Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe Dennis on January 25, 2009 at 3:10pm

I haven't seen the pyramid but itstill works for me !
I have a cup that says on it: Let go of the chocolate and no one will get hurt.

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Permalink Reply by Gerri on January 25, 2009 at 3:33pm

I'm afraid that like most things ahead of their day, the chocolate pyramid is slow in being accepted:)

Love your cup!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Dennis on January 25, 2009 at 4:14pm

Just saw the Chocolate Food Pyramid; Looks perfectly correct to me.

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Permalink Reply by Maureen on January 23, 2009 at 3:16pm

I find the glycemic index fairly accurate in determining how long I can expect food to be releasing carbs, and so it is quite useful. If I'm eating something with high GI, I shorten my dual wave bolus accordingly, and lengthen accordingly for low GI foods, and/or with foods mixed with fats. I have a number of type 2 aquaintances who find they can manage their diabetes with exercise or exercise and metformin if they stick to low GI foods. So, yes, I find it useful.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Dennis on January 25, 2009 at 4:18pm

With all said and done you're the one who most decide what works for you. So let us know how it works for you .

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Permalink Reply by Joe Dennis on February 13, 2009 at 7:13pm

I just read: Glycemic index was compared to standard diets that are recommended to diabetes ,including high fiber diet.Glycemic diet did better in lowering A1c and raising HDL in diabetics than other diets . This was the first studyto compare gylcemic index to other diabetic diets. JAMA Dec2008

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Permalink Reply by Molly Henthorne on February 19, 2009 at 9:36am

I was advised by a doctor recently to go low glycemic, & bought a book about it. The New Glucose Revolution - Low GI Gluten Free Eating Made Easy, (I'm gluten free). Book is fine, I just have issues with the concept of this diet.
I do have to agree with some of the comments online here. You should pay attention to what your meter is telling you. I am figuring out that I have a lot of food intolerances which initially manifest as blood sugar spikes.
When they're really bad, I go up over 300 & stay there for a few hours. No amount of insulin brings them down, until the resistance "breaks" & I suddenly crash. This was routinely happening with agave nectar, which is suppossed to be the low GI sweetner of choice!
My thought about this diet is that it doesn't take into consideration our already impaired glucose tolerances to specific foods. The index is based on "healthy" people eating different things & then monitoring their blood sugar response. Every diabetic is going to have a totally different response based on how the foods affect YOU.
Basically, I think the research is interesting, but there's a lot more to be learned here.

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Permalink Reply by Tim on February 19, 2009 at 1:17pm

Here are a couple of related links:

Glycemic Index at dLife:
http://www.dlife.com/dLife/do/ShowContent/inspiration_expert_advice...

Glycemic Index on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

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Permalink Reply by Janet Huyser on March 13, 2009 at 10:19am

I did the glycemic index diet with some success a number of years ago -- it was a lot of work but effective. I have had the same experience with pasta versus potato. Foods in Canada, Great Britain and Australia are packaged with GI information. But they are not in US. The trouble is getting consistent information on easy to get foods.

Few dieticians or physicians in the US have information about it. Initially started in UK, and US docs received a lot of bad press about it. Now that Glucerna is on the market in the US -- we hear less negative press about it.

Hope it works for you.

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Permalink Reply by Rock on July 7, 2009 at 7:00am

Why is this so hard? The glycemic index doesn't gauge the amount of carbs that you eat, it measures the resultant increase in glucose levels. The GI has always been controversial in the US (see the Scam note below), mostly, I think, due to the Not Invented Here Syndrome. The concept came out of a school in Toronto, Canada. Most of the research is being done in Australia. Why the US diabetes medical community has panned the concept is a puzzle.

A writer by the name of Liz Applegate helped me understand. If eating a bagel will raise my glucose by, say, 100 mg/dl within 30 minutes, then smearing two tablespoons of peanut butter on that same bagel will reduce the glucose spike to 50 mg/dl or less in the same 30 minutes. The fat and protein in the peanut butter slows the carbohydrate absorption/conversion in the gut. Calories, of course, go up, but if I am riding my bike on a 20 miler, who cares?

I have a calorie counter on my heart rate monitor. I wear the monitor to give me a warning if I start to go anerobic. I have no idea how accurate it is, but there is a certain satisfaction when it scrolls up to "2,000 calories" expended during the bike ride....

The same thing applies to grains. According to the "theory", the more "complex" the grain, the harder they are to digest and the longer it takes to convert to glucose in your system. I kind of thought that this was a "good" thing????????

Any thoughts or opinions?

Rock

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Permalink Reply by Sophie on July 7, 2009 at 10:30am

Hi Rock,
I subscribe to MedScape (a medical newsletter, intended for doctors, but anyone can subscribe to it), and there have been some clinical studies that showed good results for low GI diets in controlling blood sugar and also having positive effects on cholesterol.

The whole numbers thing can get crazy and complicated, but I think what you're doing is just common sense--the more "complex" and less refined a grain (or any food) is, the better it is for you. Adding protein to balance carbs is also a simple but effective strategy. And I think that because the fat in nuts is plant-based rather than animal-based, it's "good fat" anyway.

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