Diabetes and Complex Carbohydrates
A principal part of the “Triangle of Disease” is how sugar is managed in our blood. The incidence of diabetes is growing at a frightening pace and, according to a Gallup Poll, could reach 15% of the population by 2015. In the year 1900, less than 1% had diabetes. Because of this exploding trend, people are starting to be more conscious of the amount of carbohydrates they are consuming. Of course this is a good first move. However, a recent study from the University of Sydney in Australia, reveals that there is more to it than just logging the carb calories.
The researchers involved in the study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12081851], discovered that it is more important to be concerned with the quality of the carbohydrate calorie than just the quantity. As it turns out, some carbohydrates are fast burners and others burn at a slower rate. This rate of burn is what is most important.
If we consider how a cotton ball would burn and how a piece of charcoal would burn, we can get a grasp on the significance of carbohydrate burn rate. The cotton ball would burn up quickly while the charcoal will glow and smolder for a long period of time. The human body is not designed for fast burning fuel.
Clinical researchers measure the speed at which a carbohydrate burns by utilizing a system known as the glycemic index. This is a scale from 1 to 100 in which 100 is fastest burning and 1 is slowest burning. The authors of the study reveal their findings indicate that consuming foods with a high glycemic index are most likely a cause in type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Consuming carbs that are at the lower end of the index is better for maintaining a healthy body because these are the kinds of foods our bodies consumed over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. We are simply not designed to eat fast burning high glycemic index foods. It is like putting rocket fuel in an automobile. These fast burning foods are available to us as the result of industrial refining and processing methods that have only been with us for a very short span of time. For this reason, clinical studies which examined diets which are based on slow burning low glycemic index foods, reveal this diet allows loss of excess weight, lowering of cholesterol, enhanced endurance and a reduction in hunger. Furthermore, all indicators of diabetes and heart disease are improved.
As much as possible if not altogether, one should avoid high index foods such as snacks, chips, refined flour foods like white bread , cereals and cakes, cookies, sodas and fruit juices. Cooked carrots and French fries are also high glycemic index foods. Foods that are high in fiber are typically on the low end of the index.
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