Metabolic
Syndrome: a cluster of conditions that includes obesity, high blood cholesterol,
high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and diabetes.
Glycemic
Index: a number that indicates how much and how quickly
blood sugar increases after consuming a carbohydrate-containing food.
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Eat This For Breakfast
& You'll Get Fat
Eat toast made with white bread or any
sugary cereal for breakfast, and you'll probably pack on the pounds--not
because of the high calories in these foods, but rather because of their high glycemic
index. The BBC News Online reports that researchers from Oxford Brookes
University have determined that these foods make you hungrier come lunchtime.
That is, eat Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies for breakfast and you'll pig out at
lunch.
What are the best breakfast foods? That would be cold or hot cereals made from whole
grains. Oatmeal is ideal. As Mom used to say, oatmeal sticks to your ribs, and
that means you'll eat more sensibly at lunchtime because you won't have strong
hunger pangs.
The perfect breakfast food may be oatmeal and other whole-grain cereals.
Men who regularly eat oatmeal and other
whole-grain cereals instead of refined-grain cereals for breakfast may live
longer and reduce their risk of heart attack or stroke, reports Reuters of new
research from Harvard Medical School in Boston that was published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
So what IS a whole-grain cereal? Look at the list of ingredients on the side of the
box. The first ingredient must be either a whole grain or bran and have at
least two grams of fiber per serving to be called a "whole-grain"
cereal.
The experiment: Study leader Simin Liu and his colleagues at
Harvard Medical School evaluated data on more than 86,000 male physicians who
were all 40 or older. They provided self-reported information on their
preferred breakfast cereal and other lifestyle habits. After 5-1/2 years, 3,114
of the physicians in the study had died from all causes. Of these, 1,381 died
from heart disease.
The results: The more whole-grain cereal a man reported eating
for breakfast, the less likely he was to die from any cause or from heart or
blood vessel disease such as heart attack or stroke, even after the
investigators accounted for risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, smoking,
alcohol consumption, and physical activity, reports Reuters.
And if one bowl is good for you, then two
must be better! Go ahead and have seconds. The men who ate the most
cereal--that is, more than one serving a day--had a 17 percent lower risk of
death from any cause than men who rarely or never ate whole-grain cereal. In
addition, those who ate the most had a 20 percent lower risk of death from
cardiovascular disease than those who consumed the least.
If you just love refined grains, take
heart. While they won't help you live longer, they won't kill you either. The
Harvard researchers found no association between eating refined cereals and
mortality from cardiovascular disease.
The message here is
exciting. Eat the right foods for breakfast and you could lose weight without
dieting--just being smart in what you eat. Of course, the opposite is true as
well. If you eat the wrong foods, you could gain weight even though you don't
realize it. And the magic element is a low glycemic index or GI, which
is a measurement--assigned as a number of 0 to 100--to describe the effect
specific foods have on our blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that breakdown
quickly during digestion have the highest GIs with a blood glucose response
that is fast and high. Carbohydrates that breakdown slowly, releasing glucose
gradually into the blood stream, have lower GIs.
Glycemic
Index:
New Way to Count Carbs?
Evidence Mounts for Low-Glycemic Index Diet to Control Diabetes
A carb is not a carb is not a carb -- at
least when it comes to diabetes and getting control of high blood sugar. A low-glycemic
index diet may be the way to go, say researchers.
Even foods with the same carbohydrate
content can trigger a wide difference in blood sugar levels -- as much as
fivefold. It all depends, say some researchers, on the food's glycemic index,
a number that indicates how much and how quickly blood sugar increases after
consuming a carbohydrate-containing food.
Why Glycemic Index Matters
Foods with a high glycemic index
(and therefore a higher number) cause a sudden and drastic jump in blood sugar
levels. Low-glycemic foods are more easily absorbed in the body and
raise blood sugar more gradually.
