Saturday, 21 March 2015

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART II-


Potential Mechanisms Why Low glycemic index? My rant first…   


Before I continue on educating you on the mechanisms of potential actions of why I believe doctors, nutritionist, and dietitians maybe recommend low glycemic sources, I have another little rant to express, just bear with me here my fellow readers. Here is the scoop I want to discuss, regarding patients only following because they are told, yet they have no idea though why this or anything else for that matter works for weight loss and overall health. I feel the problem starts with all professionals who simply only give recommendations, which is fine, because you need to recommend, my issue though is that they don’t even understand the reasons themselves of the given advice, yet feel they are credible to give advice. This missing link of not educating our patients is a huge concern for me, hopefully changes in the health industry will make it a necessity to interact with patients, by providing education with recommendations, so patients leave with a feeling of something learned.  This can potentially empower our patients to make a change, because they can feel a sense of urgency of actually using your brain, now that they were somewhat educated on the topic. Can this be a step in the right direction of patients starting to control their own lives, rather than the doctors? This constant faulty loop creates slaves to the health system. Constantly going to pharmacies and refilling the prescriptions that the doctors gave them, is not helping the cause at all! I believe our educators need to make it a priority on the continuation of education, and provide updated information. This is going to take some time, but everything always does.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #1 – “Blood-Sugar Control: Regulating Appetite/Hunger Better”= Less Total Calories

Low glycemic index carbohydrates tend to have higher protein and fiber content. Straight up, without getting all nerdy, sufficient protein always beats insufficient protein when advising a dieting strategy for optimum body composition purposes.  We all know that protein is key for packing and maintaining lean mass, it’s a no brainer. Protein also has many other valuable purposes, which I will not be going into all the detail, simply because all the other details are not in response towards “appetite control” purposes. Even if I did discuss everything in detail, this would turn into a book, rather than many parts. Who knows, maybe a book will be required to publish in the future, will see. Anyway, protein interacts with a gut hormone called cholecystokinin, and one of many of its actions is delaying gastric emptying. Potentially slowing down motility of food movements, can slow down the rate in which glucose enters into the blood, resulting in prolonged sustainment of energy throughout the day. By feeling fuller, having prolonged energy, could be the contributing to eating less food than our maintenance calories requirements, which can result in weight loss. This certainly can be a reason why we eat low glycemic carbs, and studies do dictate this. Realize this though, the weight loss happens because less overall calorie intake, not do to the difference in carbohydrates themselves. Certainly how they interact within our organisms can be contributing to eating less. Be aware, calories is eventually what matters.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #2- “Suppressed Appetite”=Less Total Calories

Both protein and fiber interact with two hormones in the gut called cholecystokinin and peptide yy. These hormones have endocrine activity by acting upon receptors in the brain that trigger activation of polypeptide neurons Pro-opiomelanocortin which have been shown to have an anorexigenic effect. Once again, prolonging the Satiation Loss Rate (SLR) can contribute to eating less within the time that your awake, can result in a negative energy balance.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #3- “Lowered Initial Insulin Response, due to Improved Insulin Sensitivity”= Less Total Calories


Fiber is resistant towards digestion, because of the Beta-Linkages of many sugar glyosidic bonds, that our own digestive enzymes are unable to break apart into a simple digestible form for absorption. Our friendly bacteria will ferment the sugar to produces various acids, and gases. Butyric acid has been show to improve insulin sensitivity. Improved sensitivity can indicate in general a lowered initial insulin response. This is very important for metabolic flexibility purposes of improved transitioning from carbohydrates to fat oxidation.  Once again, more calories being effectively used for burning, can likely contribute towards weight loss. 

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