Glycemic Index values of foods

This is the Part 2 of my previous post titled "A must know: the Glycemic Index of food". Most GI values below were taken from the GI Listing website, please refer to that website for more information.

Foods to avoid are those with High GI which follows. For diabetics and people who had cancer, High GI foods is definitely a NO-NO. This is my personal opinion for you people, so you can make that a habbit!

High GI Foods ( GI 70 0r more )

Breads
White bread, bagel, blackbread, Wonderwhite®, gluten-free bread

Breakfast Cereals
Sultana Bran®, Bran Flakes®, Coco Pops®, Puffed Wheat®, Rice Bubbles®, Cornflakes®

Grains
All white rice, brown rice, calrose rice, jasmine rice, rice pasta

Legumes
Broad beans

Starchy Vegetables
Other potatoes, parsnip, cooked turnips, french fries, mashed potatoes

Fruit
Watermelon

Other
Ice cream, Digestive cookies, Table sugar (sucrose), Soda crackers, Jellybeans, corn chips, pretzels


Choose from the following Low GI Foods:

Low GI Foods ( GI 55 or less )

Breads
Burgen Soy-Lin®, PerforMAX®, fruit loaf, Vogel's honey and oat®, multigrain bread, stone ground wheat bread, sour dough bread

Breakfast Cereals
All Bran fruit'n oats®, All Bran®, Guardian®, porridge, Special K®, Rice Bran, Oatmeal

Grains
Barley, Pasta (all types), Noodles, Bulgur, Semolina

Legumes and nuts
All Beans (eg kidney, soy, baked bean, etc…), peas, lentils, peanut, walnut, cashew nut

Vegetables
Broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, cabbage, onion, green pepper, carrots

Starchy Vegetables
Sweet potato, taro

Fruit
Cherries, grapefruit, peach, dried apricots, apple, pear, plums, oranges, grapes,
kiwi fruit, banana (not the Philippines' lakatan)

Other
Skim milk, Plain Yogurt, Soy beverage, Pumpernickel bread, Al dente (firm) pasta,
Chick peas

You may include the following Medium GI Foods but when you do, always include a Low GI Food, best practice will be 2 Low GI foods to 1 Medium GI food. In that manner, you are not deprived of most foods you are accustomed to eat.

Medium GI Foods ( GI 56 - 69 )

Breads
Hamburger bun, rye bread, croissant, light rye, crumpet, wholemeal

Breakfast Cereals
Oatbran, untoasted muesli, Just Right®, Nutri Grain®, Sustain®, Weet-Bix®

Grains
Basmati rice, wild rice, Sunrice Doongara® rice, Mahatma Premium® Classic,
couscous, cornmeal, tapioca

Starchy Vegetables
New potato, corn

Fruit
Sultanas, raw and canned apricots, mango, papaya, paw paw, raisins, rockmelon, pineapple, lakatan

A must know: the Glycemic Index of food

The Glycemic Index or GI is a way of measuring how fast a food converts to sugar in your body. If a food converts quickly, it is a high GI food (for example, white bread, potatoes and watermelon). If it converts slowly, it has a low GI rating (like berries, pasta or steak).

Why should you eat foods with a low Glycemic Index?

Eating foods with a low Glycemic Index may help you to:

1. Control your blood glucose level
2. Control your cholesterol level
3. Control your appetite
4. Lower your risk of getting heart disease
5. Lower your risk of getting type 2 diabetis

To those who work out on a regular basis, the glycemic index is important as well. When you eat high glycemic carbohydrates to help fuel your workout, you need to balance them out with low glycemic carbohydrates. Eating low glycemic carbohydrates can help bodybuilders and others involved in fitness to have a more constant level of energy when working out.

Those who have risks for cancer should remember that sugar is food for cancer and like the diabetics should avoid foods with high glycemic index.

In my next post which should follow shortly, I will post the Glycemic Index of some foods.

Why you should eat broccoli

If you eat broccoli regularly, these are the health benefits your body will get, from head to toe:

1. It can prevent the development of cataract later in life.
2. It can prevent stroke.
3. It can help the body destroy breast cancer.
4. It can prevent colon cancer.
5. It can prevent bladder cancer.
6. It can halt or slow down the development of prostate cancer.
7. Its extract can be used as sunscreen that can protect the body for three days.

6 Potent compounds that broccoli contains:

1. Diindolylmethane or DIM, which appears to be effective in reducing a variety of health risks, in particular the possibility of developing certain cancers.
2. Sulforaphane, which may be one of the strongest anti-cancer fighters.
3. Isothiosyanates, which is also well known to have anti-cancer properties.
4. Lignan, which may play a role in reducing breast cancer.
5. Thioredoxin, which can reduce the deterioration caused by oxygen-deficiency that can damage heart muscles.
6. Selenium, which is an essential micro-nutrient that is necessary for healthy cells, and which also plays an important role in normal thyroid function.

Include broccoli in your diet at least two or three times a week, if not more often.

To get the greatest health benefit from broccoli, the best way to prepare it is to steam it lightly about 3 to 4 minutes, until it is just tough-tender or 'al dente'.

Cleansing the liver

It is very important the we take good care of our liver and one way is to cleanse it regularly. There is a traditional way of cleansing which is so simple, and the TCM doctor who shared this to us would like us to share this procedure to others:

1. Get a ginger about 3 to 4 inches long.
2. Slice the ginger to about half inch per slice WITHOUT PEELING.
3. Boil the slices of ginger to 2 liters of water for 5 minutes.
4. While boiling the ginger, drink one liter of tea or water.
5. Take out the ginger, slice to smaller pieces and minch.
6. Pour the boiled water and minched ginger to a basin.
7. Test if your feet can withstand the heat when soaked.
8. If your feet can withstand the heat, soak until the water's heat is gone.


The pungent essence of the ginger will cleanse the liver from its acupoints on the foot. You should feel the heat going up your body.