Diet Plans and Diets with the Glycemic Index

There has been much talk about the Glycemic Index (GI) and the Glycemic Load and its effect on your body and diets. First what is the Glycemic Index. The GI is simply a measure of how fast a certain food will raise your sugar in your blood. All foods are not created equal and the GI index helps you with making choices about carbohydrates . The numbers that are given to carbs are based on glucose. This carbohydrate is given the number of 100. This is the a fast acting carb no matter what diet you are on and is what all other carbs are based on. The higher the GI number the faster it acts in the blood. The lower the GI number the slower it acts and will remain in the blood for a longer period of time.

Now this is all well and good except there is no one source for these numbers. Yes different labs have different numbers based on their research and their diet plan. Now some diets and diet plans are coming out with the Glycemic Load as another way to determine which carbs to use and which to avoid. Is the GI index important in losing weight or losing fat. The GI index is another tool you can use in the fight against obesity. You want to understand that some diets never mention the GI index and yet they follow many of the GI guidelines in the carbohydrate do and don't list.

Most likely this should be something you can use to help you in making decisions on certain foods. If you are planning to go on a diet that is based on this index due to high blood sugars in your diet by all means use this guide with your diet plan. Please remember that the GI index has many variables like diabetes. The number for the food will depend on how fresh the carb is, how it is cooked and for how long. It will also depend on the time of the day that you are eating and the insulin levels in your blood along with you physical activity in you day and what your diet plan calls for. In other words these charts are just guides that will help you to determine which carbohydrates are short term and long acting carbohydrates. You should look at these lists and make informed choices on your diet plan especially when it comes to carbohydrates. Simply substitute the higher value foods with lower value foods and that alone can help you lose weight and burn fat. With this and a few other simple common sense tools you can start losing weight with any weight plan that you choose.