CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTGLYCEMIC INDEX(Keywords: CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHART, glycemic index, carbohydrate facts, carbohydrates charts, what are complex carbohydrates, carbohydrates in vegetables)The great Irish writer, Oscar Wilde, once wrote tongue-in-cheek: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." He was writing no doubt about clothing fashions and the like, but the truth is that fashion reaches deep into health care too. And often it's ugly, ugly, ugly. And may, if we're lucky, be changed in a month or six. Sometimes of course these health fads can last for years, even decades, like drinking eight glasses of water every day which was promoted by a medical doctor some seventy years ago. There's not a shred of evidence that it's beneficial unless you suffer from kidney disease, but we still believe it... It may in fact be harmful. Currently it's carbo-phobia. So, what are the carbohydrate facts? Anything with carbohydrated in it must be bad for your health, avoid it? Not so! Carbohydrates are good foods, or most of them are, in moderation. So, what's fact and what's fiction and where did this fashion start? It all started with obesity. Yes, if you are seriously overweight, then the chances are good that you got that way by pigging out on carbs. A cereal and toast for breakfast, a cola and snackbar mid-morning, a breadroll for lunch, a chocolate bar midafternoon, and pasta and sweet dessert for dinner. Indeed, bad! Particularly if you if you are inactive. Is a cereal like oats bad? Certainly not. Toast? Breadroll? Pasta? The odd sweet dessert? This is where glycemic index GI comes in. It's a very user-friendly way of planning your meals.
 Custom Search COMPLEX AND SIMPLE CARBS @ CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTWhat are complex carbohydrates?Carbohydrates consist of sugar molecules. In complex carbs, the sugars are strung together in long chains which have to be broken down by enzymme action before they are absorbed. Hence they tend to be absorbed more slowly into the blood stream.But it's now apparent that the old adage, complex carbs are all good, and simple sugars are all bad is a gross over simplification. The potato and oats for example are broken down quite quickly. What's really important in this little dissertation on carbohydrate facts is how quickly that MEAL is turned into glucose in the bloodstream, and what sort of an insulin response does it produce. Any meal that causes the blood sugar to rise rapidly and excessively, producing a huge insulin response by the body is detrimental to health. In the first place, the body lowers your blood sugar (high blood glucose is very bad for the blood vessel walls) by having it absorbed into the cells, firstly for energy (that's good) but the excess is stored as adipose. Fat. You see, insulin is a fat storage hormone. But secondly, your blood sugar then rapidly drops, and you feel hungry again, often drowsy and lethargic, yawning so you eat more... too much more. And thirdly, this is a recipe for what is known as insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. So what is important is not whether a food is a carb or not, but how quickly it affects your blood sugar. Enter Glycemic Index.
DEFINITION OF GICARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTThe Glycemic Index is a simple scale used to indicate how fast and how high a carb will raise your blood glucose.A food with a low GLYCEMIC INDEX will typically prompt a low to moderate rise in blood sugar, whilst carbs with a high GI will tend to cause our blood sugar level to rise too high, causing blood vessel disease and diabetes (if we live and eat that way every day.) There are two ways of calculating the GI. Don't get hung up on the absolute values, you'll just get confused. Rather just focus on eating more of those foods with a lower GI, and when eating high GI carbs always mix them with low GI carbs, protein and small amounts of the friendly fats, which lowers the overall index. Never plain macaroni, always macroni cheese, or macaroni and meatballs, and of course a green salad too. Not just bread, but bread and butter, smeered with hummus, peanut butter, fish paste, or perhaps a couple slices of tomato and lettuce, both low on the GI scale. DIETARY FIBRECARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTMore about carbohyrate facts. Carbohydrate foods with a low glycemic index mostly are rich in natural fibre, particularly "soluble fibre" like apples, oats and legumes. They pass more slowly through the gut and their glucose content is absorbed more slowly, over a longer period. Thus you feel more satisfied, and will tend to eat less. Win-win.But foods that are low in fibre are rapidly processed by the gut, produce a sudden rise in blood sugar, and an excessive insulin response. It's okay now and again, but if you eat high GI foods three times a day, plus snacks in between, then you get wild oscillations in blood glucose, and are setting yourself up for diabetes, and heart and blood vessel disease. Parboiled rice has the same GI as glucose, by the way. 100! Bad stuff, it causes a very strong insulin reaction. If you insist on eating it, then you must have butter on it (a little, if your cholesterol is good), a protein dish, at least three veg and a big salad.
