Judging Carb Quality for Yourself
Hi Byte Wellness Fam!
We’re creeping toward Spring here in the U.S. Snow has thawed; trees are barely starting to bud. I don’t know about you, but, for me, it feels like it’s about time! With all the madness in the world right now, we could use some new growth- a restart of sorts.
When it comes to our own health and wellbeing, we tend to think restarts need to be huge.
We go from never exercising to doing two-a-day workouts at the gym. We go from eating anything we want whenever we want to following a strict fad diet. We might even try cut out sugars.
But, starting over doesn’t have to be drastic. It can be as simple as paying more attention to what we eat. It can be as simple as making informed choices that are in our best interest.
So this month we’ve been talking in the Daily Wellness Text Chat about how to choose higher-quality sugars (like whole sugars in fruit) rather than cutting all sugar all-together.
Check above to watch the recording from this week’s #ByteWellnessWednesday to see how you can judge the quality of your sugars using glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL).
What Is Glycemic Index?
Glycemic index (GI) tells you how QUICKLY a food or drink can raise blood sugar. Remember, we don’t want rapid spikes that can trigger weight gain (through increased fat storage) and can ruin the blood sugar numbers of people with pre-diabetes or diabetes.
The glycemic index (GI) ranges from 0-100 with higher numbers being worse. 100 represents the most rapid spike possible (matching the impact of 50 grams of pure glucose).
So, how do you find sugars have a higher-quality impact on your body? Prioritize low-GI foods.
Low-GI foods: 0 through 55
Medium-GI foods: 56-69
High-GI foods: 70-100
But, glycemic index is only part of the picture. Remember, it tells you how QUICKLY the item raises blood sugar. We still don’t know how HIGH the blood sugar spikes. The height of the spike matters because it translates into MORE sugar in your blood- meaning higher blood sugar numbers and MORE sugar to store as unwanted fat.
So how do you compare sugars based on speed and height of blood sugar spike? Glycemic Load (GL) !
What Is Glycemic Load?
Glycemic load (GL) takes into account how many grams of carbs (that turn into sugar) are actually in 50g of your food or drink.
GL= (GI multiplied by grams of carbs) divided by 100
So, GL gives us a sense of how quickly and how high a food or drink can spike blood sugar compared to 50g of pure glucose.
Just like GI, lower GLs are better for our blood sugar.
Low-GL foods: 0-10
Medium-GL foods: 11-19
High-GL foods: 20 and over
Check the graphic above to see how GIs and GLs shift as foods become more processed.
Plus, search GIs and GLs for yourself using this database from the University of Sydney.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to spend some time with our discussion questions this week.
Discussion Questions:
When was the last time you bought something to drink that was not water or alcohol?
Did you check the ingredients before buying? Do you usually?
Happy Healthy Living,
Dr. Wuse