Understanding Diabetes and Glycemic Index

The Glycemic Index: Lifestyle Changes
In order to remain healthy in our later years, lifestyle changes are needed that include changing
the way we eat. Even if you think you are eating healthy foods, look at what you are eating in
the way or carbohydrates. If you are eating white bread, white flour, white rice, potatoes, and
cereals that are not in the oat, bran, or barley group, you are eating carbohydrates that have a
high glycemic index. That doesn’t mean you are going to be able to eliminate all of the
carbohydrates that have a high glycemic index, but the goal is to reduce them so that less sugar
is going into the blood stream and more is being utilized and turned into energy. The body
needs the energy for your to feel rested after a good night’s sleep, but you want to consume the
slow burning energy rather than the quick energy that is derived from sugar products such as
candy, cakes, and other sweets.
Diet and exercise are important to good health, but you want to make sure that you are eating
foods that are nutritionally sound. Don’t go by things you were taught in school unless you are
very young because things that were taught about nutrition ten, fifteen, and twenty years ago
have now been changed. While many of us were taught that slow burning carbohydrates
included potatoes, white bread, and unsweetened cereals, we are now finding that only a
portion of that is correct information. As years go by, science finds out different information
about the foods we eat, so it’s important to make certain that you have the most current
information before you make any lifestyle changes. For this, the Internet is the most reliable
source of information since web pages are changed on a regular basis as opposed to a book
that you may pick up in the library or bookstore.
Understanding Diabetes and Glycemic Index

The Glycemic Index: Is It Worth The Effort?
When you consider the difficulty that is involved in making changes in the way you eat, the first
thing people tend to wonder is whether it’s really worth it. When you go on a diet and have to
give up or reduce your intake of certain foods, you ask yourself that question, and it has to be
an answer with which you can live. If you are overweight and want to lose weight, of course,
changing the way you eat will be worth it. The same holds true for switching your eating habits
to low glycemic index carbohydrates. Certainly, the body is going to go into shock from the
change, but in the future, it will be worth it as you find that you have more energy, your mind
functions better, and your health is better.
Changes in eating are never easy, especially not if you have been eating the same way for
many years, and if that involves a great deal of unhealthy eating. Lifestyle changes are never
easy, but if it’s for the benefit of your health, present or future, it’s worthwhile to make the effort.
Remember, even if you have no health issues at the present time that require you to switch to
low glycemic index carbohydrates, the benefits on your future health as you age are enormous.
In addition, the earlier you begin eating differently, the easier it is for both you and your family to
adjust to the changes. Making a change after twenty years of high cholesterol eating is much
more difficult than making the same change after five or ten years. Don’t wait until you have a
health issue such as the onset of diabetes to make the change; do it now before your doctor
forces you to do it because of your health.
Understanding Diabetes and Glycemic Index

The Glycemic Index: It Seems More Difficult Than It Is
Making a transition to a healthier eating style is not as difficult as it seems at first; unless you
are one of these that have his mind made up that you don’t like wheat bread or whole grain
cereal. If you make the changes with a positive attitude, you will achieve far greater success
than fighting the transition or doing it “because the doctor made me do it.” You have to do it
because you know it’s the best thing for your health and because you want to do it.
Unfortunately, that sometimes means a health scare that shakes you into reality, thus the
reason that so many people fail when they try to change the way they eat.
Making a lifestyle change is all in the perception of it. If a person is really adamant they do not
want to do it, then they are going to make it more difficult than it needs to be. For instance,
switching to whole wheat bread is a simple transition on a low glycemic index carbohydrate diet,
but if a person insists that they “hate” that kind of bread, the transition is