The glycemic index is a handy tool for indicating how much a specific food affects blood sugar. Every food is assigned its own glycemic index number, which can then be compared to glucose itself, which is the benchmark for every other food. Glucose itself has a glycemic index of 100, meaning it is very quickly broken down into glucose once you consume it.
Every food is put into a category of high GI, medium GI, or low GI. A low GI diet can help with improving your glucose levels, lowering your insulin resistance, and improving your cholesterol. A low GI diet can also help you lose weight, because low GI foods take longer to digest, keeping you fuller for a longer period of time.
When you eat highly processed carbohydrates, your blood glucose peaks out quickly, and then crashes hard shortly thereafter. This is bad for your body in a number of ways. Let’s take a look at 21 healthy examples of low-glycemic foods.
1. Porridge Oats
If you are looking for a breakfast food that will not fill you up with unnecessary sugar, consider eating some oats. The glycemic index for porridge oats is just 58, which puts it on the list of low glycemic foods. This means that eating a bowl of porridge oats for breakfast can keep you full for most of the day.
While porridge oats are not the lowest scoring food on this list, it is a good choice for eating a healthy breakfast as it provides you with many of the nutrients that you need throughout the day and will not raise your blood sugar like some of the other breakfast items that you might be turning to. It is important to make sure that you do not add any type of sugar to your oats. If you want to sweeten them up a bit add a few berries or a little bit of yogurt.