Are High Glycemic Index Foods Worse Than Saturated Fats?
Many people realize the benefits of cutting saturated fatty acids from their diet. However, according to a recent analysis of 21 separate studies, replacing those fats with the wrong foods can be even more detrimental to your health. This study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark conducted the analysis which included over 50,000 men and women who had never experienced heart attacks.
Over the course of a twelve year follow-up, approximately 2,000 heart attacks were recorded.
The researchers found a significant increase in heart attack risk among participants that replaced foods containing saturated fats with foods that have a high glycemic index value (GI).
Specifically they found that every additional 5% of a person’s total caloric intake that came from foods with a high GI resulted in a staggering 33% increase in heart disease risk.
The GI of a food is calculated by measuring how fast the carbohydrates in it raise blood sugar levels. The GI index ranges from 0 to 100.
Foods rich in simple carbohydrates like sugar and starch (white bread, cookies, potatoes, pasta) have high GI scores because they rapidly raise your blood sugar levels.
Foods such as artichokes, avocados and peanuts contain complex carbohydrates that digest more slowly and therefore have much less impact on blood sugar fluctuations. As a result these are foods have low GI scores.
Here is how you can translate the GI scale into low, medium and high GI foods:
Low GI foods - value between 0 and 55
Medium GI foods - value between 56 and 69
High GI foods - value between 70 and 100
Back to the study, it was also found that replacing foods containing saturated fats with foods that have a medium GI had no effect on heart disease risk.
And as expected, replacing foods high in saturated fat with foods with a low GI value was associated with a lower heart disease risk.
The bottom line is a diet high in sugar is as bad, if not worse, than a diet high in saturated fat. And replacing fat with sugar is not progress (beware of “fat free” products that replace fat with sugar).
Dietary guidelines provided by the government and others in the last 30 years have encouraged reducing fat intake. That effort has been successful, but the fat has been largely replaced with sugar – as evidenced by the fact that the average American now consumes 29 pounds more sugar each year compared to 1975.
And much of this sugar is hidden in virtually every food imaginable – which is why you need to take extra steps to protect your body.
NatureCity® can help with its new TrueGlucoSP™ product. One of the three main ingredients, called InSea2™, actually helps make higher glycemic foods act like lower glycemic foods in your body (when taken 30 minutes prior to a meal).
For example, in a recent clinical trial, InSea2™ reduced the overall spike in post meal blood sugar by 44% in people consuming a high starch meal consisting of three slices of white bread.
Just released on May 25, 2010 were results from another study in which animals consumed sugar with and without InSea2™. Taking InSea2™ reduced the post meal spike in blood sugar by about 25% to 38%, depending on the subject.
If you would like to learn more about TrueGlucoSP™ , please contact a NatureCity® representative at 1-800-593-2563.
