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A low GI diet may not help your blood sugar.

JACKTHELAD said:
GL ... glycemic load is more informative than GI.
Chips and roast potatoes are GI lower than mashed boiled or baked spuds because of the fat ... GL will tell you the amount you can eat.
Click to expand...

I think you will find if you actually looked into it that the reason for chips and roast potato being lower GI than mash is that mash is highly processed and obviously the more you process a food and break it down the faster it is digested.

I have incorporated many aspects of GI into my T2 lifestyle and found it to be a great help just as I have incorporated many aspects of low carb too.

Of course if you never try something and just rely on negative articles about any subject you will never find anything useful

Frank Zappa once said "A mind is like a parachute. It doesnt work if it is not open". A wise man was Frank.....
 
QUOTE] We caution that we did not study lowering glycemic index in people with type 2 diabetes to control their hyperglycemia; 2 meta-analyses reported benefits6,39 and our findings should not be extended to type 2 diabetes.[/QUOTE]
The research wasn't conducted in the context of diabetes. It was suggesting that within the context of a DASH type diet already known to improve CVD risk factors the GI didn't add anything extra . The hypothesis was that it would affect these measures.
Insulin sensitivity was based on proxy measures of glucose and insulin during an OGTT. Some previous studies using more direct methods (euglycemic clamp) have also shown no change, some have shown reduced sensitivity. (see protocol supplement) Does this particular trial add anything? Most studies seem to find that weight loss increases insulin sensitivity no matter what the diet and this trial wasn't devised for weight loss.
.
Pod cast summary http://media.jamanetwork.com/jama-r...-risk-factors-for-heart-disease-and-diabetes/
Paper http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2040224#joi140167f3
Fig 2 shows the effect on post prandial glucose levels. Which in the context of the measures they were reporting on was not mentioned.
Apparently fasting glucose in the lower carb/low GI arm rose but the lowest average reading was 94 the highest 97mg /dl so really very little between them (5.22-5.38mmol/l)

You'll have to read the full paper because with 4 conditions it is impossible to summarise. The supplements show a lot more detail including the diets . Here's one day, (2, 000 cals; there were higher cal versions ) For comparison, at the moment I probably have the same percentage of carbs in my diet as the so called low carb arm ( around 40%, higher if I'm more active) but this breakfast contains 4 times the amount of oats that I would normally eat for breakfast and I use the GI as a tool. (and a quick skim of the menus after Nigels last post,I don't think I saw a legume in any of them. )
 
Thanks all for your responses.

@pavlosn - I've gone gluten free, so bulgur wheat is out after reading the book '"Grain Brain". I guess I should have mentioned that.

@Sid Bonkers - I agree with Frank Zappa. I'm a huge fan. I saw him in concert in Montreal once. Brilliant. There must have been 15 - 20 musicians on stage including 3 percussionists. I would like to incorporate low GI into my diet somehow but am not sure where to start.

@noblehead - chick peas sounds promising. I'll try adding some to my lunch salad and see what that does. That list is a bit odd - it says 56-69 is medium GI yet lists porridge (GI58) as low GI. Probably just a typo. The things on the list that I eat are all under a GI of 20 and are in the vegetable column. Can I say that I'm following a low GI diet now? Of course, besides a low GI the vegies don't have much total carbs either. Pearled barley looked promising, but it has gluten.

@phoenix - it's nice to see a twix bar is low glycemic. I may have to add those to my diet....oh wait, they have gluten. The low carb menus look horrific. Vegetarian sausage? Isn't that cannibalism?
 
Absolutely.

Don't really believe you have any genuine interest n experimenting with any carbs ( low GI or otherwise) so even if completely by accident I probably gave you the right response!
 
http://www.glycemicindex.com/index.php is a good site for explaining the G.I. method. You can search for the food that you are querying.
To work out the overall G.I. of a meal you will need to add up the G.I. of all the foods on your plate and then divide it by the number of foods. G.I. becomes easier after a while, as do other methods once you understand it ,because you know the G.I. of foods and your individual response.

People who use the G.I. method know, that as a diabetic, regardless of the G.I. they have to be selective with what they eat and that is why testing is essential. A twix is not something most diabetics would opt for. It is no surprise to me that whatever method we use, there is an individual response to some foods. Potatoes, breads, pasta, rice and cereals are off the menu for some whereas others can eat them.

I find that using beans in a casserole. stew, salad or soup means that I don't need to add potatoes, rice pasta or bread and the fact that beans are resistant starches means there is less impact on my blood sugars.
I eat porridge but add seeds and nuts because that gives a better nutritional value and works out as a lower G.I.
 
@pavlosn - Of course, you'd be wrong. I managed to obtain a Freestyle Libre and am planning on quite a few experiments over the next couple of weeks. My first experiment was Thursday when I ate my normal LCHF regime. Now I'm on day 2 of a 3 day fast. Very interesting results so far. I may try frozen/thawed pasta versus regular pasta. A little bit of gluten won't kill me.

