Important news but lame advice
While scanning the health headlines online this morning, I came across a story on Medical News Today, entitled How to Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels. The article notes a recent finding that elevated blood sugar levels are linked to a higher incidence of cancer. It's yet another good reason to pay attention to the glycemic impact of your diet, which also influences your risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
When I say "glycemic impact," I mean the effect that your food choices have on your blood sugar levels. This important aspect of nutrition, along with the terms glycemic index and glycemic load, is explained more fully on ND's glycemic index topic page and estimated glycemic load help page.
But the Medical News Today article goes on to give some pretty lame advice. Well, it's fine, as far as it goes.... Eat more vegetables, drink fewer sugary drinks, and maintain a healthy body weight. The doctor also advises you to choose brown rice instead of white and substitute whole wheat for regular pasta. Not a word about portion size, however, which has a far greater impact on blood sugar levels than whether you eat brown or white rice.
According to the Glycemic Research Institute, the glycemic load (GL) of brown and white rice is virtually the same: about 23 for a three-quarter-cup serving. For pasta, the differences are slight: A three-quarter-cup serving of white pasta has a GL of 20 vs. 17 for whole wheat pasta. But how many people actually eat just three-quarters of a cup of pasta?
A restaurant-sized serving of pasta can easily contain three to four cups of pasta, with a glycemic load of 100 or more--well over the recommended total for an entire day! Substituting whole wheat pasta would lower the GL to 90, which is still going to do a number on your blood sugar.
If you're trying to maintain healthy blood sugar levels, you need to pay attention both to the quality (glycemic index) and the quantity (glycemic load) of your food choices. ND's total consumption tool can help by estimating the combined glycemic load of your meals and daily consumption. The Glycemic Research Institute recommends that you aim for a total daily glycemic load of 80 or lower, ideally spread evenly among the day's meals.
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Posted by: jpatti | Jul 10, 2007 7:06:08 AM
While glycemic load calculation is a step in the right direction, it simply cannot compare to testing your own bg regularly.
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recommends keeping bg levels at less than 140 mg/dL to avoid the complications of diabetes. A one-size-fits-all recommendation for glycemic load cannot accomplish this.
Because there are so many variables with diabetes, the amount and type of carbohydrate each diabetic can tolerate while maintaining normal bg levels varies. The glycemic index is based on average bg changes in the normal, non-diabetic population; whether it's values apply to an individual diabetic is questionable.
A good article on how and when to test your bg is the famous advice to the newly diagnosed here: http://www.diabetic-talk.org/jennifer.htm
Much information on diabetic diet, exercise, testing, drugs, diabetic complciaitons and insulin is located on the site "What They Don't Tell You About Diabetes" here: http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/ - a truly great site that summarizes the current state of knowledge about diabetes in a manner the average laymen can understand.
