Eat Carbohydrates and lose weight

If you love eating carbs, you are going to love this posting. Did you know that not all carbs will make you gain weight? There are some carbs which are actually safer on your wasitline than others? All this difference between how quickly you gain weight weight is dependant on a simple thing called the Glycemic Index.

Glycemic index or GI for short, is a rating given to carbohydrates depending on how fast a particular food will be turned into sugar once it enters our body. So the faster the food breaks down into sugar, the higher the GI will be. The slower it breaks down, the lower the GI will be. Needless to say, foods with high GI will promotes weight gain and foods with a low GI will be friendlier to your gut.

Why? As you know simple carbohydrates like white rice turns into sugar almost immediately once it enters your body. Unless your body has a need for all that energy immediately, all that sugar (which is energy food) will be stored away as fat as your body can’t use it just yet… in other words, saving it for later. So if you eat lots of food with a high GI and don’t have the appropriate level of activity to use all that energy, you will gain weight.

Foods with a low GI takes time to break down, and hence releasing sugar into your body at a slow and steady pace. Unless you work as a construction worker or a full time athlete, the amount of activity you do on a day to day basis is quite low which also means, the amount of energy you need is low. Hence, the low GI food which breaks down slowly, will release sugar slowly into your system, keeping it balanced and releasing just what you need – which also translates to less fat being stored.

Besides weight loss, foods with a low glycemic index also

- Increases the body's sensitivity to insulin
- Improves diabetes control
- Reduces the risk of heart disease
- Reduces hunger and keeps you fuller for longer
- Prolongs physical endurance Helps re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise

The best technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this for that" approach - ie, swapping high GI carbs for low GI carbs. You don't need to count numbers or do any sort of mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet.

- Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran (corn flakes has pretty high GI)
- Use breads with wholegrains
- Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat
- Enjoy all other types of fruits and vegetables (watermelon has a high GI as well)
- Use brown rice or low starch rice (basmati rice is also a good choice)
- Enjoy pasta as they have low GI (compared to the mamak yellow noodles)
- Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing (or lime juice)

For more foods and their GI and what you should be eating and what you should not, do check out this link

http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/glycemicfoodchart.htm

Check it out and see. There are loads of successful diet plans which have come out over the years based on GI. As these are scientific facts, you can be sure it works. Look forward to hearing your comments.