Glycemic index (GI) is a measure
that ranks carbohydrate foods how quickly and intensely they will affect your
blood sugar when you eat these foods. The underlying concept of the glycemic
index is that different foods take different times to break up in the digestive
process and release sugar into the bloodstream; some foods are quick-absorbing
and break up quickly, while others are slow-absorbing and take a longer time to
be digested.
The foods that break up quickly as
sugar into the bloodstream have a high and foods that absorb slowly have a
lower GI.
Generally, high GI foods raise blood
sugar more quickly and more intensely than the low GI foods. Because
carbohydrate is the only group of foods that causes maximum rise of blood sugar
(protein and fat do not directly affect blood sugar), GI has been developed for
carbohydrate foods only.
Even different foods under the
carbohydrate group have different ratings on the GI because they vary in the
speed in which they release sugar into the bloodstream. Carbohydrate foods that
are coarse, unrefined, and contain fiber have a lower GI than their refined
varieties.
A whole wheat bread, for example,
has a lower GI than a white bread made of refined flour. Because fat slows down
the absorption of food into the bloodstream, carbohydrate foods, containing
high content of fat, take longer time to be absorbed in the blood and are
stated to have a low GI. (But foods with high fat content may be harmful.)
Diabetes-
The Complications
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As I said at
the outset early on you may not even know you have the disease and if you do
know it seems so trivial so it is easy to ignore. But diabetes affects nearly
every vital organ in your body
Once you have been diagnosed with diabetes your fight has just begun. Poor blood sugar control can lead to many nasty complications. Here are the most serious: • Male impotence- say goodbye to your love life. Impotency is almost a certainty. • Kidney damage- Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease because the kidneys are working overtime to stay on • Nerve damage especially in the extremities of hands and feet. You don't want them to go numb.
• Heart
disease and stroke. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in
diabetics.
• High blood pressure • Eye trouble- Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults 25-75 • Pregnancy problems- During the later stages of pregnancy out of control blood sugars can lead to birth problems for both mom and child. • Infections and other illnesses - high blood sugars make it more difficult to recover from infections and other illnesses. Do we have your attention yet as to the seriousness of this disease?
Photo Credit : Flickr.com
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