While this isn’t exactly new news, this important study provides a direct reason why these high glycemic foods wreak havoc on the heart and increase risk of heart disease. The researchers showed that after you eat a carb-laden food like a bowl of corn flakes or a Twinkie, your brachial arteries become distended, or swollen, for several hours. While it’s important for the arteries to have a certain amount of elasticity in them, over time, a sudden expansion of the arteries, which follows after noshing on a carb-filled snack, can cause a number of negative health effects, including reduced elasticity, which can cause heart disease or sudden death.

Medical professionals are not only warning against the consumption of high glycemic foods, but the results appear to be even scarier for those who binge on such foods and consume too much of them in one sitting. Their risk of death from a heart attack is greatly increased.

So what does this study mean for you? Doctors are recommending that when you eat carbohydrates, consume those with whole grains like oatmeal, whole grain bread, brown or wild rices and starches like sweet potatoes and legumes. Since these foods contain fiber in addition to a number of other essential nutrients, they result in a slow and steady release of blood sugar and don’t expand the arteries like the culprit “white” foods do. Toss in 30 minutes of physical activity every day and you’re the picture of perfect health!

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High Carb Foods Raise Risk of Heart Disease

Researchers from Israel’s Chaim Sheba Medical Center and elsewhere evaluated 56 overweight or obese men and women, between 35 and 60. Other than their weight, they were healthy. None of them had diabetes or a history of cardiovascular disease.

They were fed foods that spanned the scale of the glycemic index, which relates to how a food affects your blood sugar levels. The higher the food is in the index, the more your blood sugar is spiked.

The high-glycemic meals, the authors concluded, appeared to impair the endothelial function, which is the layer of cells that line the inside of blood vessels. A decline in the function of the endothelial is a key variable in the development of hardening arteries and heart disease.

“Based on our study, we do urge consumers to have low-glycemic index carbohydrates instead of high-glycemic carbohydrates for better health and less potential hazards for the vascular endothelial function,” said Dr. Michael Shechter, senior cardiologist at The Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

(via: Yahoo)

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Study Supports Low Glycemic Index Diet

While NutriSystem has previously provided diabetic-friendly meals under its other programs, like the “for women” or “for men,” this newest program won’t require any menu modifications. Diabetics can simply order from the NutriSystem D menu and trust that the meals will meet their unique dietary requirements.
Those using NutriSystem D aren’t likely to be bored with their menu choices, as there are more than 150 “restaurant-quality” meals, all of which are low on the Glycemic Index and offer “good carbs and fiber” to keep dieters feeling full longer. Meal choices might include Decadent Fudge Brownie, Cheesy Margherita Pizza or Golden Pancakes.

The program underwent clinical studies in late 2008, and found that those dieters lost 16 times more weight than without NutriSystem D. They also found that blood sugar levels reduced five times, and A1c levels lowered by 0.9.

NutriSystem D became available in April 2009.

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NutriSystem D Coming Soon for Diabetics

Just in case you were wondering, according to WebMD, the blue color comes from the antioxidant anthocyanin in the corn, which are the same compounds found in berries and red wine.

Our favorite picks are Garden of Eatin’ and the Guiltless Gourmet, which make a low-fat baked kind as well.

Next time you’re scooping some salsa, up the nutritional content and yum-factor and grab a bag of blues!

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We Love Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

In contrast, the consumption of low-glycemic index foods results in lower, but more sustained, increases in blood glucose and lower insulin demands on pancreatic beta-cells. However, this does not necessarily mean that a low-index food is healthier than a high-index food.

How the Glycemic Index was Developed

To determine the glycemic index of a food:

• Volunteers were/are given a test food that provides 50 grams of carbohydrate one day and a control food (white bread or pure glucose) that provides the same amount of carbohydrate on a different day.
• Blood samples are taken prior to eating and at regular intervals after eating over the next several hours.
• The changes in blood sugar/glycemic response is calculated and multiplied by 100 to give a percentage.
• For example, a baked potato has a glycemic index of 76 relative to glucose and 108 relative to white bread. Meaning the blood glucose response to the carbs in a baked potato is 76 percent of the blood glucose response to the same amount of carbs in pure glucose and 108 percent of the blood glucose response to the same amount of carbs in white bread.
• In contrast, cooked brown rice has a glycemic index of 55 relative to glucose and 79 relative to white bread.

