Watch your glycemic index!

(By Lisa Sarah John, Courtesy Bangalore Times, Nov 13, 2006)

Recently, a man with diabetes mentioned that his fasting blood sugar was controlled, but despite very strict exercise and diet control, the post prandial sugar levels were not coming down. Diabetics must know that insulin in the body is lower in the mornings and at nights. Therefore you need to be very conscious of food choices at breakfast and dinner. For example, it is safer to eat whole grain cereals like whole wheat bread, dry rotis, ragi-based foods or oats at breakfast rather than rice items like idli, dosa, poha, etc which have a high glycemic index.

The glycemic index is an index classifying the glycemic response to carbohydrate rich foods. It’s a measurement of how quickly one’s blood sugar rises after eating a particular food. Blood sugar rises slowly after eating a chappati in contrast to a rice meal. So rice has a higher glycemic index than whole wheat flour. Rice’s glycemic index is 88, wholewheat flour index, 60. Similarly rava has a high glycemic index while ragi is lower. Among vegetables and fruits, potato has a very high GI of 88, mango is 55 and banana 53, while an orange is 43 and apple is 36. So diabetics may eat apples or oranges but should avoid bananas or mangoes.

Among dals and pulses, urad dal (black gram dal) has a GI of 46 and red gram dal is 32, while rajma is only 19 and channa 33.

Diabetics might feel it’s safer to eat rice-based idlis and dosas made of rice and urad dal. This is a misconception. What’s better is whole wheat bread, stuffed dry rotis, oats or ragi porridge, wheat or ragi puttu or ragi dosa. Rava upma, avalakki and semolina should be strictly avoided till sugar levels are below 150. These have a high glycemic index. While rice could be eaten at lunchtime, it’s preferable to have rice with some roti. At dinner, avoid rice and eat only dry rotis, whole wheat bread or dalia (broken wheat) cooked like rice.

Raw salads consisting of tomatoes, cucumber, onion, cabbage, radish, and capsicum are high in fibre and when added to meals can play a major role in preventing blood sugar from rising suddenly. Lemon juice, vinegar, salt, pepper and low fat curd may be used to season salads but avoid oily dressings. A salad consisting of only carrots or beetroot also has higher calorie level than other vegetables.

  

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