You should know the GI of the foods you eat

What is the glycemic index?
All carbohydrates contain sugar molecules. The glycemic index (GI) is a way of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers, and when the rise happens.  The higher the number, the greater the blood sugar spike.

A low GI food will cause a small rise (low is what you want), while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic rise.  Natural foods, the ones made by Mother Nature, tend to have complex sugars tend to have a lower GI than processed foods which tend to have simple sugars.

A GI at 70 or more is high, 56 to 69 is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

GI Charts
The web site for the South Beach Diet has a GI chart.  You may be surprised to learn that waffles have a high GI.  When it comes to breakfast cereals watch out for Rice Krispies and Cornflakes, both of which are higher than 80.  Take a look for more surprises.

Another site with a free chart is Diabetes-Blood-Solutions.com

The following site has a GI rating on over 700 foods:  Mendosa.com.

You can do an internet search and come up with more info on more sites.

Low GI foods

• All Bran™ Buds and All Bran™
• Barley (like Gramma used to cook in soups.)
• Barley flour -it’s easy to use.  It’s medium speed not slow. But much better than white flour. Just substitute in 1/3 to 1/2 for your normal flour when baking. As a bonus, it has lots of soluble fibre to help lower bad cholesterol –LDL.
• Basmati rice, long grain white rice (many varieties but not all. Some are “medium speed”. Still, this is fine and rice is low fat!).  Uncle Ben’s™ converted rice is slow – go figure!
• Buckwheat.
• Bulgur – you boil it, maybe in broth. You can toss it with some cooked mushrooms and onions afterwards too!
• Cracked wheat bread (the more “cracked” wheat vs. ground flour the better).
• Fruits such as apple, fresh cherries, grapefruit, grapes, kiwi, mango, peaches, apricots, banana, plum, orange, pears, plums.
• Lentils, baked beans, kidney beans, chick peas
• Milk
• Oatmeal – the large slow oats
• Pasta.  The longer you cook pasta, the faster it tends to raise the blood sugar. (For example, Thai noodles are very fast in raising the blood sugar for many folks.)
• Pumpernickel bread – the corky heavy stuff not light and fluffy.
• Quinoa (it’s a grain. You find it in the rice section).
• Tomato juice
• Veggies (with the big exception of white potatoes)
• Whole meal barley bread
• Yogurt – all types but try the lower fat and plain varieties

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