More than 65 percent of all adults living in the United States are overweight or obese, the Weight-control Information Network reports. Lowering the glycemic load (GL) of your diet -- a measurement of how much carbohydrate in a food gets absorbed by the body -- may aid in weight control. A number of low-GL diets exist to help you reach your weight goals. As with any weight loss diet, check with your physician to ensure that it's safe for you.
Paleolithic Diet
Our caveman ancestors ate a low-GL diet without every realizing it. James H. O'Keefe of the Mid America Heart Institute states that the underlying reason that so many people are overweight and stricken with chronic disease is that they eat a diet that's not ideal for our genetic makeup. O'Keefe reports in a paper published in the November 2004 issue of "Mayo Clinic Proceedings" that the human genome has evolved over millions of years and has changed little since the dawn of agriculture. Our modern diets tend to contain foods high in the glycemic load, O'Keefe adds. However, foods that form of the basis of a paleolithic eating plan -- meats, nuts, vegetables and fruits -- tend to have a low GL.
Atkins Diet
The Atkins eating plan strictly limits all carbohydrate sources including grains, fruits and sugary treats. Instead, Atkins followers are advised to eat nearly unlimited amounts of low-GL foods like bacon, eggs and red meat. While controversial among health care professionals, the Atkins diet is effective for weight loss according to Michael L. Dansinger of Tufts University. In a paper published in the January 2005 edition of "JAMA," the journal of the American Medical Association, Dansinger and his colleagues investigated the effect of the Atkins diet on long-term weight loss. At the end of one year, the Atkins followers lost more than 10 pounds.
Zone Diet
The Zone Diet is a weight loss approach based on glycemic index (GI), a measurement of how quickly the carbohydrate in a particular food is turned into sugar in the body. Followers of the diet should make about one third of every meal protein-rich food like chicken or fish. The rest should be in the form of low glycemic index non-starchy veggies and fruits like broccoli and apples. The Zone Diet is generally effective for weight loss, the Mayo Clinic reports.
References
- WIN:Statistics Related to Overweight and Obesity
- "Mayo Clinic Proceedings": Cardiovascular Disease Resulting From a Diet and Lifestyle at Odds With Our Paleolithic Genome: How to Become a 21st-Century Hunter-Gatherer
- "JAMA": Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction
- Zone Diet: Helpful Ways to Eat in the Zone
- MayoClinic.com: Low-carb diet
