using the scientifically proven glycemic index will help you shed pounds, maintain your healthy weight, increase your energy level, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Dive into this simple, effective diet to learn which foods to eat and how to get and stay.

• Make the switch — prepare yourself for a successful weight loss program by creating a plan centered on a low glycemic index
• Lose weight — use portion control, detailed information about glycemic loads of various foods, and other tips to shed pounds
• Get healthy — find out how a low glycemic index diet can help you lose weight, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and fight disease
• Increase energy levels — if you’re fed up with being tired, discover how the low glycemic index diet will increase your energy throughout the day
• Overcome common challenges — discover how to create a support system and overcome challenges like dining out and eating on special occasions

Open the book and find:

• Recipes that will keep you satisfied all day
• A list of foods and their glycemic load numbers
• Which foods are best for your diet
• How to revamp your favorite recipes to meet your diet
• Ways to lose weight, and keep your blood sugar in check
• How to decrease your daily glycemic load
• A chart of acidic foods that help you lose weight
• Comprehensive info on which carbs are beneficial and which aren’t

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Glycemic Index Diet For Dummies

By Meri Reffetto

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-118-79056-4

CHAPTER 1

Introducing the Glycemic Index and How to Use It to Lose Weight

In This Chapter

* Surveying the ins and outs of the glycemic index

* Looking at how using the glycemic index can help you lose weight

* Recognizing that the glycemic index "diet" isn't like diets you've tried before

* Reviewing the additional benefits of following a low-glycemic diet

The glycemic index was first introduced in the early 1980s as a way for people with diabetes to achieve tighter blood sugar control and improve their overall health. Only 62 foods were part of the original glycemic index research. Fast forward to today, and you find that hundreds of foods have now been tested. Companies are even working to develop lower-glycemic foods to meet growing consumer demand.

In this chapter, I review the research behind the glycemic index and explain how adding more low-glycemic foods to your diet can help you lose weight, embrace a healthier lifestyle, decrease your risk of heart disease, manage your blood sugar, increase your energy levels, and improve your mood. Sure, all of that may sound too good to be true, but the scientific research is clear: Looking beyond total carbohydrate content of foods into how different foods affect blood sugar and insulin levels opens up a doorway into good health.

Getting to Know the Glycemic Index

The glycemic index is a scientific way of looking at how the carbohydrates in foods affect blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels. Scientists know that all carbohydrates raise blood sugar, but the glycemic index takes this understanding one step further by figuring out how much a specific food raises blood sugar.

When you use the glycemic index to plan your meals and snacks, you're following a glycemic index diet. It's not a "diet" in the sense that there are specific meal plans you need to follow, lists of foods to eat and foods to avoid, and other types of rules that are all too familiar to people who've tried various weight-loss diet plans. Instead, the glycemic index gives you a method for selecting foods that meet your specific needs and desires.

TIP

You know those overlay maps, where you start with a very basic map, add an overlay with more detail, then add another overlay with yet more detail, and so on until you have a complete picture of a specific area? Think of using the glycemic index in a similar way.

[check] The first "overlay" is basic meal planning. Your body tells you it's hungry and wants food.

[check] Next comes the layer of basic nutrition, which is all about balance. Your meal needs to include protein (chicken, fish, lean red meat, soy products, eggs, nuts/seeds), vegetables, healthy fats (olive oil, avocadoes, nuts) and starch (whole grains, potatoes, pasta) to keep your body happy. If you throw in a glass of milk and some fruit on the side, your body will be even happier.

[check] Finally, you add in the glycemic index for a complete picture. Because the glycemic index applies solely to foods that contain carbohydrates, it applies only to the vegetable, starch, milk, and fruit portions of your meal. Theoretically you already have an understanding of these foods' nutritional values. The glycemic index completes the picture by telling you how these foods will impact your blood sugar, which affects everything from your energy level to your food cravings.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the glycemic index, check out the following sections for the scoop on how it's measured and how an added bit of information makes it even more valuable.

Measuring the glycemic index

REMEMBER

The glycemic index ranks foods on a scale of 0 to 100 based on how quickly they raise blood sugar levels. Foods that raise blood sugar quickly have a higher number, whereas foods that take longer to affect blood sugar levels have a lower number.

To measure the glycemic index of a food, a specific weight of the digestible carbohydrates in the food (usually 50 grams, which is about 4 tablespoons of sugar) is fed to at least ten different people who volunteer for the study. Their blood sugar levels are measured every 15 to 30 minutes over a two-hour period to develop a blood sugar response curve. The blood sugar response of each food is compared to that of a test food, typically table sugar (glucose), which is assigned the number 100. The responses for each test subject are averaged, resulting in the glycemic index number for that food. Every individual person may have a slightly different glycemic (blood sugar) response to foods, which is why the tests use a number of volunteers and average their results together.

REMEMBER

The information on glycemic index (GI) lists is divided into three basic categories so you don't have to get caught up in numbers and can instead focus on the primary goal of the glycemic index — choosing foods that keep your blood sugar levels more even, resulting in longer-lasting satiety (the feeling of fullness) and improved health. Here are the three categories:

[check] GI of 55 or less = low

[check] GI of 56 to 69 = medium

[check] GI of 70 or more = high

Introducing the glycemic load

Putting a numerical value on how various carbohydrate-containing foods affect blood sugar levels — the glycemic index — is great. However, the glycemic index is calculated using a standard weight of food, usually 50 grams. A food's glycemic index actually changes based on the amount of it that you eat, which is why a standard weight amount is always used when calculating the glycemic index. In real life, you don't always eat a standard amount of food. Sometimes you may eat two bowls of cereal at breakfast; other times you may eat one. Occasionally you want second helpings of pasta or an extra roll at dinner. You know what it's like.

The glycemic index is calculated not only for a specific weight of food but also for eating just that one food. That's great for researching how one particular food affects blood sugar levels, but what happens when you eat more than one food at a time, such as a peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk and an apple?

This is where a little something called the glycemic load becomes important. I cover glycemic load extensively in Chapter 4, but here are the basics: The glycemic load applies the glycemic index to the amount of food you're actually going to eat, or to the total amount of carbohydrate-containing foods in a meal or snack. To calculate the glycemic load (GL), multiply the glycemic index (GI) of a food by the amount of carbohydrates in the food and then divide by 100. For example, 1 cup of watermelon has a GI of 72 and contains 10 grams of carbohydrates. 72 × 10 = 720, and 720 ÷ 100 = 7, the glycemic load of 1 cup of watermelon. If you eat two cups of watermelon, use this calculation: 72 × 20 = 1,440; 1,440 ÷ 100 = a GL of 14.

What if you eat a turkey sandwich with two pieces of bread and drink one cup of fat-free milk? A slice of white bread has a GI of 70, and each slice contains 15 grams of carbohydrates. One cup of fat-free milk has a GI of 32 and contains 13 grams of carbohydrates. The GL for the meal is 25 (70 × 15 = 1,050, and 1,050 ÷ 100 = 10.5; 32 × 13 = 416; 416 ÷ 100 = 4.16). Add up each glycemic load 10.5 + 10.5 + 4.16 =...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: For Dummies
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1118790561
• ISBN 13: 9781118790564
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 408
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Wiley-VCH GmbH; product_safety@wiley.com; ; Boschstrasse 12; Weinheim; 69469; Deutschland