Photo by Ella Olsson on Pexels.com

Let’s Talk Nutrition-Accompanying Video Here:

Hi everyone, today’s nutrition topic is the Glycemic Index; the Glycemic Index is a scale of 1-100 used to rate carbohydrates by how much/how rapidly they have the potential to raise your blood sugar. To put this in terms we can all understand:

• Peanuts: Glycemic Index is 7
• Cornflakes: Glycemic Index is 81

When you eat a bowl of Corn Flakes, your blood sugar will rise to a higher level, and more rapidly, as compared to if you eat a few handfuls of peanuts. Why is this important? In the short term, this can help us manage our energy levels at work/after lunch. By being aware of the Glycemic Index of foods we eat, we can plan our meals and energy more efficiently. If for example we eat a lunch consisting of many high Glycemic Index foods, the rapid increase in or blood sugar (and subsequent rapid drop) is very likely to give us inconsistent energy levels after lunch.

Foods which tend to be lower Glycemic Index include foods with high amounts of dietary fiber per serving, and most vegetables. Quick note on the difference between vegetables and fruit, most fruits tend to be higher Glycemic Index compared to vegetables, because of the naturally occurring fructose (sugar from fruit). Although there are many benefits to eating fruit, your body will react the same way when it comes to the sugar content as it will processed sugar (although more processed sugar is higher GI). This is not to say to avoid fruits, only to be more mindful of portion size than with vegetables when considering Glycemic Index.

There are many great resources to look up Glycemic Index information, here is one of them: http://www.glycemicindex.com/

One more quick tip; how you prepare food, and anything you (or others) add to it, can change Glycemic Index. If you have a bowl of raw root vegetables next to a bowl of roasted root vegetables with a brown sugar glaze, guess which one has a higher Glycemic Index?? See, you got this!

If you like this topic and want to check out a quick video, please click the link to my Facebook Page and You Tube channel over on the right of this post.

Have a great day, and thanks for reading!