High Glycemic Index and Its Health Implications
What happens when you eat high glycemic index- or high glycemic load foods? Have you ever paid attention to how you felt after eating sweets? An instant energy rush then the tiredness that followed it straight after? And how it probably didn’t fill you up?
Glucose that rushes into your blood can’t be good for your health and a lot of it will go into the fat cells in your body if you don’t burn it off straight after. This applies to any high glycemic index foods with a GI of 70 and above, such as corn flakes, white bread , baked potatoes- higher GI than sweet potatoes and surprisingly higher GI than fried potatoes, watermelon, dates, waffles, cheerios, popcorn, sticky rice…
Type 2 Diabetes
A comprehensive health study on Chinese Women in Shanghai found that those that consumed high glycemic index foods had a 34% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those with a low GI diet. This was much stronger among overweight women. Another US study concluded that after a high glycemic load meal, blood sugar rises more rapidly and insulin demand is greater than after a low glycemic load meal. High blood sugar levels and excessive insulin secretion are thought to contribute to the loss of the insulin-secreting function of the pancreatic beta-cells that leads to irreversible diabetes.
Breast Cancer
Dr. Larsson of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and colleagues analyzed data on 61,000 women who completed food questionnaires in the late 1980s. Over the course of about 17 years, 2950 women developed breast cancer and, according to the investigators, glycemic load “was significantly positively associated with risk of overall breast cancer.” Women with higher glycemic load diets were more prone to breast cancer. Glycemic index and glycemic load were also correlated with risk of a certain type of breast tumor. It was assumed that high glycemic load may increase breast cancer risk by increasing concentrations of insulin and sex hormones in the body, which may contribute to the development and spread of breast cancer cells.
Cardiovascular Disease
High glycemic index along with increased blood glucose and insulin are linked with increased serum triglyceride and decreased HDL cholesterol: both are risk factors for cardiovascular disease. A research of English women found that those with highest glycemic load diets were twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease as those with low glycemic load diets. Again this was much more obvious in overweight women.The most recent contribution from this group provides clear evidence that both the quantity and quality of dietary carbohydrates are associated with subsequent cholecystectomy.
Heart Healthy Diet Guidelines
Gallstone Disease and Cholecystectomy
Gallstone disease seems to affect 10%-25% of Americans and is a leading cause of hospital admission. More than 800,000 cholecystectomies are performed in the United States annually. They are mainly made up of cholesterol. Investigators with the Nurses’ Health Study came up with clear evidence that quantity and quality of carbohydrates were associated with subsequent cholecystectomy. They suggested that increasing intake of high glycemic load carbohydrates, is linked with an increasing risk of gallstone disease leading to cholecystectomy.
Food is very powerful and you are what you eat. You can change many external things in your life by simply choosing not to have them, food enters deep into your tissues and cells and becomes your body shape, your health and simply you.
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