Looks like the Glycemic Index is Baloney

[Clodfobble]

From here:

For example, a large number of the participants' blood sugar levels rose sharply after they consumed a standardized glucose meal, but in many others, blood glucose levels rose sharply after they ate white bread, but not after glucose.

The study was unique in its scale and in the inclusion of the analysis of gut microbes, collectively known as the microbiome, which had recently been shown to play an important role in human health and disease.

In the final stage of the study, the scientists designed a dietary intervention based on their algorithm; this was a test of their ability to prescribe personal dietary recommendations for lowering blood glucose level responses to food. Volunteers were assigned a personalized "good" diet for one week, and a "bad" diet - also personalized - for another. Both good and bad diets were designed to have the same number of calories, but they differed between participants. Thus, certain foods in one person's "good" diet were part of another's "bad" diet. The "good" diets indeed helped to keep blood sugar at steadily healthy levels, whereas the "bad" diets often induced spikes in glucose levels --all within just one week of intervention. Moreover, as a result of the "good" diets, the volunteers experienced consistent changes in the composition of their gut microbes, suggesting that the microbiome may be influenced by the personalized diets while also playing a role in participants' blood sugar responses.

[xoxoxoBruce]

So all I have to do is tell my doctor what I normally eat and let him figure out what gut critters I need. Cool.

[Clodfobble]

That, and wear a continuous blood-sugar monitor for several weeks so they can determine your exact stuff, like bananas always spike your blood sugar, but only first thing in the morning and not after exercising in the afternoon, and then they can create a detailed, personal dietary map for you, which you know darn well you'd never follow.

[xoxoxoBruce]

What is this exercise you speak of?

[Gravdigr]

Exerwhutnow?

[Crimson Ghost]

I am not familiar with that word...

[Beestie]

I'm a little confused. I don't think I understand what the conclusion is.

While it's interesting that different folks respond differently to glycemic levels or that the individual response varies with outside factors (exercise or sleep) but it remains true that low glycemic is still better than high glycemic.

At least I didn't take the article to indicate otherwise.

[Aliantha]

I think it's that different people have a high glycose reading from different things, so basically telling diabetic patients to avoid sugar might not necessarily help. It would be particularly helpful for patients who manage their diabetes through diet. Having said that though, I suspect most diabetic patients would already know this is how their body works, even if they didn't know the science behind it.

[Beestie]

I think you are right but my guess is that folks who should probably avoid triple-stuffed Bavarian cream eclairs will now think that it is OK provided that they only do so if they jogged from their car to the donut shop but not if they simply walked.

Point being that the ambiguity introduced by the study will undermine rules of thumb designed to stem the diabetic epidemic currently underway.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That could be, but I don't think the intent was not to educate the public, but to alert doctors and researchers that the cause/effect relationship they've used as a guideline may be wavier than they thought. It may cause some doctors who've been scratching their head, or assumed their patients have been lying, to try something different with the outliers. Science, especially in medicine, is constantly changing, but if white bread makes your boner last more than 4 hours... buy more.

[Clodfobble]

The note about sleep vs. activity was a side note, the main point was that one person (supposedly) can eat that Bavarian cream puff and be fine, but eat oatmeal and their sugar spikes. Another person might be great with oatmeal but bad with cream puffs. But of course the entire study was really just comparing different types of carbs. Nobody's sugar spikes after eating a steak and vegetables...

[Sundae]

This is why I was instantly suspicious of the Atkins Diet.
I knew perfectly well that I could lose weight very effectively - and healthily - on a carb-heavy diet. I did so without intending to, it was because it was the cheapest way to fill my belly at the time.

Years later my work colleagues were stuffing themselves with eggs, bacon, chicken etc, and looking at me sideways because I was having a jacket potato... I was overweight. But I was overweight because I went home and stuffed my face with takeaway washed down with loads of beer, not because I had a potato for lunch.

I'm still a yo-yo dieter, so I don't want to be all holier-than-thou (esp to Clod!) but at the very least I know what my body can enjoy/ tolerate/ use healthily. The fact that my brain and my mouth and my belly don't always agree with eachother is just part of living in the Western world.

And being a greedy fat pig.

[Undertoad]

But there's the thing Dae - beer is all carbs, while a potato with sour cream and butter... and cheese... and bacon...

[Sundae]

Sorry - I may not have been clear.
I was referring to two separate times in my life.
One when I ate little but carbs and lost weight, and one where my colleagues thought I was fat because I ate potatoes.

In the second instance I knew perfectly well why I was fat, in the first I was eating far less, and walking everywhere and the fact I was eating carbs really made no difference to me. It may do to other people of course. But a diet of beans, bread and veggies suits me nicely. With a bit of dairy of course. I'm not saying it's healthy, but if it's all you can afford, then it works.

[limey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

... beer ... potato ...sour cream ... butter... cheese... bacon...

[threaddrift] That's my shopping list for the week sorted.[/threaddrift]