Tracking Glycemic Index
grimendale
Posts: 2,154 Member
My wife was just diagnosed as prediabetic, so we're scrambling to figure things out. We're already planning to go see a dietician, but in the meantime, I was curious if anyone here knew of a convenient way to track the glycemic index of someone's meals. As far as I know, MFP can't track this stat, but I figure there's got to be a better way than coding my own spreadsheets. Any ideas?
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Replies
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I don’t think that’s necessary unless your doctor told you to do it. Prediabetes, while concerning, is not an “emergency” and doesn’t require panic or scrambling. Make an appointment with the dietician, start counting calories in MFP to get a baseline, and start walking or other mild exercise. Weight loss (10-20 lb) and exercise correct most diabetes. It’s true.19
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My experience as a type 2 diabetic who tests blood after meals has been that glycemic index is mostly woo. Net carbs is more important, along with being sure to include fiber and fat with carbs. You can track net carbs by adding a fiber column using settings.
Strength exercise is good for insulin resistance, as is a moderate amount of cardio. Losing weight to get to a normal BMI is most important. Watch out for large amounts of carbs and she should be fine.16 -
The doctor was the one who mentioned GI, but based on some other things she's said. I'm not sure she's super up on diet health (hence the dietician appointment). It sounds like it's not the major thing to track that the doc made it sound like, so we can probably put that on the back burner until/unless the dietician tells us otherwise. I've already got her set up on MFP. Thanks for the info.9
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I see no problem (whether you are prediabetic or not) in paying attention to the GI of the food you eat, if you want to control the level of your blood sugar by limiting the amount of food you eat that can be more easily converted into sugar.
Bear in mind that most people, including children, who are diagnosed as diabetic are severely overweight as a result of eating sugar laden and other food to excess which is mostly converted to fat and overwhelms the ability of insulin to control your blood sugar level which is when you would be diagnosed as diabetic.
However, if you are already controlling your weight by controlling the amount of food and cals you eat, any sugar in your system should be fully metabolized and properly controlled by the insulin in your system and should not converted into fat which should decrease your risk of becoming diabetic.
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For the record, exercise improves sensitivity to insulin.6
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Glycemic index isn't additive, so it would be really hard to track for meals, rather than individual foods.
While awaiting the appointment with the dietician, get lots of veg, chill on sweets and carby snacks, and get some exercise every day.5 -
Nobody has really answered the question. I am having the same problem. I would like to know the glycemic index of each ingredient I add to MFP. I do not want it to add it up per meal but just have this extra piece of information. As of now Google is my only friend.
Please no need to say I shouldn't track the GI and offer me other ways. I do it for specific reasons.4 -
I would like to know the glycemic index of each ingredient I add to MFP. I do not want it to add it up per meal but just have this extra piece of information. As of now Google is my only friend.
Please no need to say I shouldn't track the GI and offer me other ways. I do it for specific reasons.
The biggest problem will be that 99% of the MFP database is user-entered and, in most cases, users enter info based on the packaging in front of them. I don't know where you live or how things are there but, in the UK, there's no GI info on most, if any, packaging. That info isn't something that's been entered, therefore it won't magically appear even if a field were added for it.
For changes to MFP itself, you'd need to log something with MFP's Tech team - they don't read these forums.4 -
Although glycemic index was thought important in the past, more recent research has shown that our body's reaction to the GI of foods is not that predictable. For a good science-based take on GI see https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/carbohydrates-and-blood-sugar/
Physicians tend to have had very little or no education in nutrition. There just "wasn't time for it" in the medical school curriculum. Their recommendations in that regard tend to be out-of-date or naive.
As people have said above, the best recommendations for avoiding a slide from "pre-diabetes" to full-blown Type II diabetes are to increase exercise and lose some weight. For the "straight Skippy" on this read https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/disease-prevention/diabetes-prevention/preventing-diabetes-full-story/
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We're in a similar situation. The origin of the glycemic index is somewhat vague but it is a way, apparently, to establish likely blood sugar response from food. From my limited experience it seems that the glycemic load is what one would be best tracking and a max daily value of 100 for sensitive people is recommended, 500 for normal people. MFP has no data yet on the GI and the online data appears fragmented. For now using MFP to try and reduce the weight of high carb foods is the best approach. Basically the Glycemic index is a guide but as it's multiplying by the carb content,then logically by the weight, if you take a low carb approach and cross check with problematic GI foods (unexpected ones like celeriac) then you can get good progress. It would be great to see GI added as a variable to the existing food database0
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My two cents: people react to carbs differently- some will see their sugar rise quickly after eating white rice, while some will not experience a drastic change. I use the GI list to help me when choosing foods that I will eat often or in volume. Basically, grandma's advice of 'Eat your greens!' Is a really good start 😉.0
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I'm type 2 diabetic and I dont follow the glycemic, but I do count my. Carbs and calories for weight loss and sugar control and I journal here and in my personal dietary paper journal. I like the ideal of your own spreadsheets if you cant find what your looking for.
