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Glycemic Index (G.I.) Diet

The Glycemic index diet is based on the findings of Dr. David J. Jenkins in the early 80’s. Dr. Jenkins and his colleagues decided to how different foods affected blood sugar levels – an important consideration for diabetics. Essentially, when we eat food our blood sugar levels resultantly rise. While this change in blood sugar levels is of particular importance to diabetics, who need to closely monitor and regulate their blood sugar, it can also be useful to the rest of us when trying to achieve weight-loss or maintenance.

The G.I. Diet has been tested on lab rats and has shown a strong link between high G.I. foods and increased bodily fat and decreased lean body mass. Under laboratory conditions, high G.I. diet lab rats were 71% fatter and had 8% less lean body mass than the low G.I. fed rats.

The key idea is that different foods affect our blood sugar levels different. In order to gauge these effects, a scale was devised running from 0 – 100 with 100 being the effects of straight glucose on blood sugar levels. This scale is known as the Glycemic Index. Foods are sometimes rated on the Glycemic Index as a range due to small variations between individual selections of a particular food.

Jenkins’ found that low G.I. foods resulting in lower rises in blood sugar levels will be less prone to obesity and will generally have less desire to snack between meals. The reason for this is that high G.I. foods result in short lived blood sugar level spikes followed by a crash and the desire to snack again. Low G.I. foods are more often associated with slower to digest sources of energy that can keep your digestive system working for longer resulting in reduced appetite between meals. This in turn will tend to increase weight loss or reduce weight gain.

Jenkins’ theory with regards to the G.I. Diet is mostly straight-forward and revolves around the concept that a diet consisting of mostly low-G.I. foods will be beneficial to one’s health and weight. However, it is important to consider the Glycemic Index before selecting foods as some may be counter-intuitive from what you may think. Table sugar, for example, has a relatively low G.I. range of 55 to 69 while rice cakes have a high G.I. of 82. Foods rated above 70 are classified as high G.I., 56-69 medium G.I. and less than 55 as low G.I. The following is a selected list of high, medium and low G.I. foods:

There are some issues, however, that opponents to the G.I. Diet raise. The most important one could be the issue of dietary fat content in foods. This factor does not seem to be addressed within the Glycemic Index of foods. The Diet advises that fat actually be avoided as some low G.I. foods are high in fat content and can offset the gains from an otherwise low G.I. diet. This factor complicates the diet somewhat by adding in an additional factor that must be considered outside of the diet’s own scale.
Another concern when consuming adopting the G.I. Diet is the fact that the overall Glycemic rating of a meal is not necessarily the same as the sum of its parts and that the interaction between different foods can change the final G.I. rating. Again, this complicates matters for what seems like an otherwise simple system. G.I. Diet proponents claim, however, that although this may be true, a meal consisting of low and medium G.I. foods which are also low in fat with tend to have a low to medium G.I. rating overall and will be effective in reducing weight.
However, despite all of this, dieticians generally tend to favour the G.I. Diet as a healthy option and note that a diet following the G.I. system tends to consist of most of the foods they would normally recommend for a healthy diet.
So, is the G.I. Diet for you? The only way to really know is to try it and given that the G.I. Diet is considered by the professionals to be at the very least a healthy diet and at best an effective method at not only reducing appetite but also at reducing weight.

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