2.15 Glycemic Index
You may have heart the term “glycemic index”, so let’s talk about it quickly. This is helpful for diabetics. Carbohydrates with a high glycemic index are digested and absorbed quickly, which can result in spikes in blood sugar. Carbohydrates with a low glycemic index digest slower and do not result in as large of spikes as the higher glycemic index foods.
Simple carbohydrates have a high glycemic index and complex carbohydrates have a lower glycemic index.
The glycemic index uses a scale of 0 to 100 to help people determine how their blood sugar will react to certain foods. Here is a chart that shows different foods in varying food groups and their glycemic index. In general, foods with a lower glycemic index like vegetables are more healthy:
While this information is very nice to know, remember that diabetes is a disease of too much fat in the body blocking the effects of insulin in the muscle cells and NOT of too many dietary carbohydrates in general. Yes, foods with a high glycemic index will increase blood sugars, but the overal insulin resistance that causes type II diabetes is due to excess of fat. Thus diets very low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates and whole plant foods are completely fine as they do a great job promoting weight loss and can markedly reduce or even eliminate insulin resistance.