@catherinecherub - thanks, I've looked at that site before. I confess I'm skeptical, but would like to try to get something out of the low GI idea. I don't really understand the "low GI load" part of it. I can certainly test myself after different carbs, but I was hoping that the GI index might help me choose carbs that don't spike my BG rather than lots of experiments. My thought was that if I could figure out what GI level or GL level causes too high a rise in my BG, then I could go through the list of foods with equal or lower GI/GL and be confident that my BG would not go too high. On the other hand, being gluten free and fructose free kind of limits what low GI carbs I can eat. And of course, they have to be palatable. I'm thinking steel cut oats and blueberries might be a palatable low GI breakfast.
 
My next appointment with my endo will contain a lot about the absence of insulin resistance, as this is the difference between RH and T2.
As I'm continually experimenting as I have no reference to guide me except my meter, and I can only stay on a low carb not GI or GL diet.
Only Carbs and sugars which are very very low with a mix of protein and veg will keep my BSLs at the level needed for control.
There is a lot of foodstuffs that spike me, the worst being the usual suspects that don't help diabetics.
All my readings are spot on, including BP, cholestrol, liver and kidney function tests. Et al.
I have lost weight and feel fitter and healthier than I have for years.
In the OP the statement for me is in my experience has nothing to do with low carbing as low GI spikes me as well.
My diet is helping me live my life as I should do thanks to low carbing!
 
I was under the impression that for the glycemic load, you add up the GI numbers in the meal, multiply by the grams of carbs and divide by 100. A low GL is supposed to be under 80 points, but when I experimented with this some time ago, I had to keep the points considerably less than that - considerably less. I just gave up in the end as it really wasn't sustainable for me, and far too much of a faff.
 
@Bluetit1802 is right about how to calculate GL and right about it being a faff. I think that if you eat a consistent amount of carbs at each meal (except for the odd occasions) then the GL is accounted for by choosing lower GI carbohydrate containing foods.
I use the GI index to select between items ie it's better to choose a waxy new potato than a mashed old one, it's better to choose to eat chickpeas or lentils as a starch on other occasions. The GI lists though aren't that good for manufactured goods because even international brands vary between countries. It's also useful to be aware of what influences GI and that the GI is just a ranking so common sense comes into it (ie as noted a twix bar is lower GI but it isn't necessarily a healthy food otherwise, watermelon is high GI but there are so few carbs in an average slice that the high GI becomes almost irrelevant .
Personally, I normally don't eat carbs alone, they form part of a meal containing all food groups.
 
Having been on a successful low carb 'diet'. I cannot for the life of me see why T2s eat carbs to have a 'balanced' meal.
There is enough very low carbs in veg and other food so that you shouldn't have to keep 'trying' carbs.
If you have a condition that demands that you have carbs then fair enough!
But why have something that affects your blood glucose levels and make you feel ill or rotten!
As I said I don't get!
Carbs make you eat more carbs! And that can't be good
Of course it depends on insulin resistance!
 

Nosher, I eat carbs because I can, because I enjoy them, because the ones I eat in the portion sizes I eat them, do not raise my levels above where I am happy. I would soon fall off the waggon if I couldn't have my few spuds, a few chips, or a piece of bread. This is my diet forever and I will not deprive myself any more than I have to, or let diabetes control my life. I do not feel ill. I do not feel rotten. I do not have any cravings. I do not eat more carbs because I eat carbs. I have not eaten above 60g for months, and usually less. That is my tolerance level. I have lost over 30% of my weight, my cholesterol is better than spot on, my BP is perfect, my blood sugars are fine and still dropping, my other bloods are normal. I am happy. Why wouldn't I eat some carbs?
 
.There are carbohydrates present in almost all foods except meat (and some offal contains carbohydrate) They aren't in isolation they are bound up in foods that have all sorts of other attributes.
I try to eat a balanced diet containing proteins,fats,carbohydrates in a great enough variety to ensure a full complement of essential vitamins and minerals plus fibre (and a lot more fibre than the UK guidelines suggests) I don't keep trying carbs, as a T1, I count every single one ,from all sources. They all add up.
 
That's told me!!

I am wondering if you will fall off the waggon if you reach your targets?

Maybe I've become intolerant to the thought of having carbs at all?
 
I know that T1s have to have carbs, I was including T2s in my post.
As we are all different, I was generalising and I have to rely on myself a lot with my condition and I look at posts that have a bearing on my lifestyle which is close to T2 without being actually diabetic.
Because symptoms and treatment, (I'm on a diabetic meds) are very similar, and I low carb(very) because I have to!
I was just looking for answers why!
 
Blood sugar requires insulin to process it. When there is too much sugar in your blood, eventually the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, gets tired and stops responding. This creates a condition called insulin resistance. Blood sugar that cannot be processed gets stored as fat and that can cause unwanted weight-gain.
consider foods with a glycemic load under 10 as the best choice. Foods that fall between 10 and 30 are not bad, but you should eat them with caution.

Foods above 30 should be eaten sparingly. It’s a good idea to replace these foods with protein.

Low GI diets have been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, depression, and several cancers.

Another benefit of eating foods with a low GL is that you will naturally lose fat and get a leaner, slimmer body. This way you can be bathing-suit-ready all year round.

Here's 1 list of many to help you choose what's best to eat.
http://tbinet.org/dsm/files/Sauder GI.html, but personally I use GI GL Counter, by Winnie Chan, a very informative little book that's easy to take out & about.
 
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