Nature Foods are Low Glycemic

Hello!

If you haven’t heard the term “glycemic index”, it refers to how quickly a food boosts your blood sugar. A low glycemic index is preferable to a high one, meaning you want your blood sugar to get a slow and steady rise instead of a quick spike. This is thought to help you lose weight, feel satisfied, avoid cravings and have good energy.

Unprocessed (Nature) foods almost always have a better glycemic index. The explanation is the same as last week’s tip about metabolism: Nature foods take more time and energy to digest. That means the calories are extracted from them more slowly, so they hit your blood stream at a nice steady, slow rate.

Processed (Factory) foods, usually raise your blood sugar more quickly because they digest so quickly–remember, they are “pre-digested” by the processing plant, which already did the work of breaking them down, removing fiber, etc.

The more any food has been processed, the more quickly it will be digested and put in your blood stream. The one time you want this is during tough exercise, which is why competitive athletes purposely eat processed foods for quick energy or quick recovery.

So my past half-dozen weekly tips have hopefully convinced you to choose Nature Foods instead of Factory Foods whenever possible. I’ll stop beating this dead horse and find a new topic next week. 🙂

All my best,

Jill