Importance of the Glycemic Index in Weight Loss

Carbohydrates have come to be generally considered as one of the main reasons why people easily add on unhealthy body weight. While there is a great deal of truth about the effect of high carbohydrate intake on body weight management, it is however also important to understand why and how carbohydrates have come to be thus vilified. Understanding the glycemic index would be one very good place to start.

The glycemic index (also commonly referred to as GI) is basically a numeric scale that shows how fast a carbohydrate-containing food is able to increase an individual’s blood sugar level. It serves as an indication of how rapidly specific carbohydrate-containing foods are absorbed into the bloodstream to cause an increase in blood sugar level.

Although carbohydrates are not considered as essential nutrients, they however serve as the body’s primary source of energy. Ingested carbohydrates are mostly digested and absorbed in the small intestines where the secretion of key digestive enzymes takes place. They are subsequently transported the liver where they are converted into glucose before being released into the bloodstream.

The glucose resulting from the metabolism of carbohydrate is used in three different ways. First, the glucose is immediately sent to the organs that need energy which converts the glucose into adenosine triphosphate (or ATP, the fundamental unit of energy). Secondly, they are converted into glycogen for storage in both liver and muscle cells and lastly, when in excess, glucose is converted to and stored as fat in fat cells (adipose tissues) of the body.

Notwithstanding the important role carbohydrate plays, the amount and rate of release of glucose into the bloodstream can have certain undesirable effects on an individual’s general health and weight loss ability. This is closely tied to the relationship between glucose and insulin.

Insulin is usually produced by specialized cells in the pancreas and secreted into the bloodstream to help the body use and store the glucose produced during the metabolism of carbohydrate-containing foods. Insulin’s main function is to help the body maintain a normal glucose level (also referred to as blood sugar level) in the bloodstream. When glucose is too much in the bloodstream, insulin initiates the storage of the excess glucose as fat in fat tissues.

The body usually produces more insulin in order to counter any increase in blood sugar level caused by the consumption of easily digestible and absorbable carbohydrate-containing foods. Amongst other health conditions, too much insulin in the bloodstream can lead to the storage of excess body fat especially around the stomach and thigh areas, make the body to become insulin resistant, and can also result in diabetes mellitus.

An understanding of the glycemic index therefore becomes important to help individuals understand the particular carbohydrate-containing foods to eat and those to reduce or eliminate their consumption.

It is in this quest that researchers developed the concept of the Glycemic Index (GI) to help in better determining the rate at which carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream. The glycemic index is fundamentally a numerical scale that tells us specifically how rapidly a carbohydrate-containing food is absorbed into the bloodstream to increase blood sugar level.

A carbohydrate food is said to have a high glycemic index if it is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and leads to a rapid rise in blood sugar level while it has a low glycemic index if it is more slowly absorbed into the bloodstream and causes little or no increase in blood sugar level.

Given the fact that all carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and it serves as the body’s primary energy fuel, it is therefore used a benchmark and given a value of 100. All other carbohydrate-containing foods are subsequently rated on a numerical scale of 1-99 relative to glucose.

Foods that have a GI value ranging from 70-99 are said to have a high glycemic index. While foods that have a moderate GI have values ranging from 56-69, those foods with GI values below 55 are however considered low GI foods.

A study conducted by Harvard researchers, Simin Liu and Walter Willet on the dietary habits and health of over 75,000 nurses for a 10-year period concluded that consumption of high GI foods resulted in a double risk of having heart diseases and 40 percent more risk of having diabetes.

Besides the initial use of the GI to help prevent “sugar crashes” and to maintain steady insulin levels, it has also become a very useful tool in helping individuals achieve natural weight loss.

Proper utilization of the GI to make wise food choices allow dieters to consume better carbohydrates that keep blood sugar and insulin levels stable. These choices can also help in selecting foods that keeps dieters feeling fuller and more satisfied for a longer period of time which consequently assist in reducing overall daily calorie consumption.

The GI’s usefulness in helping individuals achieve their weight loss goals comes from providing the requisite information that allows them to make better carbohydrate-containing food choices especially in choosing carbohydrates that come from the lower end of the GI scale.

Although choosing to eat low glycemic index foods will help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity, it is also important to realize that the portion size of the meal itself and the carbohydrate-density of the foods can equally promote weight gain and disease.

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