Low Glycemic Impact Foods

Start your day with a bowl of creamy steel-cut oatmeal topped with blueberries and ground flax seeds. Enjoy a spinach salad with chickpeas, grilled chicken breast, sliced bell peppers, cucumbers, and fresh sprouts for lunch. Do these meals seem like healthy choices? Indeed they are, in part because both meals are made up of low glycemic impact foods. These foods nourish the body, stabilize blood sugar, prevent disease and aid weight loss.

• Start your Day off with Low Glycemic Foods

Significance and Benefits

• Low glycemic impact foods are those in which the sugar content is absorbed slowly into the blood stream. Foods with a low glycemic index stabilize blood sugar levels and regulate the body's overall metabolism. Eating low glycemic impact foods throughout the day improves and stabilizes your mood and boosts energy levels. Low glycemic foods also improve your ability to concentrate and satisfy hunger for long periods of time.

Disease Prevention

• Choose a variety of low glycemic impact foods to prevent or control diabetes, hypoglycemia, heart disease and cancer. Eat more low GI foods to stabilize your blood sugar and reduce the need for Insulin, Metformin, and other diabetes medications. In addition, a 100% plant-based low GI diet has been proven to reverse Type 2 diabetes, according to renowned physician Dr. Caldwell B. Essylstyn, Jr., M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic.

Children

• Low GI foods are an excellent addition to your child's diet. Reduce the symptoms of ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ADD (Attention deficit disorder) with a whole-foods based, low GI diet rich in fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Choose whole grain pasta and whole grain bread as alternatives to regular pasta and white bread. These simple changes have a big impact on symptoms of ADHD and ADD.

Weight Loss

• Blueberries are a terrific low GI choice

  Emphasize low glycemic foods in your diet to both aid and maintain weight loss. Low glycemic foods are also high-fiber foods and include whole grains, vegetables, legumes, and many varieties of fruit. Eating a whole-foods, high-fiber low glycemic diet helps you feel full more quickly and stay full longer. Snack on low GI foods to boost energy levels and tide you over until your next healthy meal.

Fruits and Vegetables

• Low GI veggies are nutritional powerhouses

  Low glycemic fruits include most non-tropical varieties. Choose fresh fruit rather than canned or dried, for a lower glycemic impact. Choices include cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, bananas (not overripe), and kiwi fruit.

  Low GI vegetables are nutrient dense, not calorie dense. They are nutritional powerhouses without a lot of calories. Choices include artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, carrots, yams, green beans, leafy greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, mustard greens), summer squash, and tomatoes. Eat as many of these low GI veggies as you want at each meal.

Grains and Legumes

• Beans are superfoods

  Low GI grains include brown rice, quinoa, wheat berries and unhulled or pearl barley. Whole wheat pasta and whole wheat (check the label -- no white flour) are both low glycemic grain options. Low GI legumes are good choices, either fresh, dried, or canned. Choices include peas, chick peas (garbanzo beans), kidney beans, lentils, white (navy) beans, split peas, pinto beans, and soy beans.

Label Detective

• Be a Label Detective

  Be a label detective. Whole grain bread that has white flour listed as a primary ingredient---2nd, 3rd, or 4th on the list---is not a low glycemic choice. Ditto pasta. If you see white flour high up on the ingredients list, walk away. Legume labels can also be deceptive. Look for labels with the following ingredients: legume (kidney beans), water, salt, spices.
  Beware of legume labels with sugar---kidney beans often have sugar added.