I love cereal. I eat it for breakfast. I snack on it.
My ideal dinner consists of a large bowl of
you-know-what, topped with milk. And dessert? Well,
you guess it. Frosted, please.
Recently, however, research has indicated that both
athhletes and everyday exercisers can benefit from
understanding the difference betwen simple
carbohydrates and complex carbohydates. And also,
alas, recognizing that carbohydrates alone do not agood diet make.
One tool that some athletes and nutritionists say can
be useful is the glycemic index. You may have heard
this term with regard to diabetes or one of the "sugar
buster" diet programs. Using the glycemic index (GI)
enables you to predict the effect of specific foods on
your blood sugar. For those who want blood sugar
"spikes," high and moderate GI foods are recommended.
If you are diabetic, your health care provider may
have discussed with you the benefits possible from
consuming low GI foods, since this keeps your glucose
on a more even level. A variety of different foods
have been charted in terms of their GI rating.
So what's the news for athletes? The Australian
Institute of Sport's research, done withresearchers at Deakin University and
University of Melbourne, indicates that using the
glycemic index could be useful if you're involved in
sports. However, they do caution that, quiteliterally, your mileage may vary.
And it's wise to study the index before you
make assumptions. For example, would you have
guessed that an innocent baked potato's glycemic index
is much higher than supposedly evil sugar?
Before you alter your food intake to eat fewer foods
with high glycemic indexes and more of those foods
that rate low on the food index, remember: you
should ALWAYS check with your health care provider
before changing your diet. This is particularly
essential if you have a condition such as diabetes.
To read more about the Glycemic Index, visit thesesites:All about the Index:
http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htmA look at Some of the "Acceptable" Foods:
http://www.anndeweesallen.com/dal_gly3.h...
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