Practical advice on the Glycemic Index (GI), weight loss, sports nutrition, endurance and stamina

The GI index

Contents

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The 5 Key Sport Nutrition Stages

Step by step guide to sports nutrition.   click here

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Weight loss, Shape and The Gym

Spent hours in the gym without the results you hoped? For our step by step guide click here

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Why protein is so important

When you take protein, what type and how much will make a difference to your results click here

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The importance of low GI foods

All carbohydrates convert to blood sugar-some fast. To find out why this matters click here

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The importance of your body shape

There are 3 main basic body shapes - select the right sport, training and diet plan for your natural shape results will be a lot easier.   click here

 

 

 

 

 

The lower the GI index the better...

 

The Glycemic Index is a tool that anyone looking to increase energy, get better sports performance, lose fat and just feel better needs to understand.

All carbohydrates convert to blood sugar-some fast, some slow -and the Glycemic Index measures the rate the conversion takes place.

Eating high-glycemic carbohydrates (ones that turn to sugary quickly) will hinder the fat burning process and will decrease energy levels.

Here's why:

When you eat high-glycemic carbs, your blood sugar levels soar ; when this happens your pancreas produces insulin. One of the roles of insulin is to keep your blood sugar levels regulated -but its also a storage hormone. When your sugars go up, your body produces the storage hormone to clear the excess sugars. Those sugars end up in fatty tissue. Ultimately, your gaining fat, because internally, your telling your body to store.

Here's how it relates to sports and energy levels:

  • When you overproduce insulin, you clear the sugars out of your blood-the end result is that you are now hypoglycemic.

  • What does that mean?

  • Blood sugar levels are lower than they should be,

  • "you crash" or get lethargic, and now your body craves sugars.

  • So what next? You have to snack again, and the cycle continues

By switching to low-glycemic carbs, the energy release is gradual and long lasting which is ideal for athletes, you do not tax your pancreas, you do not over-produce a storage hormone, you feel better and you're in a better position to lose weight or more accurately, burn body fat.

The Glycemic index is readily available, and tracks virtually every brand of every food. Some of the more common entries are listed below. Each entry is compared to glucose, if the rate that glucose converts to blood sugar equals 100. Numbers lower than 100 mean that food converts to blood sugar slower than glucose-and in terms of your mission to increase energy levels for athletes and burn body fat, the lower the GI index the better

 

 

Breads and Grains

waffle -76

donut -76

bagel -72

white bread -70

whole wheat bread -69

white rice -56

instant rice-91

brown rice 55

white spaghetti-41

whole wheat- 37

barley  -25

Fruits

 

watermelon-72

pineapple-66

raisins-64

banana -53

grapes -52

orange -43

dried apricots- 30

pear -36

apple -36

Snacks

 

rice cakes -82

jelly beans-80

mars bar -68                  wheat crackers -67

popcorn -55

oatmeal cookies-55

potato chips-54

chocolate -49

banana cake-47

peanuts-14

Cereals

 

Rice Krispies-82

Cornflakes-77

Cheerios-74

Shredded Wheat -69

Oatmeal-61

All Bran-42

 

Starchy Vegetables

 

baked potatoes-83

instant potatoes- 83

mashed potatoes- 73

carrots-71

sweet potatoes-54

green peas-48

Legumes

 

Baked Beans-48

Chick peas-33

Butter beans-31

Lentils-29

Kidney Beans-27

Soy Beans-18

Dairy

 

Ice cream-61

Fruit yogurt, low fat-33

Milk, full fat -27

Milk-Skim-32

Soy Milk- 31

 

Beverages

 

Soft drinks,fanta-68

Orange juice-57

Apple Juice,unsweetened-41

Plan on action

If you want to use low GI foods select the ones with the lowest score from above.  Don't forget that for maximum results you should be trying to eat as healthily as possible.

Or you could simple add a drink from the link below - low GI drinks are easy to use, and formulated to be healthy containing all essential nutrients.

 

More information

  • For details of low GI sports nutrition products mentioned - click here

  • For the 5 step sports nutrition plan  -  click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright note - please note that all the copy on this site is the legal ownership of the Cambridge Sport Nutrition Centre.  We will take all legal action necessary if we find an unauthorised use of the material on other sites, mail shots,  newsletter or any other means.

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