COOKINGCooking foods increases the Glycemic Index, sometimes dramatically. For example,Raw carrot 15, Cooked carrot 39 Rolled oats 51, Cooked oats porridge 61 Health nuts insist on eating at least half their food raw. There's some sense in it... CARBOHYDRATE CHARTSHere are a randomly chosen few carbohydrates, their total energy (per 100g) together with their glycemic indices.Low GI: 55 or less Medium GI: 56-69 High GI: 70+
For more about carbohydrate charts go to this excellent site: WH foods ... ADD A PROTEIN and/or FATYou'll notice that chickpeas (garbanzo beans) have a high carb content, but a low Glycemic Index. Why's that? Two reasons. Firstly, because they are also an excellent protein source. Adding cheese to your bread roll (and of course a leaf of lettuce too!), meat with your potatoes, and protein in general, lowers the GI of your overall meal. Legumes like chickpeas have a built-in mixture of protein and carb - that's what makes them one of the healthiest and satisfying foods - they stay with. And they have a high fibre content which also lowers the GI.Chickpeas are very easy to cook, but a little aforethought is required. They have to soak overnight. Take this authentic hummus recipe, for example, you can throw it together in only FOUR minutes! Literally. I'm about to do it now for my lunch! Hummus has the lowest Glycemic Index on the chart: 6. Good stuff.
AUTHENTIC HUMMUS RECIPE ... a GI of only 6. PARTICLE SIZEGrinding grains into a flour dramatically increases their Glycemic Index. That's why bread (brown or white), cookies and cakes have a high carb load and a high GI. Mix with sugar, flour makes a deadly food for the body. Chocolate cake is only for birthday parties, and you're certainly not doing your children a favour by giving them cookies. You'll turn them into monsters!Aside: My grandchild turned two yesterday. It was distinctly noticeable how she and her sister behaved badly for a couple days. Finely ground flour goodies, high in sugar... what's interesting is that a high GI meal actually has an affect on your insulin production for a few days.
FOOD COMBININGCARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTMixing high and low GI carbs, together with protein and the healthy fats is what lowers the insulin response. For example,
HELENS 15 EURO SALAD ... it saved my life, literally. SERIOUSLY OVERWEIGHT? Free Weight Loss programsCARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTAvoid the high protein shakes, it makes no sense to use an unhealthy technique to become healthIER... but do radically cut your high GI carbs, eating only their low GI cousins until you have reached your goal weight.CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHART aren't enough, rather think GI.
FREE WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAMS ... OPENBy Andre AgassiRead how Agassi survived on lentil soup and baked potatoes, three times a day in his first months on the circuit. It was all he could afford! And he couldn't have chosen better for sustained energy... OPEN ANDRE AGASSI ...USEFUL LINKS @ CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTGLYCEMIC INDEX @ WH foods ...an excellent site.Return from CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHART to HEALTHY CHOICE FOODS … Go from CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHART to BERNARD PRESTON home page … MONTHLY NEWSLETTER @ CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHARTChiropractic-Help.com and Bernard-Preston.com send out a joint monthly newsletter. It covers an overview of a health topic (December 2010 issue #19: Retirement Sentiments), always a nutritional corner (such as Mussels, loaded with anti-oxidants), and a piece from Bernard Preston.Sign up at the bottom of any Chiropractic Help Page, for example this one on GRAYS ANATOMY TOUR , The newsletter is free, and one click cancels it if you find it boring or irrelevant.
GRAYS ANATOMY TOUR … no doubt about it, Henry Gray was a genius. CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHART |
BEAN PLANTS
The Legume family
Too much carb? CARBOHYDRATE COUNT CHART
COOKING GREEN BEANS
The H Factor ... beans lower homocysteine
TOFU NUTRITION
LENTIL PROTEIN
OPEN ANDRE AGASSI - read how he survives on lentil soup
FOODS THAT LOWER CHOLESTEROL
AUTHENTIC HUMMUS RECIPE ...
GROWING CHICKPEAS ...