GI crazy!?!

[2ordinary]

Why is the GI of individual foods so important? I mean how often do you eat just your rice and nothing else? Why not eat the white rice rather than the brown rice as long as you're eating a fair amount of protein and fat with it. The combination of fats with carbs is suppose to temper the insulin response of the carbs so I don't see the problem with eating white bread or whatever if it's combined with fats and what not. Obviously, ideally, you'd want to eat the sweet potatoes, brown rice, whole oats, etc. But can someone tell me why the GI is such a big deal when you're not even usually (at least me) eating your carbs without anything else?

BTW, I just started the isocaloric 1/3 1/3 1/3 diet and so far it is going awesome because it is so much easier to stay on than any other so far. later bros

 

[2ordinary]

Diet experts any opinions? bumpity bump

 

[Enock]

Actually from what I understand about combining different GI foods it doesn't just average them out. You will still get the GI high but when you come down you won't drop all the way since you have lower GI stuff still digesting.

Also since the amount of food eaten also effects the GI rating. Eating 100grams of high GI food and 100grams of low GI food, you will get a slightly higher insulin response than eating just the 100grams of high GI food, though no where near as much as eat say 200grams of almost as hight GI food as the high GI food or 200grams of that hihg GI food.

examples arbitrary numbers to illistrate point.

100grams 100gi
100gram 25gi
= 105

100grams 90gi
100gram 90gi
= 150

100grams 100gi
100grams 100gi
= 160

100grams 25gi
100grams 25gi
= 40

So you see you will always get at least the insulin response of the highest GI food, MORE food will illicit a higher insulin response, however it would be very hard for a low GI food to push the insulin response further up from a higher GI foods highpoint.

picture it like cost

gramsxGI = curency
each insulin factor increases in cost as you go up, where the price for each point rises as you get higher and higher.

(This is also an argument point for the cavemans diet if I remember correctly. Though whoopty doo.)

 

[2ordinary]

Actually from what I understand about combining different GI foods it doesn't just average them out. You will still get the GI high but when you come down you won't drop all the way since you have lower GI stuff still digesting.

Also since the amount of food eaten also effects the GI rating. Eating 100grams of high GI food and 100grams of low GI food, you will get a slightly higher insulin response than eating just the 100grams of high GI food, though no where near as much as eat say 200grams of almost as hight GI food as the high GI food or 200grams of that hihg GI food.

examples arbitrary numbers to illistrate point.

100grams 100gi
100gram 25gi
= 105

100grams 90gi
100gram 90gi
= 150

100grams 100gi
100grams 100gi
= 160

100grams 25gi
100grams 25gi
= 40

So you see you will always get at least the insulin response of the highest GI food, MORE food will illicit a higher insulin response, however it would be very hard for a low GI food to push the insulin response further up from a higher GI foods highpoint.

picture it like cost

gramsxGI = curency
each insulin factor increases in cost as you go up, where the price for each point rises as you get higher and higher.

(This is also an argument point for the cavemans diet if I remember correctly. Though whoopty doo.)

I read differently from http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm:

"You can quite readily predict the glycemic index of a mixed meal. Simply multiply the percent of total carbohydrate of each of the foods by its glycemic index and add up the results to get the glycemic index of the meal as a whole."

So, in your scenarios, e.g. the first one:
100g 100gi
100g 25gi
=>62.5 gi

But, also, this is if you're just eating the carbs without any fat. And fat is supposed to lessen the glycemic index also:

"The glycemic response is influenced by the amount of food you eat, its fiber content, fat content or amount of added fat, and the way the food is prepared."

So in conclusion, if someone was gonna eat some white rice and along with that rice they were going to mix in some flax oil (just an example i don't eat this), then I don't really see the problem with this. And it could even be better than brown rice all by itself for that matter. I'm not sure about that, but you catch my drift.

later bro

 

[Enock]

Yes thats true but so is what I said. I was talking about the equivalent insulin response not GI, we only use GI for its effect on insuling rise.


say you had

50 grams 100 GI, 50x100 = 50000


50grams 100gi + 50grams 50gi - 75(average gi)x100 = 75000



So you can see while you would average out the GI rating the over all effect is related to amount and GI factor. So you can't reduce and insulin response by adding more food, it will bring your total grams up which is the other half of the insulin response equation. Mixing a low GI with a high GI will not have as low as an insulin response as just eating the high GI by itself.

 

[MS]

Any answer to your question will be controversial. First of all, GI is not the same as insulin response. There are some foods AND SOME FOOD COMBOS that either directly stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin, or reduce insulin receptor sensitivity. So just because food has a high or low GI does not mean that it is 'good' or 'bad'. High GI carbs plus high fat meals also may produce a double insulin spike which might be detrimental. I'll just say that the GI scale was developed to help insulin dependant type 1 diabetics. It is not necessarily of use to people wanting either maximal or minimal insulin response, and is sometimes very misleading to insulin resistant type 2 diabetics. But if the isocaloric diet is working for you (if you're losing fat while retaining good health and muscle) then you shouldn't worry about the details of how and why. Just make sure you get as many of you carbs as you can from whole and unprocessed foods, and get your fats from predominantly unsaturated fats.

 

[2ordinary]

Okay, so after doing some more reading on the internet and looking at your responses it seems like this whole issue is a little more complex than I was making it out to be. Other than the issue of GI not necessarily being a predictor of insulin response, the problem is also compounded by the fact that not all the supposed experts out there on the internet agree with each other (as you pointed out MS). I guess I can't get away with eating Pizza Hut and McDonald's all day long as I had wanted. Gonna have to stick to the clean diet a bit more which should insure a bit more that I'm not laying on slabs of fat from excessive insulin responses.


later bros

 

[MS]

Thanks 2ordinary, you are possibly one of the quickest learners I've seen on this board!

" Other than the issue of GI not necessarily being a predictor of insulin response, the problem is also compounded by the fact that not all the supposed experts out there on the internet agree with each other. I guess I can't get away with eating Pizza Hut and McDonald's all day long as I had wanted".

Words to live by methinks! But with all that in mind go forth and see if you can make the 33:33:33 diet work for you.

 

[2ordinary]

Thanks 2ordinary, you are possibly one of the quickest learners I've seen on this board!

" Other than the issue of GI not necessarily being a predictor of insulin response, the problem is also compounded by the fact that not all the supposed experts out there on the internet agree with each other. I guess I can't get away with eating Pizza Hut and McDonald's all day long as I had wanted".

Words to live by methinks! But with all that in mind go forth and see if you can make the 33:33:33 diet work for you.

Thanks bro and I'll keep reading on the board and elsewhere from knowledgeable vets like yourself.