FitSugar

Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load

FitSugar — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:00:00 PDT

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

Food	GI	GL
1 medium apple	38	6
1 small banana	47	8
10 baby carrots	35	2
1 medium baked potato with skin	76	23
1 medium orange	42	5
1 medium pear	38	4
1 cup white rice	64	23
1 cup brown rice	55	18
1 cup regular pasta	44	18
1 cup whole wheat pasta	37	14
1 cup skim milk	32	4
1 oz. cashews	22	2
1 oz. peanuts	14	1
1 oz. jelly beans	78	22
2 tsp sugar	68	7
1 cup lentils	29	5
1 cup kidney beans	28	7
1 cup barley	25	11

If you don't see a specific food on this chart, then go to nutriondata.com, enter the name of a food, and it'll tell you the GL.

Source

You Asked: Why Do Hangovers Make Me Hungry?

FitSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:30:00 PDT

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,

Ah, yes. As if the headache weren't bad enough, you also have to worry about a hangover interfering with your healthy eating habits. Before I started researching this answer, I assumed it had something to do with blood sugar, and indeed, blood sugar takes the blame for postparty hunger pangs.

Alcohol, as we know, is high in carbohydrates, and drinking heavily can temporarily decrease your blood-sugar levels. Basically, alcohol throws your blood sugar out of whack, and your body spends the next day trying to readjust, leading to increased hunger.

Here's what else I've been able to figure out from my research. When you drink, your liver is so busy metabolizing the alcohol that it neglects to produce glucose like it usually does. It's especially bad if you're drinking on an empty stomach, because then the drop in blood sugar is even more dramatic, resulting in ravenous hunger. In addition, drinking inhibits the production of a stimulant called glutamine, so the next day, when you've dropped drinking, your body churns out more glutamine than it needs. The resultant overstimulation may also contribute to increased hunger.

I'm no doctor, so that's about as much as I've been able to figure out, and it makes sense to me. Got your own knowledge of the subject? Share it below.

Source

Yummy Link: Pumpkin Pasta Salad

YumSugar — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:30:58 PDT

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

Spice It Up: Cinnamon Helps Keep Blood Sugar Down

FitSugar — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 03:00:00 PDT

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

How Do I Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels?

FitSugar — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 03:00:00 PDT

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:

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.
Always go for the wholegrain option. Replace white rice with brown rice, and make sure your pasta is whole wheat.
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.
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.
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.

Watch Andy Samberg Speak at Harvard's Graduation

Becky Kirsch — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:32:10 PDT

Andy Samberg brings the funny for Harvard grads - The Hollywood Reporter
Find out who's hooking up in the new season of True Blood - Zap2It
Justin Timberlake is making music again! - HuffPost Entertainment
More new footage from The Dark Knight Rises - BuzzFeed
You'll never believe what Nicole Kidman does to Zac Efron in their new movie - The Frisky
Will Smith's best movies - Rotten Tomatoes
See which classic horror film is coming to TV -/Film
Here's a preview for the new season of So You Think You Can Dance - ET Online
Jennifer Love Hewitt says The Client List makes her feel like a hooker - TrèsSugar

Nighttime Fasting: A New Way to Lose Weight?

Shape — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:09:52 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health.

If you couldn’t let anything cross your lips from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., but you were allowed to eat anything you wanted for eight hours a day and still lose weight, would you try it? That’s the apparent bottom line of a rat study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which recently stirred up the weight loss pot.

Top 50 Summer Diet Foods for Weight Loss

Scientists put groups of mice on different diet regimens for 100 days. One group of rodents ate healthy food while animals in two of the groups chowed down on high-fat, high-calorie feed. Half of the junk food eaters were allowed to munch whenever they wanted to while the others only had access to feed for the eight hours they were most active. The conclusion: even though they ate a fatty diet, the mice who were forced to fast for 16 hours were almost as lean as those who ate the healthy fare. Interestingly, the round the clock junk food eaters became obese and developed health problems, even though they consumed about the same amount of fat and calories as the time-restricted junk food fed mice.

See if a nutritionist thinks nighttime fasting works after the break!

Behold the New Poster For the Dark Knight Rises

Becky Kirsch — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:50:58 PDT

Let's try to decode the new Batman poster - The Hollywood Reporter
Meet the new contestants of Love in the Wild - Zap2It
Get a load of spoilers from True Blood season five - BuddyTV
Kristen Wiig gets crazy at the SNL afterparty - BuzzFeed
Will Smith wants to play Obama - HuffPost Entertainment
Wes Anderson's new movie is getting rave reviews - Rotten Tomatoes
The top 15 reality stars in movies - NextMovie
Johnny Depp snags a new role - Moviefone
See all the pictures from the Cannes Film Festival so far - PopSugar

Breaking Bad Season 5 Gets a Return Date

Becky Kirsch — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:43:02 PDT

Mark your calendars for the return of Breaking Bad - The Hollywood Reporter
Watch another new True Blood season 5 promo - Zap2It
Here's what's in store for tonight's House series finale - BuddyTV
Check out the trailer for Joaquin Phoenix's new movie - NextMovie
See what the critics are saying about Men in Black 3 - Rotten Tomatoes
Check out the teaser poster for Brad Pitt's new film - Moviefone
See what former American Idol finalists are doing now - The Daily Beast
Kristen Wiig's 15 funniest SNL moments - HuffPost Entertainment
Check out all the beauty looks from the Cannes Film Festival - BellaSugar

Photo courtesy of AMC

One-Minute Slimming Food Tricks That Work

Prevention — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:34:33 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

By Sarah Robertson, Prevention

Here are successful strategies to cut calories and burn fat that take 60 seconds or less. With about 1,000 waking minutes in every day, you'll find plenty of opportunities to slip these tips into your routine and watch the scale go down. If you've already begun your weight loss, these tricks can maximize your efforts and speed results.

Sip green tea before a walk
The caffeine frees fatty acids so that you burn fat more easily. And the polyphenols (antioxidant compounds) in green tea appear to work with caffeine to increase calorie burn. (If you have high blood pressure, skip this tip.)

Dip your bread
Use olive oil in place of butter. It's healthier and may also help you eat less. In a recent study, dippers ate a total of 52 fewer calories on average than those who used butter.

Seven Reasons Your Diet Isn’t Working

Learn more one-minute diet secrets after the break!