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I just turned 50 a couple of weeks ago and like most of my peers I am neither looking for the rocking chair nor ready to apply for my AARP card. I could stand to lose a little weight however and with that in mind I researched many of the myriad of weight loss programs that are out there and found a really interesting one. It is losing weight based around The Glycemic Index.

The Glycemic Index (or GI) is a list of foods, concentrating on carbohydrates, and their effects on your blood sugar level. Knowing which foods will dramatically increase your blood sugar quickly and which ones will only raise the blood sugar a little bit, can help you to lose weight.

However, knowledge of the GI will do more than that. It can help manage diabetes, lower the risk of heart disease and even help improve athletic performances.

Most food programs that we know about address only one issue at a time. There is this diet for lowering cholesterol, that diet to lose weight, another diet for diabetes and yet another for those who love to play sports. The GI rolls it all up into one.

To explain it a little more, foods have rankings from zero to 100 (with the exception of meats and nuts as they dont have natural sugars). The least desirable foods (for losing weight) have the highest ranking, with some of them over 100. For Example, a 4 oz serving of boiled peeled Desiree potatoes will have a GI rank of 101. In other words, the potatoes are digested rapidly and the glucose will hit your blood sugar like a freight train and quickly raising the glucose levels in your blood.

On the other hand, 3 oz of Cherries have a GI ranking order of 22. These are slowly digested and do not have much impact of your blood sugar level. The following examples are of 5 foods that are low or mid ranking in the Glycemic Index and 5 that are high ranking:

Low to medium

Baked Beans, 4oz- 48
Fettuccini, cooked, 6 oz-32
Strawberry jam, 1 TBL spoon, -51
Yoghurt, non-fat, flavored with sugar 8oz- 33
Rice, parboiled 6 oz - 48

High

Gatorade 8oz - 78
Dates, dried 1.5 oz 103
French Baguette 1oz - 95
Rice Cakes, plain 3 - 82
Tofu frozen desert, non dairy, low fat, 2 oz - 115

If you're training for a marathon and you eat a couple of hours before the event, choosing foods with a lower GI can give you an edge as the slowly digested food also slowly and steadily releases energy for your muscles to use and increases your endurance. After your marathon or any exercise workout where a lot of calories and energy is used up, you can then eat foods

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