6 ways to control blood glucose levels

.
What was done to your food before it was dished up? I'm still talking about GI values.

I mentioned that particle size has impact on the GI value of a food. Any sort of processing -grinding, milling, mashing, beating, liquidizing, refining - reduces particle size and raises the GI value. Heat and cooking increases the ease of digestion, and so also raises the GI value.

Here are six ways to reduce the resultant rise in blood-glucose levels.

1. Eat more slowly. Research shows that eating more slowly raises blood-glucose levels more gently.

2. Add lots of low GI vegetables to your plate - especially salads. Salads are usually raw, or if not raw, at least chilled. Adding low GI veg will slow down the rate of digestion. Slower digestion equals a slower release of glucose into the blood stream, and a slower release of glucose leads to a more gradual insulin reaction.

3. Eat regularly. What you eat at breakfast, strangely enough, impacts on what you eat at lunch time, and lunch impacts on dinner; so a low GI, low fat breakfast - for example fresh fruit and oat porridge - will keep you going until lunchtime without a problem. You will not then be tempted to cram high GI foods into your mouth in an attempt to assuage your hunger. Hunger as a result of eating high GI foods, or of not eating at all, will make you overeat at the earliest opportunity.

4. Add low GI foods to your meal. Whole-grains, beans, lentils. These all fill you up, and keep you satisfied for longer.

5. Eat in-between meal snacks - fruit is the healthiest and easiest snack, or crudites.

6. Eat fibre. Most of us don't eat anywhere near the recommended 30 - 40gm a day. Fibre is filling and satisfying. Get it from oats, beans, wholegrain pasta and leafy vegetables like cabbage and spinach. Fibre helps protect against high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.
.

Glycemic load

.
When we eat a meal, we usually eat a combination of different foods. Some will be high GI, some intermediate, and some low GI. Some will be NO GI. Because animal proteins contain such a small percentage of carbohydrate, they are considered to have very little or no effect on blood-glucose levels, therefore they have NO GI value. But animal proteins (meat, cheese, etc) have high levels of saturated fats, which, in the interests of weight management and health, we want to limit. The GI value of a food is moderated by what else it contains, other than carbohydrates.

Adding a little animal protein or oil to a meal slows down digestion and so gives a feeling of satiety for longer. Always remembering, of course, to add even mono- or polyunsaturated oils in limited quantities, and avoid saturated fats when possible.

A salad with a vinegar or lemon dressing helps keep blood-glucose levels controlled. It has to do with acidity, so sour dough breads will do the same. A salad (low GI) added to a high GI meal will lower the overall GI load of the meal.

Soluble fibre, such as is found in rolled oats, lentils, beans and apples, is excellent for blood-glucose control. Insoluble fibre, however, is not digested at all, so has no impact.

The size of the particles in food products affects the GI. If the food item is made from a finely milled flour, then the GI will be high (white bread = 70), but if the flour used is whole grain, or stone-ground then the resulting product will, in most circumstances, be low(er) GI. The finer the particle, the easier (and faster) it is to digest.

By all means, buy products marked with a low GI rating - just be aware that there are other factors that come into play.
.