Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Why we gain weight--How to turn it around
The body is perfectly adapted to the diet that our human ancestors followed for hundreds of thousands of years, but cannot properly handle "industrial foods", such as refined flour. These mechanically-processed foods flood the blood stream with glucose (the simple carbohydrate that fuels the cells) and provoke an outpouring of insulin. The excess insulin compels the body to burn carbohydrate, leaving the fat to accumulate in our bodies. The deranged insulin levels can also lead to diabetes and heart disease.This book shows that by choosing our carbohydrates with a just little more care, we can restrain these outbursts of insulin and encourage the body to burn more fat. By simply choosing Basmati rice over other varieties, or substituting a sweet potato for an ordinary potato, or buying sourdough bread or bread made with whole-wheat, stone-ground (coarser) flour rather than white flour, we can smooth out the glucose spikes and enjoy better health. This concept of "glycemic index" (GI) is indeed revolutionary. Each food is rated on a scale of 0 to 100, with pure glucose (as in corn syrup) set at 100. Anything with a GI value of 70 or more is a High-GI food; Intermediate-GI foods range from 56-69, and Low-GI foods have scores from 0 to 55. These values are derived by testing actual foods on actual volunteers, whose blood glucose levels are measured periodically over a couple of hours after they have eaten the food. The book includes 67 pages of tables so that you can look up the GI values of hundreds of foods, and then use those values to choose which foods you would wish to emphasize and which you would wish to avoid. The authors go on to explain the factors that influence its GI value. These are the degree to which the starch granules are expanded or even burst during cooking; the particle size (as in finely- or coarsely-ground flours); the chemical structure of the starch (straight- or branched-chain); the type of sugar in the food (sucrose, fructose, galactose, etc.); the quantity and nature of the fiber in the food (its coarseness, solubility and viscosity); and the acidity. In sum, you end up with a solid scientific understanding of why one food will support your health and another will sabotage you. Choosing low-GI foods virtually guarantees that we are eating foods with a low energy density and a high capacity to satisfy our appetites. We feel fuller on less calories, and the feeling of satisfaction lasts longer. The authors describe a South African study in which volunteers ate the same number of calories from carbohydrate, protein and fat, with the only difference being that one group got low-GI and the other got High-GI carbohydrates. After 12 weeks the low-GI group had lost an average of 20 pounds, versus 16 pounds for the high-GI group. Again, the ONLY difference was in the nature of the carbohydrates. There is already an international symbol, registered in the US and other countries, indicating that a food has been properly test for its GI value. Watch for it on food labels as the public catches on to the value of this information. P>My only complaint with this book is that the essential information on the link between glucose, insulin and health is scattered throughout the text, rather than being presented in a single succinct statement. But don't let this stop you. If you are concerned about weight, health, and diet, get this book.
Rating: - Informative
This book is more than a diet book, it is a complete guide to better nutrition. Yes, it will help you in your quest to lose weight but even better it will guide you in developing a more eating-right-for-a-lifetime diet. The book is easily read and followed, a terrific pathway to better health.
Beverly J Scott
Rating: - 9 Secrets..........? What the heck?
What the heck does that have to do with what the "Glucose Revolution" is about? What a joke!
I found the book to be a good repreive from the Atkins pundits. Atkins seems to link all carbs into two major categories with very little real evidence as to how it effects the insulin levels. Not all carbs are equal and can't be lumped into two simple divisions. Raw carrots do not equal cooked. "....Revolution" has some real answers.
I know people that have lost "10 pounds a week" on Atkins plan without stepping back and examining what that "weight" actually is. Let's do the math. sparing all the physiological details: 3500 calories per pound of body fat times 10lbs, equals about six days of running at ten hours each! (35,000/10 calories per minute/60 = 58 hours of running) Where does the weight come from? Not likely to be fat lose with Atkins plan!
Better to get advice from sources that have the numbers from sound science.
|
