How Fat Affects the Glycemic Index Diet

There is one essential requirement when following any glycemic index (GI) diet, and that is that you need to be careful about the levels of fat you choose. This means that although you may see foods on the (GI) list that have a low (GI) rating, for example, a burger with cheese, this does not mean that it is acceptable to eat lots of burgers with cheese!

Even though some foods (GI) rankings are low, they may still be high in fats. The (GI) pin-points foods that are low in carbohydrates and as a consequence will take longer to digest. The (GI) in itself does not refer to fat content of foods.

Fat is potentially unhealthy for you because it is easy for your body to store. It finds the fat in foods, and then tucks it away on the hips or around the waistline, in case one day it needs to call on the fat reserves. The result is that you get bigger!

Fats are also unhealthy because they can clog up the arteries; there is a direct link between heart disease, and a diet that is over high in saturated fats.

Glycemic index tables or lists simply list foods exclusively in terms of their (GI) rating. Some may have asterisks by foods that are quite high in fats, but some make the assumption that people will recognize that they should not be eating too many high fat foods!

So the (GI) diet can be adversely affected by fats. If you dine on burgers with cheese three times a day and then have a few Snickers bars, a few packets of nuts, with a few lattes so on, and then you will not benefit from the (GI). Instead, you should be aiming to eat lots of vegetables, lentils, bean based products and healthy, unrefined carbohydrates. If you do not then you may still lose some weight, but you will not have adopted a healthy eating plan and potentially you will build up problems for yourself in health terms: so ditch the fats on a glycemic index diet!

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