Foods with a low glycemic index or a GI of less than 55 means your blood sugar rises more slowly compared to a slice of white bread. Even if a food is a low-GI food, it is not necessarily a nutritious food to eat. If you have high cholesterol or triglycerides, avoid low-GI foods with plenty of fats. If you are counting your carbs, check the number of grams of carbs in your low-GI foods.
Snickers Bar
Most diets would exclude a regular-sized Snickers bar; you should avoid it as well on a low-GI diet. The candy bar has a GI of only 41 compared to a three-quarter cup of Total cereal at a GI of 76. Avoid a Snickers bar because it has 273 calories, as many calories as a small meal of chicken, rice and veggies. It also has 34 g of carbohydrates, too high for a single item on a low-carb diet. A Snickers bar has 14 g of fat which means 46 percent of the calories in a Snickers bar come from fat.
Super Supreme Pizza
Two average sices of super supreme pizza, weighing 268 grams, have a GI of only 36 due to the large amount of fat and protein, slowing its rate of absorption. While the pizza's GI is 36 and close to that of an apple at 38, the slices have 72 g of carbs and 31 g of fat, according to a 2003 article by Stephen Wong, Ph.D., and Susan Chung, R.D.N., published in the American College of Sports Medicine's "Health & Fitness Journal."
Salted and Roasted Peanuts
The GI of half a cup of roasted, salted peanuts is 14. Most protein and fat-rich foods have very few grams of carbs and therefore barely raise your blood sugar. However, salted peanuts are high in sodium, with about 420 mg, and they are high in fat with 40 g.
Boiled Fettucine Pasta
One cup of boiled fettuccine has a GI of only 32, much less than that of an apple. If you are counting your carbs, avoid this pasta because it has 57 g of carbs, nearly half the allotment of carbohydrates on a low-carb diet.
Chicken Nuggets
One-hundred grams of chicken nuggets, about six-piece nugget box, has a GI of only 46; the same GI as a cup of grapes. Six pieces of nuggets from McDonald's has 250 calories, 15 g of fat and 670 mg of sodium, according to the book "The Stop & Go Fast Food Nutrition Guide." If you eat six nuggets, 54 percent of the calories you eat in the nuggets alone come from fat.
References
- The Glycemic Index
- "ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal"; Glycemic Index: An Educational Tool for Health and Fitness Professionals; Stephen Wong, Ph.D., and Susan Chung, R.D.N.; November/December 2003
- "The NutriBase Complete Book of Food Counts"; NutriBase; 2001
- "The Stop & Go Fast Food Nutrition Guide"; Steven Aldana, Ph.D.; 2007
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