Fall In Love With Carbs All Over Again With The Low GI Diet Plan
You might get that churning in your stomach when anyone mentions the word ‘Carbohydrates’ during your diet. You hear friends and family telling you to do away with carbs on your diet or carbs is the fat devil in disguise. It may surprise you to know that certain carbs react differently upon consumption. If you have done some reading before embarking on your diet, you would have come across terms like high and low Glycemic Index. Here’s how you can incorporate a low GI diet plan in your way of living.
What is the Glycemic Index?
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement of the digestive rate of carbs ingested. What is glucose you say? Glucose is a kind of ‘fuel’ which provides energy to your body for carrying out its important functions. Just like a car must have fuel to move, your body requires glucose to function properly.
High GI (70 and above)
The ‘Sugar Rush’. That sudden boost of energy you get after eating a boatload of sugary sinful stuff only to feel like a deflated balloon after a few hours. I am sure we all have encountered it before. Unless you are allergic to sugar.. It’s a given that such an energy source is not very lasting.
This would include foods like:
a) White rolls
b) Corn chips
c) Pretzels
d) Rice kirspies
e) Cornflakes
Low GI (55 or less)
Foodstuff that do not really appeal to the masses. Food that are low GI do a far better job in regulating blood sugar than high GI. Thus providing sustainable energy for you. Hence you should also be including a lot more fruits, greens and legumes in your diet.
Such foods would include:
a) Carrot juice
b) Pearl barley
c) Grapes
d) Lentil
e) Skim Milk
With this new found awareness, what are the adjustments that you can begin to make in your meal times?
1. Start your Breakfast Healthily
There is an explanation as to why many people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Having a huge serving of pancakes drowned in maple syrup and downing it with a glass of coke isn’t going to keep your body running at optimum rate for the rest of the day. Have something wholesome like a wholemeal bread sandwich stuffed with veggies and lean meat.
2. Eating Smaller Meals Throughout The Day
By splitting up your usual 3 meals into smaller 5-6 portions, you will find your energy levels more sustainable throughout the day. To many this may prove to be a pain for working adults. One way to overcome this is to cook your food the night before at home. This also prevents you from being sleepy than if you were to have one large meal for lunch.
3. Start Introducing More Vegetable, Fruits, Beans And Nuts Into Your Meals
If you are someone that only consumes protein at every meal, you are missing out on a lot of vital minerals and vitamins. Not only are such foods low in GI, they help to prevent cancer and provide essential fatty acids.
4. Spring Clean Your Fridge
Do yourself a big favor and dispose of whatever unhealthy snacks that you have at home.. Stick with a low GI diet plan long enough and you will start to take pleasure in a carrot stick over a mars bar.
5. Stick A Print Out Of The Glycemic Index Where You Can Easily See It
And I don’t mean pasting it under your car’s bonnet. By having a list on you, you can quickly refer to it to know what are the kinds of food you should be consuming.
Benefits Of a Low GI Diet Plan
So what good does consuming all these low GI food bring us? Research has found that there are indeed good health benefits from a low GI diet.
a) Healthy weight loss
b) Helps prevent heart conditions
c) Improve cholesterol levels
d) Better hunger management
e) Better diabetes management
So as you can see, integrating an easy diet like a low GI diet plan into your lifestyle is not rocket science. It does require some initial effort but so is anything worth doing. What I found difficult about this diet was making it a point to order to consume low GI carbs. I had no issues when cooking my meals at home. Crunch time arrived when I had the restaurant menu in my hands. It was very tempting to order something fried or heavily buttered up. But the low G.I. dude in me said go for the boring grilled chicken breast with an extra serving of broccoli.
There is no way i want to spend every meal munching on celery and chewing on lettuce. I still want my cake and be able to eat it too. Just make sure that the majority of your meals and snacks consist of Low GI food.
With her expertise as a certified dietitian and nutritionist, Kelly Kims has worked in a variety of settings ranging from hospitals to food service providers and the nutraceutical companies. In addition to mainstream nutritional intervention for various disease, she also has knowledge on natural nutritional healing such as detoxification and macrobiotic diets. Trained also as a sports dietitian, she helps fitness and sports professionals maximize their fitness goals through sound dietary strategies. Kims co-owns http://quickeasydietsthatwork.com, writing articles on dieting and exercise tips.
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