Spikes in blood sugar are bad for weight loss and general health, the low glycemic diet can help you prevent spikes from happening. Have you ever eaten a meal and experienced a sugar crash shortly afterward? You end up feeling tired, hungry, a little irritable, and you might even have a headache that puts a dent in your day.
You can avoid that post-meal crash, improve your metabolic health, and lose weight at the same time by following the low gi diet. It is a diet that promotes fiber-rich food, which keeps you full and in turn makes weight loss easier. A low glycemic index diet (low GI diet) can also reduce fluctuations in your blood sugar and support your overall health.
In this article, we discuss the science behind the diet and how you can use the low glycemic diet for weight loss. We’re also going to tell you about the low GI foods you can eat, and how you can incorporate them into meals without feeling restricted.
What Is The Glycemic Index?
The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a food containing 50 g of carbohydrates can raise your blood sugar after being eaten. Researchers test different foods by giving study participants portions of food that contain 50 g of carbohydrates and measuring their blood sugar for two hours afterward.
The glycemic index scale goes from 0 to 100, and foods that produce a faster glycemic response (change in blood sugar) have a higher score. Researchers have established that 50 g of pure glucose or 50 g of white bread is used as a reference value of 100.
Foods can be scored as either low, medium, or high-GI foods.
- Low: ≤55
- Medium 56-69
- High ≥ 70
So what is a low glycemic diet exactly? It means eating food that doesn’t spike your blood sugar, or that sits on the low end of the glycemic index.
How Carbohydrates Affect Digestion
Carbohydrates are one of the main macronutrients that we use for nutrition and energy, alongside fats and protein.
We have three main types of carbohydrates in our diets: simple carbohydrates, compl