Why is the Glycaemic Index important?
When you eat foods that have a high glycaemic index, they release glucose into your bloodstream very quickly. The body tries to keep the amount of glucose in the bloodstream pretty constant so it needs to get rid of this ‘spike’ of energy and the way it does this is to release the hormone insulin into the blood. Insulin tells the body to store energy as glycogen in the liver and muscle cells, and as triglycerides in fat cells. In other words you store some of the energy as fat to get rid of the excess energy. Wave goodbye to that six-pack! If this isn’t bad enough, high GI foods give you a quick fix of energy, but they can’t sustain it. Once that sugary snack has released its short energy spurt into your system and your body has mopped it all up, you’ll feel lacking in energy and hungry – wanting another snack. Low GI foods release energy slowly for a prolonged period of time, so you don’t get an energy spike followed by a crash, and your body doesn’t need to produce so much insulin to
