Have You Heard Of The Gi Diet? Do You Live With A Diabetic?

Do you live with a diabetic! Is it like living on a rollercoaster? Do you laugh to keep from crying? Does it feel like you are living with a stranger some days? Does your spouse have bouts of depression, moodiness, and extreme mood changes? Does he lash out at you from time to time for no apparent reason?

Does your spouse get all bent out of shape when small things, like the commode running over, happens? Lord forbid, the coffee pot breaks! If this has been happening in your house, it is time to change spouses. (just kidding!)

It is time to restore the sanity! How do you do that? Where do you start?

You start by checking blood sugar levels. If blood sugar levels are not stabilized, you will live everyday on that rollercoaster! To stop the ride you have to do these things...
*Help your spouse remember to check blood sugar levels religiously.
*Make sure your spouse remembers to take all medications, including insulin, as prescribed by the doctor.
*If blood sugar levels are spiking, high and then low, talk to the doctor.
*Make sure your spouse is following a good healthy diet.
*Many doctors recommend a diet based on low glycemic index (GI) foods. This plan is discussed in detail in this article.

It is all about blood sugar levels! The foods they eat can affect moods just as drastically as blood sugar levels do. The old saying, "you are what you eat", is true. Whether your spouse follows a low glycemic food plan or not may not be important. What is important that they follow a good healthy diet. The diet should be full of vegetables, fruits, carbohydrates spread over the whole day, wheat bread, etc. The diet should contain food from all food groups. It is best to avoid sugar!

Let me explain the low glycemic index (GI) food plan. The GI is a rating given to foods, particularly carbohydrates, by how quickly they raise blood sugar levels and insulin in the body.

Carbohydrates are divided into 2 categories...
*Carbs like white bread, which drastically affects blood sugar levels, are given a score of 100.
*Apples, for example, have a GI score of 40, which means the carbs are absorbed into the body at a pace 40% lower than the carbs in white bread.

The GI has 3 categories of foods: low, medium, and high.
*Low is designated 1-55
*Medium is 56-69
*High is 70-100.

Which foods are in the low, medium, and high GI ranges, you ask. It is complex, but there is a complete list of foods separated into the low, medium, and high groups. To get a copy do this.
* Enter "Glycemic Index Diet" in the search box.
* Then scroll down to "The Glycemic Index Diet(Low Glycemic Diet)."
* Click on it.
* When the website comes up, look on the list at the left under site menu.
* Go down the list to low GI foods.
* Click on it.

A study with 210 participants was done. Half the participants followed the low GI foods and the other half ate a more traditional healthy diet.

Both groups of dieters limited saturated fats, trans fats,and completely eliminated white flour, pancakes, muffins, doughnuts, white bread, bagels, rolls, cookies, cakes, popcorn, French fries, and chips.

Both groups also ate five servings of vegetables and three servings of fruit a day. The low-GI dieters did not eat mangos, bananas, and pineapple, which have higher glycemic index scores.

Six months later, both groups had lost about the same amount of weight but the low GI dieters had more improvement over blood sugar control and heart disease risk actors.

Furthermore a low glycemic index diet may help you lose weight and keep it off. When you eat these foods, you feel full and satisfied and you are less likely to return for seconds. It is also helpful in preventing Type II diabetes.

However, the fact that the half of the group that followed the low GI diet, saw more improvement in blood sugar control and heart disease risk factors than the other group, is enough reason to follow the low glycemic index diet. For the diabetic, to gain more control over blood sugar levels and to lower the risk factors of heart disease is every reason to follow this diet.

If you want to help your spouse lower blood sugar levels and the risk factors of heart disease, start following a diet of foods low on the glycemic index. It is mandatory for your spouse, but it is necessary for you if you want to keep your sanity and put your life back on an even keel!

Good luck to you and God bless!