The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (128 page)

The Nurses' Health Study found that women who ate the most high-glycemic foods had a 50-percent greater risk of developing diabetes than those who primarily ate a diet of low-glycemic foods.

Although eating the right amount of low-glycemic, plant-based foods contributes a great deal to your body's wellness and disease prevention, it doesn't do the job alone. Other lifestyle components — exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, sleeping, and stress — matter too. Work on all aspects of your health to feel your best and significantly reduce your risk of developing a chronic disease.

The younger you are, the more important it is to start taking an active approach to your health. Many studies show that long-term dietary and health changes may make a bigger impact than short-term changes. All changes are good and will help you no matter what your age, but starting off when you're younger gives you a leg up!

Fighting free radicals with antioxidants

Free radicals
(unstable molecules) form when your body's cells burn oxygen (scientists call this process
oxidation
). They also form when you smoke and when you're exposed to sun, pollution, and harmful chemicals. Free radicals basically rip through your body and cause damage to your cells, tissues, and DNA, kind of how the Tazmanian Devil (that's right, the old
Looney Toons
character)
used to spin out of control, damaging everything in his path. The damage to your body caused by free radicals may leave you at greater risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. What can defeat them? Antioxidants. These puppies save the day by neutralizing free radicals so they can't cause damage.

Have you ever left an apple slice on the kitchen counter and come back an hour later to a brown apple? The browning effect is from oxidation. When you add orange juice to the apple slice, it stays white because it's protected by the antioxidant vitamin C.

Free radicals will form in your body no matter how hard you try to decrease your exposure to the things that cause them. Consequently, your diet is your first line of defense. Luckily for you, many low-glycemic foods are also rich in vitamins that act as antioxidants — vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene.

Before you go out and stock up on vitamins, you should know that supplements may not be the answer. Research on antioxidants and how they work in the body is ongoing. At this point, no one knows how much is too much or how the nutrients work together. Research suggests that there may be a synergy between the different vitamins and possibly other chemicals in food that give your body the antioxidant benefits. Therefore, taking a vitamin C supplement may not provide the same benefit as eating an orange.

Getting as many of your vitamins as possible from food sources is always best. Supplements are exactly that — supplements. They're meant to supplement what you don't get from your diet, not replace your diet. Instead of popping supplements, focus on eating a variety of low-glycemic fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to get the appropriate synergy of nutrients made especially for you by Mother Nature.

Table 22-1 lists some low-glycemic foods that are rich in certain antioxidant vitamins.

The beauty of embracing a low-glycemic diet for weight loss is that the better you follow the guidelines of filling up your plate with veggies and incorporating more fruits and whole grains into your meals, the more you naturally up your antioxidant intake. You don't have to go out of your way to add something new. Instead, just get a good variety, which is more fun for your taste buds anyway!

Factoring in phytonutrients

Besides vitamins and minerals, plant-based foods offer
phytonutrients,
naturally occurring compounds with potential health benefits. T
o date, certain phytonutrients have been shown to work as antioxidants, contain anti-inflammatory properties, and promote heart health. Phytonutrients are found abundantly in fruits and vegetables, making your low-glycemic diet strategy a win-win.

Care to know a cool fact about phytonutrients? Well, in addition to providing great health benefits, they provide the pigment for fruits and vegetables, which means you can basically determine the health benefits a food offers simply by looking at its color. Adding a variety of color to your plate can motivate you to diversify the types of plant-based foods you eat as well. Table 22-2 highlights the health benefits of certain colors of foods.