Low Glycemic Index Foods

We’ve all got certain guilty pleasures. Maybe yours are donuts, cookies, chocolate candy, chips, etc. What these all have in common is a high glycemic index. This means that they break down more quickly in your body, causing blood sugar levels to rise more quickly as well. In terms of your day-to-day habits, if you are consuming a lot of high glycemic foods, you’re more likely to get hungry in between meals, and that tends to result in snacking on whatever’s handy.

Overall, this means that those foods have a doubly negative effect on you: first of all, most of them are empty calories, which means you are either replacing good food with them, or eating way too many calories by having them in addition to healthy food. Second of all, those foods will cause you to get hungry and force your body to bring out insulin more frequently. This is what leads to diabetes.

So, what you want to do is switch to low glycemic index foods. The reason this is so difficult is that you are used to your guilty pleasures. It might be comfort food, it might have some sentimental value (like a tradition), or it might just be a bad habit that you never bothered to reevaluate. Whatever the reason, those foods are getting in the way of your health and fitness goals. Imagine a giant pizza slice, donut, or cookie blocking a doorway, and you have to fight to rid yourself of it before you can succeed. Perhaps it’s a corny metaphor, but the point is still valid: you can’t be at your best when you allow high glycemic foods to get in the way of your health.

What you should do is figure out all the high glycemic foods you eat, and make it a point to cut down on them gradually. The key is to make it something you can actually commit to. If you say that you want to switch your entire diet over tomorrow and never look back, you are setting yourself up to struggle, and perhaps even fail, right from the start. Drastic changes are very hard on people who are set in their ways, so the name of the game is baby steps.

When committing to low glycemic index foods, also try to go shopping for foods that you could see yourself eating. It’s not supposed to be about torturing yourself. While you might think giving up certain high glycemic foods is a challenge, it isn’t nearly as difficult if you can find healthy foods that you still would enjoy. Even if you start by only picking up one or two items each time you go shopping, eventually you’ll adjust and it will get easier.

So, why should you devote your diet to low glycemic index foods? It’s because of how much better you’ll feel, how much energy you’ll have, and how much more satisfied you’ll feel between meals. You’ll think better, work harder, and give yourself one of the best gifts of all: a healthier life.