I was babysitting last night and found myself with little to do. With not much on TV, and bored with my own book, I turned to the homeowners' bookshelf for something to peruse. Lo and behold, 'The Low GI Diet' sat blaring its title at me.
I have polycystic ovaries, and some hormonal imbalances that come with this. It means, among other unpleasant things, I don't get my period very regularly. It also unfortunately means that I am "insulin resistant". This basically seems to assert that I have too much sugar in my blood, and by eating a high GI diet I have made my period problems worse and the sugar in my system continually build up. Basically, the smart thing to do for my general health is to follow a low GI diet, but being a lazy bum I hadn't looked into it much. But here was my chance! Hours with nothing to do and a book about how to combat my exact problem!
I already knew some stuff about low GI foods by researching on the internet. The most surprising find was that raw vegies can be a lot better for your insulin levels than their cooked counterparts. For example, raw carrots have a very low GI score of 16, while boiled carrots are more than double that, with a score of 41!! Learning that made me realise that you can't assume you know the basics about food; it's important to look into things. 41 is still a relatively low GI score compared to, say, potatoes, but it's still amazing that such an increase can happen by simply heating up the carrots!
I plan to find and purchase this exceedingly helpful book tomorrow. It contains a 12-week eating plan (which truthfully I probably won't follow - I'm certainly not a great cook and I'd have to be pretty adventurous to try these foods without step-by-step instructions) and exercise tips, but the main reason it would help me is because it stresses what is important; knowing what foods are good for you in terms of glucose intake, and how to be smart about food. I'm not a dumb person, but like most people I seem to make some stupid decisions in relation to food. I have a new-found motivation to be careful with my body, because apparently if I'm not I'm very likely to develop type 2 diabetes, not a very pleasant side effect of indulging oneself! Until I find the book, this website is really helpful for quickly checking foods for their scores.
What I ultimately have learned for delving into the interesting and sometimes frightening world of GI is that I need to care more about the quality of food that I eat. $1 wholemeal loaves of bread are great for the wallet (not to mention free the white bread at my family's house!), but I'm going to need to shell out for the pricey Buergen Soylin stuff if I want to be serious about this. Also, no more buying Homebrand Sour Worms for the sole reason that they are on special! Writing a list of things I need to buy before I go shopping is my new battle plan.
3 comments:
Sounds like interesting info, hope you find the book and that you get some good ideas.
Yes. I hope it really helps, and I agree about your lament that often the healthy stuff is often more expensive.
But ironically in my search to eliminate what ever it is causing itchy spots I've had to give up the grainy and wholemeal loaves for .... white bread! So let's hope I never need to go low GI and get rid of itchyspots at the same time.
My sister has PCOS; I wonder if she knows about the low GI thing? Although she's a vegetarian and generally pretty health conscious so she may be eating low GI without realising it. Freak. (Don't worry, I'd say that to her face too...)
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