In the latest research, Australian
researchers analyzed data from 14 previous studies comparing the effects of high-
and low-glycemic foods on blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. They
then looked at results of a blood test called HbA1c, which indicates
average blood sugar levels over the past three months.
Good Enough for a New Drug
Researcher Jennie Brand-Miller, PhD, and
colleagues found that patients who ate a low-glycemic index diet reduced
their HbA1c levels by an average of 0.43 points above that produced
by the high-glycemic index diet.
"That's significant -- enough of a
reduction to get a new [diabetes] drug to market," says Gerald Bernstein,
MD, former president of the American Diabetes Association and an
endocrinologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
"There is no question that it's
important for diabetics to pay close attention to the glycemic index of
foods they eat," says Bernstein, who was not involved in the study
conducted by University of Sydney researchers.
"Remember, the issue in diabetes is
an inability to handle glucose. Whether or not you're taking insulin, you're
trying to match the body's insulin with the onslaught of glucose going in. So
you really need to know the probability of how quickly blood sugar is going to
bounce so you can better manage your disease. When you eat a baked potato,
glucose levels spike in milliseconds. With legumes or fruits and vegetables,
they go up in about 30 minutes."
What's High, What's Low?
Although important, the numbers can also
be confusing because the glycemic index of some foods may surprise you.
As a general rule, the same low-fat, high-fiber fare -- fruits, vegetables, and
whole grains and legumes -- often advised to manage weight and help prevent
diabetes and other health conditions, have a low glycemic index.
Conversely, starchy and processed foods such as potatoes, breads, and cereals
usually have a high glycemic index.
But there are exceptions. For instance, a
bowl of All-Bran cereal has a glycemic index of 54, while a serving of
spaghetti rates at 41, meaning the high-fiber cereal spikes blood glucose more
quickly and drastically. A handful of raisins is 64, more than a serving of
popcorn, at 55. White rice (56) has nearly twice the glycemic index of a
glass of apple juice, and an orange (43) has almost half the index of
watermelon (72).
The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition lists any food under 55 as a low-glycemic food and any
food more than 70 as high glycemic.
Haagen-Dazs vs. Baked Potato
One study compared various foods found
that a bowl of Haagen-Dazs ice cream raises blood glucose at a slower rate than
a baked potato.
Still, the use of diets with low
glycemic index in the treatment of diabetes remains controversial. There
are contrasting recommendations around the world, the Australian researchers
note in their study.
One possible reason: Most of the studies
thus far measuring blood sugar response to glycemic indexed foods have
been encouraging but small, says Angela D. Liese, PhD, MPH. Liese recently
completed her own research on how foods with high glycemic indexes
affect "metabolic syndrome" -- a cluster of conditions that
includes obesity, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, insulin
resistance, and diabetes. Her results have not yet been published.
The Australian researchers' analysis of 14
studies had a total of only 356 patients.
Time for a Change?
"This study is important because it
shows some really encouraging data, but a lot more research is needed,"
says Liese, an epidemiologist at the University of South Carolina. "If you
want to get to the point of reaching new dietary recommendations, much, much
larger studies are needed."
The study: The British researchers recruited 37 children ages
9 to 12 and divided them into three groups. The first ate a breakfast of porridge
or a bran-based cereal with a glycemic value of less than 55. The second
group had the same breakfast, but with added sugar to raise the glycemic
value above 55. The last group ate white bread and sugary cereals with a glycemic
value of 75 to 100. The children ate no snacks during the morning. At
lunchtime, they were allowed to eat all they wanted from an open buffet.
The results: The kids who ate a breakfast with a low GI index ate
significantly less for lunch than those who ate breakfast foods with a high GI.
They were also less likely to feel hungry between meals, notes the BBC. Calling
the study "remarkable," lead researcher Jeya Henry told the BBC,
"By selecting the type of breakfast we feed our children, we can alter
their subsequent food intake. Feeding them a high GI breakfast will mean they
will eat more." The study findings were published in the journal
Pediatrics.
