Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load
My first experience gluten free relied heavily upon internet recipes featuring the canonical prescriptions of rice, potatoes, tapioca, millet and the like. These foods are indeed gluten free, but as I would soon experience in a diabetic crash, they are very high useless carbohydrates with little fiber and sky high glycemic index (g.i.). A true healthy celiac diet must be gluten free but I do not think it needs to be dependent on low quality genetically modified high g.i. grains to be GF and pratical. Personally, I am a loose follower of the Paleo Diet since I am a strong protein and (good) fat metabolic type. I do eat beans and corn, but I like to rely on flax, hemp, coconut, almond, and garbanzo flours for myself in general since all of these are low net carb and low g.i. In my other cooking I stick to GF flours which are more economical and still high fiber per carb and low fat count, such as brown rice flours, buckwheat, quinoa, blue corn meal, and rice bran.
Some basic research into my hypoglycemic diabetic reaction to the prepackaged GF spice cake mix revealed the popular buzz about the importance of the glycemix index and load in diet. A great reference website for a list of g.i. of typical foods is at: http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
Best Choices:
- Brown rice over white rice: cook long grain organic varieties for lowest G.I. and to avoid genetically modified rice strains (GMO)
- purple or red potatoes over white potatoes
- fresh kernel corn or frozen corn
- over canned creamed corn
- bean flours (garbanzo, fava, soy- except soy has many health drawbacks, etc), nuts flours (almond, hazelnut, etc), coconut flour, hemp, ground flax, quinoa (ground or flakes), rice bran, teff, and amaranth
- instead of white rice flour, potato flour, or white or yellow cornmeal/flour
- fresh nuts and seeds
- high fiber organic beans: black soy beans (low carb, high fiber and protein), black beans, garbanzos
- Flax and bean flour based pizza crusts, breads, muffins, cakes, etc
- lentils over rice or potatoes
*** Adding acidic foods (citrus, organic apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar), good fats (flax, walnuts, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, hemp), and fiber (include the peel!) all lower the glycemic index of your food.
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