Impact of Glycemic Index & Load on Heart Health

The glycemic index is a ranking system that ranks the quality of carbohydrates based on how quickly or slowly they impact blood sugar.  Many studies have reported that a low glycemic index diet might have a variety of health benefits.  However, different foods have different amounts of carbohydrates.  To take these differing amounts of carbohydrates into account, the glycemic load can be calculated in order to determine the impact of different foods on blood sugar.

A new study examined the impact of the glycemic index and glycemic load on heart health in a population of nearly 50,000 men and women.  To determine this impact, dietary intake was assessed with a dietary questionnaire and the risk for poor heart health was determined over about an 8-year follow-up.  The results of this study showed:

• Women in the group with the highest quarter of carbohydrate consumption were twice as likely to have poor heart health compared to women in the group eating the lowest levels of carbohydrates.
• The increased risk for poor heart health was associated with high glycemic index carbohydrates... eating high levels of high glycemic index carbohydrates was associated with about a 68% increased risk for poor heart health, while eating high levels of low glycemic index foods was not associated with poor heart health.
• Women consuming the highest level of high glycemic load foods were at a more than 2-fold increased risk for poor heart health compared to women with the lowest level of high glycemic load foods.
• No associations between heart health and glycemic index or glycemic load were seen for men in this study.

This new study confirms previous studies on the potential health benefits of a low glycemic index diet.  Low glycemic foods (those that rank below 55) have minimal impact on blood sugar, while high glycemic foods (those that rank above 70) have a large impact on blood sugar.  To learn more about the glycemic index, visit The Glycemic Index.  Their website does a great job of describing the glycemic index, provides a list of foods and their glycemic index and publishes a frequent newsletter.

Following a low glycemic index diet is easy with my Slim and Beautiful diet plan.  Two recent studies documented that my milk protein bars, milk protein shakes, soy protein bars, soy protein shakes, and pasta have a low glycemic index.