blood sugar

Just when you started to get a handle on the glycemic index (GI) of foods, there's another value to grasp — glycemic load (GL). The GI ranks specific carbohydrates from zero to 100, based on the rate in which they affect your blood sugar levels. A GI of 1 to 55 is low, 56 to 69 is medium, and 70 to 100 is high — these high-ranking foods should be limited.

Glycemic load measures the blood-sugar-raising power per serving of food. Here's the lowdown on the equations used to figure the load. First you multiply the GI of a food by the amount of grams of carbohydrate in a specific serving, and then that number is divided by 100. A glycemic load of 10 or less is low, 11 to 19 is medium, 20 or more is high. If you add up the glycemic load amounts for your entire day, a total GL amount of 80 or less is considered low. Your daily GL shouldn't exceed 120.

Both measurements are useful. Glycemic load helps you select appropriate portion sizes, while glycemic index helps you differentiate between good and bad carbohydrate choices. The lower each number, the less it affects blood sugar levels.

Looking at some food's values may help you understand the two better. So read more

You're asking, and I'm answering.

Dear Fit,

I've noticed that on a day after a night of heavy drinking, whether I'm hungover or not, I tend to be ravenously hungry. I know that people joke about "hangover foods," but for me, it's not just craving greasy treats. I actually just feel insatiably hungry. Why is this?

— Hungry and Hungover

To see the answer, read more

Pumpkins and other kinds of Fall produce are popping up everywhere, but in many parts of the country, it still doesn't feel like Fall. This recipe for Pumpkin Pasta Salad is a great way to make the transition from Summer salads to Autumn produce. — Blood Sugar via Tastespotting

Cinnamon may seem like the perfect spice for fall or winter, but new research once again demonstrated the spice's healthful effects on blood sugar. Recent findings indicate adding some cinnamon to your dessert may temper the blood sugar surge that follows a sweet treat. This new evidence, supports earlier findings that cinnamon contributes to controlling blood sugar levels in healthy adults.

Here's how the study worked:

14 healthy volunteers who had their blood sugar measured before and after eating a bowl of rice pudding; each volunteer was tested after eating plain rice pudding and after having a cinnamon-spiced version.

Post-pudding blood tests, which were taken repeatedly over 2 hours, showed that volunteers' blood sugar rose to a lesser degree when they had the cinnamon dessert.

One reason for this effect is that cinnamon slows the rate at which food passes from the stomach to the intestines, thereby decreasing the rate sugar enters the bloodstream. Cinnamon has been studied recently as a possible means of managing blood sugar for people with Type 2 diabetes, but further studies are required to learn more about the relationship of cinnamon and diabetes.

Fit's Tip: Add some cinnamon into your meals. Flavor your fresh fruit salads and yogurt with cinnamon, or try YumSugar's refreshing cucumber salad that is surprisingly spiced with cinnamon.

Source

High levels of blood sugar have been linked to cancer in women. Knowing the importance of keeping blood sugars in target range, The World Cancer Research Fund has come up with a few simple, but important, tips on maintaining a healthy blood sugar:

1. The most important thing is not to become overweight. If you are overweight, then you should lose weight. This can be done through having a general healthy diet and be regularly physically active.
2. Always go for the wholegrain option. Replace white rice with brown rice, and make sure your pasta is whole wheat.
3. Cut down or completely stop having sugary snacks like sugary fizzy drinks and cakes. Temptation can be hard to resist, but cutting these out of your diet is a great step towards maintaining healthy blood sugars.
4. Make sure you get as many vegetables into your diet as you can. It's particularly easy to get your vegetable quota by chopping vegetables up and putting them into sauces.
5. Be as physically active as possible - it doesn't have to be exercise at the gym, but even walking instead of driving, or taking the stairs instead of the lift elevator, can really help.