Using GL to sort the good, the bad and the suicidal 121 These would include foods such as:
• Pasta
• Croissants and pastries
• Curry with jasmine rice
• Risotto
• Roast with baked potatoes
• Pudding of various kinds Then there might be one person whose HSF was a traditional high fat food like meat and gravy, pork roast with crackling or sausages. It is because of this prevalence of carbohydrate amongst people’ s problem foods that I use this food group as the subject for a discussion around food choice. The final reason for picking on carbohydrate is that obese women are four times as likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes. People with diabetes need to have a good understanding of carbohydrate metabolism as this is what has become disordered in Diabetes. Using Glycemic Load to sort our carbs Some years ago researchers developed the concept of Glycemic Index or GI to help diabetes sufferers sort their carbohydrates. The GI rating of a food tells us how much it will increase our blood sugar. All carbohydrates, from potatoes and rice through to table sugar and sweets, break down into glucose. Glucose is the body’ s primary energy fuel. Diabetes sufferers have reduced levels of insulin which is normally released when the body notices increased blood glucose levels. In simplified terms insulin is a hormone that tells body cells to stop burning fat and start using the glucose that is circulating in the blood. Through this and other mechanisms insulin brings about a reduction in blood glucose levels.