===============================================
Ivan's Newsletter
November 1, 2006 -- Issue 017
===============================================
Hi,

This issue includes...

* Let's Get This Clear:
GI and GL? What is this?

===============================================

This one is going to be short. The work on the
future "Members" site is taking more effort
and time than I initially though it would
take. Other than that it's a real pleasure I'd
say;-) I can't wait till everything is done
and ready for the public eye...Soon...

Let's get on with the today's read..

===============================================
GI and GL? What is this?
===============================================

The idea of the Glycemic Index (GI) has been out
for over ten years, but nonetheless many will
see GI and go: "G.. What?... Uh?"

In the same time we learn that managing insulin
levels is one of the most essential things (if
not the most essential) for effective fat loss.
So how do we manage these levels if we don't
know about GI?

Moreover, GI by itself is not an accurate estimate
of whether a particular carbohydrate food is
acceptable for fat loss (and good health in
general) or it's a "stay away from it" type.

There is another value that goes hand in hand
with the GI. It is called Glycemic Load (GL).

Let's touch on these two briefly to see what
is their application in the nutrition planning
of the contemporary athlete (and not only..).

GI is a measure of how fast a carbohydrate food
enters your blood stream in the form of blood
glucose. Each carbohydrate food has a GI value
assigned.

It is widely accepted that simple sugars have
higher GI, while complex carbs have lower.
Still, there are instances where a complex
carb will have very high GI and a simple carb -
very low.

Such is the case of maltodextrin (a "complex"
carb with GI of about 120), and dextrose -
a simple sugar with GI of about 20.

Conforming to the "insulin levels management
for fat loss" concept we should always strive
to eat carbohydrate foods with GI lower than
55. Higher than 70 will trigger sudden high
insuline levels and promote fat storage.

(Just for your information glucose is assigned
a GI value of 100. It is used for the test
carb food when determining the GI of other
carbohydrate foods.)

Good so far, but the thing is GI doesn't tell
us how much carbs there are in a serving of
a particular food. Here is where GL comes to
play.

GL is the GI divided by 100 and multiplied by
the grams of effective carbs in a serving of
a carbohydrate food (Uh..?). The values for GL
range from 1 to 20 - lower values being better.

Values of over 10 are not desirable for good
health management and fat loss promotion.

Why should we look at the GL value also, when
making a decision whether a carb food is good
for our meal plan or not?

According to the GI index alone some carb foods
appear to be in the "black list", which calls
for refraining from including them in our menu.

Such is the case of the (poor) watermelon for
instance. Its GI value is 80(!) but its GL value
is less than 8. So, clearly watermelon falls in
the group of the desired foods it turns out.

Think about it for a moment. If you ate a 200 gr.
wedge (without the seeds) for dessert, this would
only give you some extra 10gr. of carbs. How
much should you eat so that you really ingest
the amount of sugars that will put your fat
loss efforts in jeopardy? 2LB? Or even 4LB?

Any way, I made my point.

You now know which means what. Always keep in
mind that you should look at both indexes when
deciding if a carb food belongs to your menu or not.

You can find the GI and GL values of quite an
extensive list of foods by visiting the official
web site of the GI and GL. Choose "GI Database"
from the menu on the left and type in your food.

Here is their web site:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

Later - -

===============================================
Copyright 2006 by IvanNikolov.com.
All rights reserved.
===============================================