New results alert
We have received glycemic index (GI) results for Vanilla Powder (v1.1) back from our lab… drumroll please…
The glycemic index is 17 (anything below 55 is considered low). The principle is that the slower the carbohydrate is digested and absorbed, the lower the rise in blood glucose and the lower the corresponding GI number.
Take a look at the following article to find out more…
Interesting. It’s about 10 units lower than the previous formulation, although clinically there’s not much difference between a GI of 28 veses 17.
I used to put a lot of stock in the glycemic index, thinking that it was very important to always select a moderate or low GI food. But I have come to understand that GI is just one of several useful markers that a person can look for in choosing healthy food. Not all high glycemic index foods are bad if eaten in certain quantities. White potatoes and white rice, for example. Of course, these are rarely eaten by themselves, and the overall GI of the entire meal is a mix of the rice/potato and whatever else is eaten with it.
Still, the GI is a useful tool, when used in conjunction with other useful info. If people generally favor foods that have a moderate or low GI, fiber, resistant starches, low saturated fat, higher unsaturated fat, low/no trans fats, and with minimal processing possible; that’s generally the recipe for a healthy diet.
If you have any, very helpful and necessary. For example, bananas may be healthy, but I can’t eat them a lot because high glycemic index foods are not good for me.
You may find this research interesting. I’m reading through a meta-analysis of fruit studies. Despite fruit having sugar and some even having a high glycemic index, consumption of fruit is associated with and has been shown in prospective studies to result in a lower incidence of diabetes, lower post-meal glucose, lower post-meal insulin, and lower BMI. Whole fruit is something that should actually be consumed by people with insulin resistance, according to the evidence.
“ For a mixture of whole fruits, a crossover RCT found that a high carbohydrate breakfast high in whole fruit significantly reduced glucose response by 18% compared to a breakfast low in whole fruits [[225]
Even raisins. People who added raisins to their meals had lower post-meal blood glucose.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315720/#B225-nutrients-10-01833)]. “
And specifically for bananas:
" a crossover RCT showed that adding dried whole banana powder (rich in resistant starch) to a milkshake reduced postprandial glucose response by 43% (p = 0.03) compared to the control milkshake [226].”**
Interesting. I will have to read through it. I was reading before that you should consume low glycemic fruits such as apples and berries, but avoid high glycemic ones like mangoes and bananas, but if the research says otherwise, I would like to know. If eating bananas all the time would not set me back, that would be good because I do like bananas and have been trying to get more potassium into my diet.
Sabra Ewing
Glycemic index is just a tool and is only concerned with one aspect of a food. I myself used to put a lot of stock in this measurement. I have now come to realize the limitations of it.
For example, some of the absolute worst foods to eat have a very low glycemic index. Foods that have been associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes or are known to cause it. Red meat, for example. And then I read about obese, diabetic patients being cured by eating a diet of 90% white rice, or people losing a lot of weight eating mostly white potatoes. And these foods are high glycemic index.
I myself am now consuming 5 to 8 pieces of whole fruits each day and have begun eating dates. I’m adding raisins to my oatmeal. And I literally cannot gain any fat. And my A1c is 4.7. I’m also eating lots of rice and potatoes.
I think avoiding the foods that cause insulin resistance is the key. Once you have insulin resistance, then yes, eating a high glycemic index food might cause post meal glucose to be high. But not all high glycemic index foods actually cause insulin resistance.
That article talks about many components of fruit. Fruit does have fructose in it. Yes. But it also had resistant starch, soluble fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients. Whole fruit is all these things taken together. And fruit has an impact on gut Microbiome which also is shown to be associated with lower incidence of type 2 diabetes.
Here’s a focused study looking at the association of fruit consumption and the prevalence of “metabolic syndrome” (MetS). MetS is a grouping of several conditions which tend to occur together as a pattern, and insulin resistance is thought to play a central role in this. MetS is when a person has abdominal obesity, elevated blood glucose, elevated blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol. I think if a person has 3 or more they are labeled as having MetS. MetS is closely related to type 2 diabetes since they are both related to an improper response to insulin, as well as other hormones. Diet is thought to play a major role in causing MetS. Some references will cite a diet high in refined starches and sugars (a high glycemic index diet) as one cause. Excess saturated fat in the diet is also believed to be a cause.
This meta analysis specifically looked at fruit and vegetable consumption and incidence of MetS. Interestingly enough, they found that fruit was associated with an even lower incidence of MetS than was vegetables.
You can click on a link in that page to see the entire article as a PDF. 2017, so it’s a recent study.
We see yet another example of how consuming fruit (not fruit juice, but pieces of whole fruit or whole fruit blended up) is actually very good for human health. And despite the fact that fruit is a natural source of sugar, consuming fruit is actually associated with less diabetes and less metabolic syndrome and less obesity.
The evidence is clear: fruit is your friend. It is not to be feared. It contains SOME sugar as well as many other things. There is a big difference from eating bananas verses eating a food that had refined sucrose added in. The banana was designed by God (or through evolutionary processes, depending on your beliefs) and represents the way sugar can be safely consumed, within the context of the whole fruit. Sucrose and high fructose corn syrup extracted from their plant sources, concentrated, and then intentionally added into a food to manipulate the taste and increase sales is something very different. That’s a drug. When a substance is isolated and dosed for a specific intent, that’s a drug. That’s not a real food. It provides calories, yes, but sucrose is not a real food.