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Education to control your carbs: The comprehensive glycemic index

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Lyme Disease
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Sulma
Regular Member
Joined : Apr 2008
Posts : 366
Posted Yesterday 9:37 AM (GMT -7)
I've read a lot of talk about Lymies needing to eliminate carbs althogether.  There's so much really nutritious food out there in the carbohydrate group I cannot see how completely eliminating all carbs could be a wise decision. Sounds like throwing the baby out with the bathwater to me. I think we definitely need to eliminate dietary sugar and limit total dietary carbs, while selectively choosing the best carbohydrate foods available. 

So we need to be very careful of consuming foods that raise our blood glucose because sugar feeds infections. Ok, check. :-) Eliminating simple sugars is easy, just look at the label in most cases. Since all carbs are ultimately converted to glucose in the body though we need to know more about the (complex) carbs we're eating. To know which carbs are the worst offenders though we need access to information showing their glycemic indices and their glycemic loads.

A carbohydrate food's glycemic index is the rate at which it is converted to glucose in the body. The slower the conversion the better.  An index of 55 is very good. Anything lower than that number is outstanding. A food's glycemic load measures how fast this conversion will occur taking into account the amount of carbodydrates it contains in a serving. If a food converts relatively rapidly, but has few grams of carbs in it, then it will have a lower load number.  A load of 10 is very good.  Both numbers are important because a higher index, like 75 for example, isn't as big a deal if it's load is only 12.  That means although that food will be converted to glucose somewhat faster, it has only a small amount of carbs.  So a higher index is acceptable in limited amounts if the load is quite low. Just use your best judgement.

Linked is the comphrensive glycemic index and load list. It contains foods for sale worldwide.  Generally I noticed that beans are great carb choices with really low indices and loads.

http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Post Edited (Sulma) : 2/27/2009 9:43:29 AM (GMT-7)

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judy3
Veteran Member
Joined : Nov 2006
Posts : 667
Posted Yesterday 9:41 AM (GMT -7)
I am doing an almost carb free diet and believe I am getting my nutritional needs met, I do take a multi vitamin and will start taking a B complex too, but I eat as much fat as possible such as avocado, nuts...and I am feeling great, I am diabetic so its an incentive to stay on a very low carb diet, I do eat carrots , tomatoes, but no milk , yougurt, sugar or flour, I do have one slice of WW bread in the morning, half my lyme symtoms were gone when I went on this diet.

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dorit
Regular Member
Joined : Nov 2008
Posts : 375
Posted Yesterday 10:33 AM (GMT -7)
Hi Sulma -

great link, thanks for explaining and posting! greetings, dorit
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nefferdun
Veteran Member
Joined : Feb 2008
Posts : 900
Posted Yesterday 4:03 PM (GMT -7)
A friend of mine who is recovering from cancer emailed me a letter put out by John's Hopkins for the alternative to chemotherapy which is diet and supplements. Cancer, like bacteria, thrives on sugar. The diet recommended for cancer patients is very low carbs, no sugar, no red meat (mammals), no alcohol and very little fruit. They recommend A LOT of fresh vegtables - juicing if you can - and some fish with chicken now and then. I am sure beans are a good alternative to meat. I believe brown rice and other whole grains are also good for you but they should not be the bulk of what you are eating. They said all of us have cancer cells in our bodies but our immune system destroys them until our immune system is weakened by toxins in our diet and environment. Most of the herbs people use for lyme disease are immune boosters. Antibiotics work to strenghthen the immune system. If you don't have an immune system there is nothing that can work to kill the bacteria. This is what happens to AIDS patients. They don't die from "AIDS", they die from whatever is taking over their bodies because their immune system is shot. Unfortunately this is why people having received steriods, which destroy the bodies immune system, have a very hard time recovering from lyme. I have to be very deligent about diet. Whenever I am lax with it, the symptoms flare right back up again.
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alfers
Veteran Member
Joined : May 2005
Posts : 2671
Posted Today 7:49 AM (GMT -7)
Great post, Sulma! I agree with you, that it doesn't seem healthy or productive to cut out ALL carbs. Thanks for explaining the glycemic index and posting the link!
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