When I first started having trouble with my blood sugar I began investigating the glycemic value of different foods. I noticed if I had pancakes and syrup for breakfast, my blood sugar would always crash a few hours later and it would ruin my morning. It turns out that high glycemic foods tend to spike blood sugar levels and in me my body would over compensate and send my sugar levels too low. This is referred to as “reactionary hypoglycemia” and it’s annoying because I start to see stars and it takes quit awhile to come out of it completely.
When you first look at the glycemic index it’s a little crazy that some of the items which are normally associated with dieting such as Rice Cakes are 77 and Pretzels are 81 whereas Fettucini which I assumed would be high glycemic is only 32. So it’s a little harder than one would think to make the best choices when your are trying to avoid high glycemic foods.
Another surprising thing is that a spoonful of table sugar has a glycemic index of 64 and fructose is 22 but dates are 103 which actually above straight glucose! I actually started using agave syrup in my lattes and on french toast because it is equally delicious but has a very low glycemic index of 15 (maple syrup is 54, raw honey is 30).
In most cases there is a substitute that is is almost as pleasing to the taste buds but doesn’t cause a spike in your blood sugar. Since it’s difficult to guess which foods are best you will want to start out using a good low glycemic foods list until you become more familiar with the concept.
Also, just because something is low glycemic doesn’t mean that it is necessarily healthy. Just because a Snicker Bar has a glycemic index of 40 doesn’t make it more healthy than a slice of multi-grain bread which is 48. It simply means that because of the peanut and fat content in the Snickers it releases the sugar more slowly into your blood stream. You still have to watch the calories of the food as well as the glycemic index if you are concerned about your weight. If weight is not a concern and you are only concerned about blood sugar then just try to focus on foods with a glycemic index of less than 55.
NOTE: When looking at sugar substitutes you will see that fructose has a very low glycemic index of 22 but this does not apply directly to High Fructose Corn Syrup. HFCS which is found in soda and many packaged foods is a combination of fructose and glucose making it more in line with regular sugar on the glycemic scale.
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