Foods with a high glycemic index

Foods with a high glycemic index - when consumed in excess in the diet - can lead to obesity.

After consuming such carbohydrate-containing products, the amount of glucose in the blood increases rapidly. This monosaccharide with six carbon atoms is a key supplier of energy, which is necessary for all metabolic processes in the body without exception. If the energy is not immediately spent, then glucose is stored in liver cells and skeletal muscle cells in the form of a product of enzymatic synthesis of glucose - glycogen. When there is no more free space for "storing" glycogen, and products with a high glycemic index continue to enter the stomach and be absorbed, then adipocytes - cells of adipose tissue - get down to business. Here, glucose is converted into glycerol, and glycerol - into triglycerides, that is, into fat...

The method for determining the glycemic index of food products was developed in 1981, but to this day there is no consensus regarding the physiological mechanism of glucose absorption. There is a point of view according to which it is not the rate of glucose absorption that plays the main role, but the quantity. That is, products with a high glycemic index are products that give the body a large amount of glucose during the digestion process.

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High Glycemic Index: Table

As is known, the rate of breakdown of all consumed products (according to another version, the amount of glucose supplied to the body) is compared with 100 units that glucose has. Low glycemic index is from 10 to 40 units, average - from 40 to 70 units, and more than 70 units is high.

Carbohydrates with a high glycemic index, which is equal to or higher than the glucose index, include wheat bread (135), beer (110), hamburgers and dates (103), and white bread croutons and toast (100).

The high glycemic index in the table is distributed from higher numbers down:

98	Baked potatoes
95	Fried potatoes, sweet pastries
90	Honey, mashed potatoes
85	Potato chips, cornflakes, carrots (boiled or stewed)
80	Condensed milk and cream, caramel, lollipops
75	Cream pies (sponge, shortbread, puff pastry), pumpkin
70	Sugar, boiled potatoes in their skins, potato chips, boiled corn, milk chocolate, halva, jam, preserves, sweet carbonated drinks, watermelon

High Glycemic Index Fruits

Dried dates can be classified as fruits and berries that fall into the category of carbohydrates with a high glycemic index. Moreover, if the glycemic index of fresh dates is 103 units, then in the form of dried fruit it is 146! And this is typical for dried fruits: the glycemic index of fresh grapes is 45, and raisins - 65.

Nutritionists claim that fruits with a high glycemic index are all fruits that have a pronounced sweet taste. And if we take into account not the speed with which glucose is absorbed, but its quantity, then this is true. For example, 100 g of peach contains 6 g of sucrose, 2 g of glucose and 1.5 g of fructose; melon contains 5.9 g of sucrose, 1.1 g of glucose and 2 g of fructose. And 100 g of watermelon (if you come across a sweet specimen) contains approximately 2 g of sucrose, 2.4 g of glucose and more than 4 g of fructose. And its glycemic index is 70 units.

It is also noted that the less crude fiber a fruit contains, the higher its glycemic index.

High Glycemic Index Vegetables

Vegetables with a high glycemic index primarily include rutabaga (99), parsnips (97), celery root (85), boiled carrots (85), pumpkin and squash (75).

It should be emphasized that during the process of cooking and frying, the glycemic index of most vegetables increases significantly. Thus, the glycemic index of raw carrots is 35 units, and boiled ones are 2.4 times higher - 85.

And the glycemic index even depends on the cooking method. If you fry potatoes, you get a glycemic index of 95 units, if you mash them - 90, and if you boil potatoes "in their skins", then it is already 70. The fact is that 100 g of raw potatoes contain 17.5% starch, and starch is a carbohydrate consisting of amylose and amylopectin, which humans do not digest in their raw form. When heat treated in boiling water (that is, at + 100 ° C), starch is gelatinized, and when frying in a frying pan or baking in the oven (the temperature is higher than when boiling), thermolysis and hydrolysis of starch occurs with the formation of well-soluble and digestible polysaccharides (dextrins).

In addition, potato starch is dominated by amylopectin (up to 80%), and the amylose content is insignificant, so the degree of its gelatinization is quite high. And it is in this form that potato polysaccharides are better absorbed in the stomach, and then transformed into glucose.

High glycemic index foods - by increasing blood glucose levels - provide a surge of energy. But when a person does not spend this energy, the layer of fatty tissue on his waist will inevitably thicken.