Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - How blood sugar levels affect weight loss (episode#2)

Keith · 04-20-2007, 09:46 PM

Categorising by simple/complex (ie. chemical structure) has proven an inaccurately model of the actual blood sugar effect of foods.

You might have heard of the Glycaemic Index (GI). The GI was developed by feeding people foods and actually measuring how rapidly it impacts their blood sugar response. There are numerous sites on the web that will tell you whether a given food is high or low GI. (Obviously there are a lot of foods and some haven't been tested yet but all the basic foods have, plus a lot of others).

There are some surprises. One is that all sugars are not created equal. Fructose is very low GI, and we use it in lieu of sucrose for that reason (Note: Fructose has other negative effects on diabetics, however). Sucrose is in the middle of the high range, but actually has less blood sugar impact than a baked potato! Glutinous white rice is absorbed almost as rapidly as pure glucose!

Sugar is still empty calories, and excess is bad for you in a number of ways. But if impact on your blood sugar (and hence energy levels) is your concern, there are worse things to watch out for.

See The Glycemic Index for more information.

[EDIT] BTW, there are two different scales for measuring GI so if you're researching on the web, make sure you're comparing apples and apples. The current scale assigns Glucose a GI value of 100.

04-20-2007, 09:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
Keith Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 1,130	Categorising by simple/complex (ie. chemical structure) has proven an inaccurately model of the actual blood sugar effect of foods. You might have heard of the Glycaemic Index (GI). The GI was developed by feeding people foods and actually measuring how rapidly it impacts their blood sugar response. There are numerous sites on the web that will tell you whether a given food is high or low GI. (Obviously there are a lot of foods and some haven't been tested yet but all the basic foods have, plus a lot of others). There are some surprises. One is that all sugars are not created equal. Fructose is very low GI, and we use it in lieu of sucrose for that reason (Note: Fructose has other negative effects on diabetics, however). Sucrose is in the middle of the high range, but actually has less blood sugar impact than a baked potato! Glutinous white rice is absorbed almost as rapidly as pure glucose! Sugar is still empty calories, and excess is bad for you in a number of ways. But if impact on your blood sugar (and hence energy levels) is your concern, there are worse things to watch out for. See The Glycemic Index for more information. [EDIT] BTW, there are two different scales for measuring GI so if you're researching on the web, make sure you're comparing apples and apples. The current scale assigns Glucose a GI value of 100. __________________ When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created. When the way is forgotten, 'morality' and 'piety' need to be taught. -Dao De Jing, Chapter 2 Last edited by Keith; 04-21-2007 at 02:00 AM.