[Analog6]

The extract below is from this site (http://www.gifeelgood.com/) and Australian one featurng books by an Ausie doctor who is also a Chinese traditional medicine practitioner. I have found it very helpful in understanding the role of insulin in making you fat and in choosing my foods on Atkins to avoid spikes.

There are many other sites on the GI. Just put GI in a google search and you'll be inundated!

Cheers, Odille

The Glycemic Index: The story so far
In 1979/80 the Diabetics association of America funded their own study into the effects of carbohydrates on the blood sugar levels. What they discovered heralded a major change to their thinking.


By measuring the blood sugar levels of insulin dependent diabetics, non insulin dependent diabetics and just normal people after eating a variety of carbohydrates they discovered that most complex carbohydrates where exactly like eating sugar.

By giving glucose an "index" of 100 they compared other carbohydrates to glucose. Below is a rough representation of their results. Note that carbohydrates with a G.I. of 50 is around the threshold that insulin is released.

Maltose [Beer] 110Glucose 100 Parsnips 97 White rice, calrose 87Baked potatoes85 Honey 75Pumpkin 75Sugar72 White bread 70Pasta 70Carrots 70Corn flakes 70Popcorn 70 Chocolate bar70Corn 70Beetroot 65Banana 60Jam 55Spaghetti55Whole rye bread 50Fresh pasta 40Dry beans 30 Lentils 30Fresh fruit30Fructose 20Green veggies, tomatoes, lemon, mushrooms15 How does a low carb diet work?

The first thing that one needs to keep in mind is that there is a difference between a low carbohydrate diet and a diet that doesn't have many carbohydrates in it. A low carbohydrate diet is a diet that includes plenty of carbohydrates but they all have a low glycemic index [see glycemic index].

To understand how a low carbohydrate diet works one needs to understand the action of insulin.

Essentially the body uses insulin [a hormone secreted by the pancreas] to control the blood sugar levels when you eat the wrong carbohydrates, meaning those which behave much like sugar [click here for more info]. When Insulin is secreted it attempts to counteract the affects of the rising blood sugar levels, how it does this is unique. Insulin converts the excess sugars into fat and it all goes into storage.

So this is the first thing that one needs to know " A lot of types of carbohydrates on their own can make you fat" This means that even being on a low fat diet you can still be putting on weight simply by the carbohydrates that you eat.

Just ask a farmer what he feeds his cattle to fatten them...it certainly isn't fat, its carbohydrates like corn and potato.

The second very important thing that insulin does is allow the body to absorbed the fat from your food. So to absorb dietary fat you have to have insulin present. Without insulin your body cannot absorb a single morsel of fat, and what causes the body to produce insulin? Carbohydrates.

So the second thing is, "fat can only be absorbed when insulin is present..."

The other amazing thing about excess insulin (from eating bad carbohydrates), is it flows around in the blood and begins to effect the chemicals in your brain. Your brain actually has insulin receptors, that when receiving the excess insulin, start releasing chemicals that make you want to eat more [see hypoglycemia]. So people eating the wrong types of carbohydrates on average eat 30% more food than they need. Hence some of the reasons behind sugar cravings and binge eating.

That is why your weight has always been intrinsically linked to the carbohydrates that you eat but it has never been properly understood until now. Only until recently has information about low carbohydrate and the glycemic index started to filter out into the general population. There are many resources and we have also reviewed books on the subject.