Beware! The
No. 1 Diet Saboteur
If you're trying to lose weight, the one
thing that is most likely to derail your best diet plan is...your family and
close friends.
Don't believe it? Test it. Go on a diet. Lose a few pounds. Brag a little. And
then see what happens. Chances are, you'll find you're the recipient of fattening
food gifts. Your spouse may buy you a candy bar at the movies or your co-worker
will offer you cookies when the afternoon munchies hit.
They aren't doing this to be mean or
vindictive. They probably aren't even conscious of it. But what they are doing is
sabotaging your weight loss success.
The problem can be defined in one word:
Change. A diet creates big changes
in anyone's life. These are changes welcomed by the dieter. But friends and
family aren't in the same mode of change. Be aware that diet sabotage is not
done purposefully and maliciously. It's unconscious.
You can fight the sabotage by
understanding why it happens. Pierre offers these reasons:
--They feel guilty.
You're successfully losing weight. They're not. Giving you food is one way to
get you back to "normal."
--They don't understand.
This is most common with people who have never had a weight problem and just
don't realize that you can't go back to eating anything you want just because
you lost a few pounds.
--They miss the old you.
And they miss the cookies you baked, the after-work "happy hours"
spent with co-workers, or the restaurant dinners out with the spouse.
Pierre advises dieters to say no by
exercising regularly to boost your positive mood, monitor your food intake, and
write down everything you eat. "This will keep you honest, and it may also
help you recognize the people and events that do you in," she recommends.
"Then you can develop strategies to deal with them."
One such strategy is to get them on your
side. Numerous studies have proven that when your social network of family and
friends supports your diet, it has a positive influence on the results. New
York City nutritionist Shira Isenberg, R.D. told syndicated health columnist
Charles Stuart Platkin that family and friends bring "an increase in
self-confidence by validating the individual's choice to lose weight, a
reduction in overall stress, and increased attention to achieving the overall
goal." And they do it without offering you a cookie.
Platkin
advises you to actively create your own support network. That may mean joining
organized meetings with others who are trying to lose weight, encouraging
family and friends to eat healthier along with you, or even making new friends
if the old ones keep giving you candy bars. Best of all, find a weight-loss
buddy either in your hometown or online who will share the ups and downs of
losing pounds with you.
Who Knew Cold
Cereal Did This?
People who eat
lots of whole-grain foods, especially fiber-rich cereals, may be less likely to
develop metabolic syndrome, a clustering of risk factors that often precedes
type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, Reuters reports of new research
from Tufts University in Boston, Mass.
In other words:
Eat cereal for breakfast. Stay healthy longer.
How much do you
need to eat? Three or more servings of whole grains daily, according to study
author Dr. Nicola M. McKeown of the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture
Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts. Three servings is a lot when
you consider that the average American consumes less than one serving of
whole-grain foods a day. In addition to fortified cold cereals, whole-grain
foods include oatmeal, whole wheat bread, brown rice, and more. But read the
labels carefully! Whole grain products should list a whole grain ingredient,
such as "whole wheat," "whole rye," "whole oats"
or "graham flour," as the first ingredient on the label.
It's worth the
effort to get three or more servings daily. "People who ate this much
whole grain had better insulin sensitivity and were less likely to have the
metabolic syndrome," McKeown told Reuters.
Those who have
metabolic syndrome have at least three of these traits:
An estimated 24 percent of adults in the United
States have metabolic syndrome. They are at an increased risk of getting type 2
diabetes, which occurs when insulin is no longer able to regulate blood sugar
levels. McKeown's study of 2,800 adults showed that higher consumption of
whole-grain foods, particularly cereals, was associated with a lower risk of
insulin resistance. The study also found that people who ate more fiber from
cereals were less likely to develop the metabolic syndrome, notes Reuters.
The research findings were published in the journal
Diabetes Care.