Fibre and Glycemic Index

Fiber

Fiber, particularly soluble fiber plays a vital role in food synergy and the delayed absorption of sugar. A high fiber diet is a pillar to a healthy diet. Beans, pure bran, oatmeal, prunes, avocado,  raisins, and most green vegetables, for example, are high fiber foods that cause less of a rise in blood sugar than foods like potatoes or any wheat based food. And eating a high fiber diet will aid in weight loss. High fiber foods generally require more chewing time, giving your body more time to register the fact that your no longer hungry,so your less likely to overeat. A high fiber diet also tend to keep you full longer because they have more volume with fewer calories. This slows stomach emptying. While this can give the body more time to absorb nutrients, it can also “trap” minerals like calcium or zinc, binding them up in such a way that they don’t have the opportunity to be absorbed. Insoluble fiber (like whole grains, seeds and fruit skins) increases the mass of the stool, which actually moves the stool more quickly through the intestines. Insoluble fibers pass through the digestive system relatively intact.

Glycemic Index

The glycemic index is a measure of how much given food (like fruit) raises your blood sugar. High sugar foods-or foods that convert to sugar in the body-are considered “high glycemic.” Why do we care. Because raising blood sugar raises levels of a hormone called insulin, which, if raised high and long enough and frequently enough, contributes to diabetes, obesity, heart disease and aging. Eating “Low glycemically” is a strategy that is virtually guaranteed to contribute to health.

Unfortunately, the glycemic index is a very misleading measure much like BMI (body mass index) because it doesn’t take into account portion size. The glycemic load is the number that’s more important. For now, the take home point is this: Eat less sugar. And eat fewer foods that convert quickly to sugar in the body (almost all processed carbohydrates). If you are more interested in learning more about this-something I highly recommend that you do is check out www.fatfreekitchen.com/glycemic-index.html

 

Antioxidants

You hear and read them on packaging daily. So what are they? Oxidation- or oxidative stress- is much like rust you would find on an old saw. When that happens in your body- as it happens every day- it can cause significant damage to your cells and organs. Keeping your saw rust free will not only help it last longer but keep it’s structure functioning for everyday use. Oxidation is a factor in virtually every degenerative disease. Antioxidants help fight this process. Deficiencies of antioxidants are implicated in the early stages of heart disease, cancer, eye degeneration, and decline in memory. When I tell you that food is good because it has antioxidants, now you know why.

 

Cholesterol

I make no secret my love for eggs. I eat them almost every day and think they are one of nature’s perfect foods. And you will never see me throw away the yolk. I often beg my vegetarian clients to at least integrate eggs into their diet. The question inevitably comes, “What about the cholesterol?”

Cholesterol just might be the most misunderstood molecule in the world. Dr. John Abramson, professor of medicine at Harvard University, says this: “It is important to keep in mind that cholesterol is not a health risk in and of itself. In fact, cholesterol is vital to many of the body’s essential functions.” Cholesterol is the “parent” molecule of some of the body’s most important compounds, including many sex hormones and vitamin D. It’s also an integral part of the cell membrane.

What slot of people don’t realize is the vast majority of cholesterol is made in your body, by the liver. If you take in less, the liver makes more. You need cholesterol. Without it, you’d die.

Doing justice to the whole cholesterol question in an introduction as short as this is a real challenge, but I’d like you to have a few basic take home points. The first is that cholesterol -like the ones you find in egg yolks-has minimal impact on serum cholesterol (the kind that your doctor measures). Minimal. Not only that, but the effects of eggs on heart disease can’t be predicted by looking only at the cholesterol content. Eggs contain many other nutrients that are good for you-protein, some polyunsaturated fats, colic acid, and B vitamins. If quotes help here is another- As Dr. Walter Willet, chairman of nutrition and professor of medicine at Harvard, has said, “No research has ever shown that people who eat more eggs have more heart attacks than people who eat few eggs.”

The second point has to do with the dogma of saturated fats in general. Yes, saturated fat raises cholesterol, but it raise both good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol. And though there may be a relationship between saturated fat and cholesterol, the relationship between saturated fats and heart disease is far less clear. How about this. Check out www.thincs.org or www.ravnskov.nu/myth1.htm.

Lowering cholesterol is big business. The top two top selling drugs on Forbes magazine of pharmaceutical juggernauts were Lipitor and Zocor, both cholesterol statin drugs. Together, they did a combined business of more than $13 billion. More importantly the research done on these drugs proves that it’s not the cholesterol lowering effects tthis make them effective, but their ability to lower inflammation, which indeed is a definate risk for heart disease, as well as a component of Alzeimer’s, diabetes, and obesity. Supplementing foods like blueberries, which are filled with natural flavanoids like quercetin, or spices like turmeric, that are so incredibly healthy largely because they are anti-inflammatory. Maybe we wouldn’t need a $13 billion dollar drug industry if we would just eat foods that do the same thing plus more.