(Confusing, I know, but I wanted you to see a little behind how these values are found and therefore how the food is ranked.)

Although this glycemic index does provide us with a benefit of potentially helping lowering an individual’s blood sugar levels, it is very complicated because many factors affect the glycemic value of a specific food (i.e. how it’s prepared, what’s eaten with it, and some foods are unable to establish a glycemic value). For these reasons, the American Diabetes Association has concluded there isn’t enough evidence to recommend the general use of a low glycemic index diet for people with diabetes and there is much controversy as using it as a tool for losing weight.

If you’re interested in learning more about this meal-planning tool, talk to a registered dietitian. She/he can help you make changes in your diet.) The best advice I can give when dealing with carbohydrates, is try to consume mostly whole-grain, whole-wheat options, choose healthy fruits and veggies, and try to eat carbs and protein together to help with blood sugar maintenance.

Learn more in “What Everyone Needs to Know About Carbs.”

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Understanding the Glycemic Index

Benefits of Carbohydrates

• When you eat a carbohydrate, your body breaks it down into a simpler form known as glucose.
• Glucose (for immediate energy) and its storage form glycogen (reserve energy) provide about half of all the energy muscles and other body tissues use (the brain depends 100% on glucose for its energy). The other half of the body’s energy comes from mostly fat.  We now know that carbohydrates aren’t all good or all bad. Some promote health while others, when eaten often and in large quantities, increase the risk for diabetes and heart disease.

Sources of Carbohydrates

• Carbohydrates are found in a wide variety of foods—bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, cherry pie, milk, fruit, starchy veggies, and legumes.
• They also come in a variety of forms, most common and abundant forms are sugars, fibers, and starches.
• Carbohydrates were once grouped into two main categories:

1. Simple carbohydrates included sugars such as fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose).
2. Complex carbohydrates included everything made of three or more linked sugars. Complex carbohydrates were thought to be the healthiest to eat, while simple carbohydrates weren’t so great.

Common Misconception of Carbohydrates

• Many people mistakenly think of carbs as “fattening” and avoid them when trying to lose weight. Such a strategy may be helpful if the carbohydrates are simple sugars (soda, candy, etc.), but it is counterproductive if the carbs are complex carbohydrates (whole grains, legumes, etc.).

Click to see a brief list of foods on the Glycemic Index.

The Glycemic Response and the Glycemic Index

• Glycemic response, which is how quickly glucose is absorbed after a person eats, indicates how high the blood glucose rises, and how quickly it returns to normal. The Glycemic Index aims to classify carbohydrates based on how quickly and how high they boost blood sugar compared to pure glucose.
• Slow absorption is desirable, a modest rise in blood glucose, and a smooth return to normal (low glycemic response).
• Fast absorption is less desirable, a surge in blood glucose, and an overreaction that plunges glucose below normal (high glycemic response).
• Different foods have different effects on blood glucose.
• Foods with a high glycemic index, like white bread, cause rapid spikes in blood sugar. Low glycemic foods, like whole oats, are digested more slowly, causing a lower and gentler change in blood sugar.

Which Carbs Should You Eat?

• Choose whole grains and whole-wheat options
  
• Start your day off with whole grains. Hot cereal fan? Try old-fashioned or steel-cut oats.  Like cold cereals more? Look for one that lists whole wheat, whole oats, or other whole grain first on the ingredient list.
• Use whole grain breads for lunch or snacks.
• Try brown rice or even “newer” grains like bulgur, wheat berries, millet, or hulled barley with your dinner.
  
• Pick up some whole wheat pasta. If the whole grain products are too chewy for you, look for those that are made with half whole-wheat flour and half white flour.
• Eat beans. Beans are an excellent source of slowly digested carbohydrates as well as a great source of protein.

Check the label to make sure that whole wheat or another whole grain is the first ingredient listed.

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What Everyone Needs to Know About Carbs