Today we’re going to talk about sugar in food and the glycemic index.
Many people when thinking of sugar, they’re thinking of candies, cookies, cakes, ice cream, and all of those types of obvious things with sugar in it. But all carbohydrates, in reality, metabolize down into glucose and glucose. Anything anyone owes is sugar. Okay, so a really good way to judge this for yourself is called the glycemic index.
Now the glycemic index actually tracks food or charts food, according to the impact it has on your blood sugar. So when your blood sugar goes up, your pancreas secretes insulin to drive that blood sugar into the cells to be used for fuel. And so what we want to do is we don’t want our bodies secreting insulin all the time, because it’s a fat-storage hormone.
If you just look at everything, as I want to keep my insulin down, I want to keep my blood sugar down, that’s a really good way just to kind of determine what foods you want to eat. So I’m looking right now at a chart of common foods and their glycemic index. Okay. white potato has a glycemic index of 85.
Now glucose straight glucose is 100. So white potato is just right under that it’s pretty darn high, sweet potato is a better choice with 61 glycemic index, and it has 24 carbs versus the white potato has 34 carbs, okay, so sweet potatoes a better choice. And then we have carrots 47, even better. They’re all like the type of root vegetables that grow under the ground. So if you were to pick one of those, I would pick like a carrot.
Then we have things like Apple is 40, a banana, which I always used to eat before going to the gym is 58. Okay, they have 15 carbs and 27 carbs, respectively, white bread has 72, but you’re doing better and you’re eating whole wheat bread, right? Well, that’s 71. So it’s not a lot better. And the carbs are 14 and 12 respectively.
When you’re trying to determine healthier foods versus then healthier foods, something around 50 or less is considered low glycemic. The meat medium is about to say 50 to 70. And anything above 70 is considered very high.
You definitely want to, you know, avoid all of those foods. So the things that I tend to eat, and I put my clients on things like vegetables, proteins, and fats, those don’t spike your blood sugar. And especially when you take a vegetable, which is a fibrous carb, the fiber slows down the absorption. So the more fiber a food has, the more fat the meal has, it decreases the glycemic index or the glycemic load of your entire meal. So it slows digestion, it lessens the impact of your blood sugar, so the less insulin that is secreted at the same time, so it’s better for you.
So just remember, a third to a half of the kids today are expected to get type two diabetes in their lifetime and that just leads to a whole bunch of different diseases. For me personally, and for my clients.
What I recommend doing is we fast a lot in the morning, eat a big salad with protein and lots of healthy fats. Like today I had avocado, a full-fat dressing with extra virgin olive oil, pumpkin seeds, and I made a taco salad. So I had buffalo meat, and it was like season taco ish. But don’t be afraid of that you guys it’s so good for you and it actually keeps you fuller longer so you’re not as hungry. It just satiates you like it’s almost seven o’clock here and I have not had dinner and I’m not even hungry.
Don’t be afraid of fat. Be careful of spiking your blood sugar think of everything. Is this going to spike my blood sugar is this going to actually spike your blood sugar and actually increase inflammation in your body. And inflammation lasts in your body for two to three days. That’s why you can go on vacation and gain all this extra weight.
One of my clients, she went on a trip she gained I want to say Gosh 10 pounds. She’s gone for two weeks on a cruise. She came home and got back on my meal plan. I put her on and she dropped seven pounds. So it’s all inflammation.
Those carbohydrates that come into your body, hold on to water and leave you feeling fluffy. Okay, you don’t want them, especially because bathing suit season is here in some places and coming and others.
So anyway, you guys go and I’ll post a glycemic chart in the comments below. So you can look up your favorite foods and see how they affect your blood sugar. I just gave you a few examples. So you could see the difference between common foods.
One funny thing is, you know, table sugar is lower than bread. It’s better to take a spoonful of sucrose as a spoonful and table sugar is less impact on your blood sugar your glycemic index and bread. Pretty interesting, right?