Low glycemic index diet
The Low-Glycemic Index Diet was developed by Dr. David J. Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto and later turned into a successful line of diet books by author and former president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Rick Gallop. According to the publishing company, Virgin Books, the G.I. Diet has sold over two million copies.
G.I. stands for Glycemic Index, a medical term used to measure the speed at which carbohydrates break down in the digestive system to form glucose. Glucose is the body's source of energy - it is the fuel that feeds your brain, muscles, and other organs. Glucose is set at 100, and all foods are indexed against that number. So foods that are quickly digested have a high G.I., and foods that are digested more slowly have a lower G.I.
It has been suggested that it is possible to lower the GI of a meal with a few teaspoons of vinegar.[unreliable source?] However, this is an inaccurate oversimplification[original research?][not in citation given] of the research findings of Sugiyama et al. (and other researchers) who have conducted tests on the anti-glycemic properties of vinegar under controlled laboratory conditions.
While almost all such research to date has confirmed that adding vinegar to high glycemic foods reduces glycemic impact, these studies have also shown that the addition of other ingredients (such as common table salt) to a âmixed mealâ can negate the beneficial effects of the added vinegar by decreasing the acidity of the mix. Thus[original research?], the suggestion that simply adding vinegar to any combination of foods lowers the overall glycemic impact of the meal has no scientific basis. The mechanism(s) by which vinegar or other acidic agents reduce the glycemic impact of carbohydrate-rich foods is not presently understood.
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