 The Glycemic Index is a tool that is frequently used to promote better blood sugar control. Some people find it extremely useful, while others find it completely useless. To clear the air, I'll shed some light on this subject today. I am Dr. Ahmet Ergin, I am an anachronologist. I deal with diabetes on a daily basis. I am here on my weekend to help you not only to my patients in my clinic, but also people all around the world. The Foods Glycemic Index is influenced by a number of actors, including its nutrient composition, the cooking method, the ripeness, and degree of processing. So Glycemic Index not only help you become more aware of what you are putting on your plate, but it can also help you lose weight, lower your blood sugar levels, and lower your cholesterol if used consistently, rather than just infrequently. So what exactly is the Glycemic Index? Let's talk about that. Well, the Glycemic Index is a measurement of how much certain foods raise your blood sugar levels. Now, foods are classified as low, medium, or high Glycemic Index, and are ranked from 0 to 100. Now the lower a foods to Glycemic Index, the less it may affect your blood sugar levels. Now three Glycemic Index ratings are like below 55 if it is a low Glycemic Index. It's considered medium if it is between 56 to 69. Anything more than 70 is considered high. Now foods high in refined carbohydrates and sugars are digested way more quickly, and they have a higher GI index or Glycemic Index. On the other hand, the proteins, the fats, and vegetables with high fiber, they have a low GI. Now, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, spices, et cetera, oils are the examples that do not have a GI because they don't have any carb in them, right? Now other factors that actually influence a foods Glycemic Index is ripeness, cooking method, and the type of sugar it contains, and the amount of processing it has undergone, as previously stated here. Now keep in mind that the Glycemic Index is not the same as Glycemic Load. Unlike the Glycemic Index which does not consider the quantity of food you consume, but the Glycemic Load more like considers the number of carbs in a serving of a food to determine how it may affect your blood sugar levels, and it takes the Glycemic Index into account along with how much carb you are eating. That means that if you eat a lot of carbs, even if they are low in Glycemic Index, you may still experience a blood sugar spike. For example, if you eat two cups of strawberries, it may still spike your blood sugar as much as a banana, which has a higher Glycemic Index than strawberry, especially if ripe. Alternatively, for example, three apples may raise your blood sugar as much as a candy bar. Now as a result, Glycemic Load takes into account again how much you eat of certain Glycemic Index. On the plus side, if you only eat a small amount of watermelon or a pineapple which have high Glycemic Index, you can get away with no or very light spike in your blood sugar. That is where people get stuck or hung up because they believe that because something has a low Glycemic Index value, they can eat as much as they want, which is not true. As a result, when choosing foods to help support healthy blood sugar levels is extremely critical to consider both the Glycemic Index and the Glycemic Load. If you want to choose one thing, I would say go with the Glycemic Load. Low Glycemic Index Diet, for example, entails replacing foods with the high Glycemic Index with the ones that are low Glycemic Index. Now low Glycemic Index Diet may provide several health benefits that includes your diabetes control. A low Glycemic Index Diet has been also shown in many studies to not only to lower blood sugar levels, but also create weight loss. According to a lot of studies, following a low Glycemic Index Diet may increase the short-term weight loss, but more research is needed to determine how it can actually affect the long-term weight management. A low Glycemic Index may also lower the total LDL or the back cholesterol levels, both of which are risk factors for heart disease. Now what foods have a low Glycemic Index Diet, a healthy Glycemic Index Diet consists of foods such as apples, berries, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, and tomatoes are examples of non-starchy vegetables with low Glycemic Index. On the other hand, quinoa, couscous, barley, buckwheat, farro, and steel-cut oats are examples of whole grains that are low Glycemic Index. Lentils, black beans, chickpeas, and kidney beans are examples of legumes in that group, and foods with no or very very low Glycemic Index values can also be consumed in that diet as a part of a well-balanced diet. That can be your beef or lamb for meat, tuna or salmon, shrimp, mackerel, anchovies, or sardines, or example of good seafood. Now poultry also does not have a Glycemic Index, or zero Glycemic Index, and as you know, their chicken, turkey, duck, goose, etc. Now olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, etc. are good as well, but you have to make sure that you do not use vegetable