And as far as doctors and dietitians the information maybe hit or miss, it's taken me years to get nutrition information correct because they tell almost everyone the same standard information, and everything doesnt work for everyone. Which is you can eat everything as long as it's in moderation, which isn't true for my blood sugar.
She has to find what foods work for her and dont, decrease them or maybe even stop them. This is what I did even with some healthy carbs, that just weren't good for my blood sugar. I eat no more than 100 carbs a day and I take meds. And exercise when I can.
Luckily she's not diabetic and if she gets on the exercise and healthy balance of food she maybe able to not become diabetic.
Best of care.0 -
Strudders67 wrote: »I would like to know the glycemic index of each ingredient I add to MFP. I do not want it to add it up per meal but just have this extra piece of information. As of now Google is my only friend.
Please no need to say I shouldn't track the GI and offer me other ways. I do it for specific reasons.
The biggest problem will be that 99% of the MFP database is user-entered and, in most cases, users enter info based on the packaging in front of them. I don't know where you live or how things are there but, in the UK, there's no GI info on most, if any, packaging. That info isn't something that's been entered, therefore it won't magically appear even if a field were added for it.
For changes to MFP itself, you'd need to log something with MFP's Tech team - they don't read these forums.
thanks for answering directly -- it's unhelpful to blithely say "just eat better & exercise" when one hasn't experienced - in my case, I'm slim, eat healthy, & exercise, yet still have been recently diagnosed as prediabetic...0 -
Strudders67 wrote: »I would like to know the glycemic index of each ingredient I add to MFP. I do not want it to add it up per meal but just have this extra piece of information. As of now Google is my only friend.
Please no need to say I shouldn't track the GI and offer me other ways. I do it for specific reasons.
The biggest problem will be that 99% of the MFP database is user-entered and, in most cases, users enter info based on the packaging in front of them. I don't know where you live or how things are there but, in the UK, there's no GI info on most, if any, packaging. That info isn't something that's been entered, therefore it won't magically appear even if a field were added for it.
For changes to MFP itself, you'd need to log something with MFP's Tech team - they don't read these forums.
thanks for answering directly -- it's unhelpful to blithely say "just eat better & exercise" when one hasn't experienced - in my case, I'm slim, eat healthy, & exercise, yet still have been recently diagnosed as prediabetic...
If you're going to look at anything, it would be glycemic load not glycemic index. GI has no context other than that one individual thing. Something can have a relatively high GI, but end up overall being a low GL because it's eaten with something else.
The answers are generalities because this isn't something particularly practical to track in any meaningful way. If one is pre-diabetic, the two biggest things to take care of are weight loss and regular exercise, including resistance training which has shown to have a great effect on insulin resistance, even more so than cardiovascular exercise.
Other than that, you'd really just want to watch your sweets...your sodas and candy and deserts and cookies and things like that. Basically put a hard cap on things with a lot of added sugar. If you eat a heavy carb diet, eat in a more balanced way and reduce carbohydrates. If you really want to go all out go to the ADA's website where they have tons of dietary advice for diabetics...but in most cases it's not necessary to eat as if you are type II as pre-diabetes isn't actually a disease but rather a warning shot.
Also, this thread is a couple years old.1 -
As someone who has been struggling with controlling blood sugar (pre diabetes) in order to avoid diabetes, I think educating yourself and being proactive by doing these things will help a lot. 1. Go to a diabetes class. You can do that on line or in person. 2. Go purchase a blood glucose monitor. Walmart has a good inexpensive one and the strips are cheaper. Start checking to see what foods might be causing the problem. (With me it’s any bread) 3. Exercise most days and eat non-processed food as much as possible. 4. Learn about the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load of foods. 5. After all that, Look into a 2 week trial of a Continuous Glucose Monitor CGM. This will help you pinpoint what’s causing high glucose.
You don’t need to wait until it turns into diabetes to start working on this. There’s still time to reverse the course. Good luck.0
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