Whenever going through weight loss or weight management, you probably have heard of Glycemic Index (GI). GI is how much blood sugar level is affected after the consumption of the food. GI scaled from 0-100. When you look at food sources that are listed in GI, table glucose or simple sugar has GI of 100 and food source such as beef or chicken which does not contain sugar indicate as 0 or not even listed.
So when coaching clients for weight loss or weight management, we tend to suggest people to eat food that are medium GI (56-69) and low GI (55 or less) to manage you blood sugar level.
Above information may be something that you might have already heard of or may already implement to your nutritional habits. But there is another index that you should be aware of. That is Insulin Index.
Insulin index (II) is like a glycemic index but only illustrating the food sources that has effect on insulin secretion. As you can see on the chart from American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it shows that some of the food sources that you do not see on GI are listed. You may agree that sugar based food sources such as cereals are not only high in GI but also high in II. However, food sources that are low or not even listed in GI is indicated as higher score in insulin index, such as beef, eggs, and fish.
Is this good or bad? Neither. Just because some of the food sources have higher score in insulin index, that does not mean that those food are bad for you. However, you need to be aware of what it does when you over consume those food sources. There is a reason for bodybuilders to favor chicken over beef.
When insulin secretion is consistently high, your fat metabolism does get sluggish. This is not ideal for those who are wanting lose fat. Therefore, even for protein food sources you should be mindful about eating in moderation for those food that are high in insulin index so you can control the insulin secretion better.
For protein portion, normally I would suggest my clients to start off with eating 2 palm size of animal protein for men and 1 palm size for women per meal for those who are looking to manage their weight.
If you are lifting weight on regular basis and wanting to add muscle mass then 1g per lb of body weight should be good place to start. In other words if you weigh 200lb, you should be consuming 200g of protein source per day.
If you feel like you may be consuming food sources that are high in glycemic index and/or insulin index, you can also try using 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar dilute with water 30 min prior to your meal, which helps boost your insulin sensitivity to avoid keeping the blood sugar level managed as much as possible.
Eat well and eat smart,
Kota Shimada
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