oils too much, other vegetables oil, other than those. Among the nuts, the walnuts, pistachios are also great, chia seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds are examples of seeds in that group. Now when it comes to herbs, I would say turmeric, black pepper, cumin, dill, basil, rosemary, cinnamon are among the best among these zero Glycemic Index herbs. Although no foods are strictly forbidden on this low Glycemic Index, food with a high Glycemic Index should always be consumed in moderation and in limited amounts. Now what are some examples of high Glycemic Foods, let's talk about that, what do we need to avoid? Well, foods with a high Glycemic Index should be avoided at all cost, and what are they? Number one is your white bread, the bagels, the non-bread, the pita bread, the rice varieties such as the white rice or jasmine rice. Now by the way, one of my YouTube followers emailed me and said that they are growing perish rice in Louisiana in his hometown, and it has a low Glycemic Index of 41 compared to white rice of Glycemic Index of 72. Now I never tried it, but if you want to try it, try and give me your feedback right in the comments section. Now cereals include the oats, the pasta, noodles, dishes, lasagna, spaghetti, ravioli, macaroni, you name it, mashed potatoes, potatoes, french fries, these are all examples of starchy vegetables as well, so you're avoiding all these because they are super high in Glycemic Index. Now always stay clear of cakes, doughnuts, cookies, croissants, the muffins, these are the examples of baked goods that will skyrocket your blood sugar. Again the milk chocolate, the crackers, microwave popcorn, chips, pretzels are some of the snacks that are high in Glycemic Index. Again stay clear of soda, fruit juice, sport drinks, these are the examples of sugar sweetened beverages with high in Glycemic Index. So try to replace these foods with foods that have a lower Glycemic Index. So yes, following a low Glycemic Index entails pretty much replacing all the high Glycemic Index foods with low Glycemic Index alternatives. A low Glycemic Index can help you manage your blood sugar levels, it can lower your cholesterol as we discussed, and it can help you lose weight fairly quickly. Now the Glycemic Index values are a few things that I'll tell you right now. For example the apples are 36, strawberries are 41, the dates are 42, oranges are 43, bananas are 51, mangoes are 53, blueberries is 59, pineapple is 76, boiled sweet potatoes are for example 74, better than baked, and most quinoa and oats and stuff like that are around 50 to 55, legumes and soybeans are around 24 to 32 range which is low Glycemic Index and dairy products and dairy substitutes may also have high Glycemic Index especially rice milk is very high in Glycemic Index, maple syrup is 61 and honey is 65. Now if you know where your favorite foods fall on that Glycemic Index you can make a few changes in your diet trying to prefer a low Glycemic Index alternative. So what about the effects of cooking and ripening have on your Glycemic Index? Well the cooking method used for certain foods can actually influence the Glycemic Index. For example fried foods have a high-fat content which can slow the sugar absorption in the blood stream and lower the Glycemic Index. However make sure that you do not use any other cooking oils other than avocado oil when frying and try to avoid deep-frying please. Meanwhile roasting and baking can break down the resistance starch so that that type of starch when it is broken down it will be easily absorbed so if you're using potatoes or legumes that process actually increases the GI. Now on the other hand boiling will help to retain more of the resistance starch and as a result it will have a lower GI or Glycemic Index when compared to other cooking methods. For example boiling sweet potatoes will give you a better results than roasting or baking them. So the longer you also cook the foods like pasta or rice the more digestible the starch content becomes and as a result the Glycemic Index becomes higher. So it is best to only cook these foods until they are al dente which means they are still firm when biting into them. In addition to the cooking method the degree of ripeness of some fruits such as bananas may affect their GI or Glycemic Index. That's due to the fact that the amount of resistance starch decreases during the ripening process resulting in higher Glycemic Index. For example a fully ripened bananas have a Glycemic Index of 51 whereas an underripe bananas have a Glycemic Index of only 30. So now that you have heard everything tell me about what your experience with the Glycemic Index what your preferences are if you are still having problems after doing everything you can remember to check out our supplements on our website at sugarmds.com. Alright everyone thank you for watching I'll see you in the next video. Hey guys I hope you're enjoying this channel so far and I hope you subscribed already if you didn't do it and if you did watch this video right there I think that will help you too.