Fats and Fibers in your Food Determine your Blood Glucose Level

Blood glucose level is a measure of how much glucose (the cell-utilized end product of all carbohydrates) is in our blood, it is determined by how much glucose is introduced into blood externally or internally. Then what is the relation between fats, fibers and blood glucose?

Unless you ingest native food like table sugar or butter, almost all foods are naturally or artificially blends of the macro-nutrients- carbohydrates, proteins, and fats- and by virtue, how fast these foods deliver glucose is determined by their carbohydrate content, how complexed is the food, and finally how fast the stomach extracts glucose to be delivered to the blood

Glycemic Index measures how much glucose is produced from a certain food INSIDE the stomach compared to table sugar as the standard highest glucose producing food. Examples of foods having high glycemic index are sugars, refined grains made from flour, fruits and root vegetables. Glycemic index was formerly used to measure how high that food raises blood sugar, as table sugar raises blood glucose very fast, but when we compare it to Carrots that has a considerable glycemic index, we find that Carrots raises blood glucose far slower than sugar.

Foods with high content of fibers like Vegetables and fruits takes sometime to deliver its content of glucose.The high-fat meal slows the gastric emptying and slows the delivery of glucose into the blood stream, and this is clinically tested and proven. These findings led the nutrition scientists to develop a new measure to rank foods regarding their blood glucose raising effect called Glycemic Load, which tells you how fast a food raises blood glucose levels.

Implementing the glycemic load gives us a clear picture of how great and fast our blood glucose level would be after eating a certain food.
Carrots has GI of 47 and a GL of 10.
Potatoes has a GI of 57 and a GL of 45.
Air-popped popcorn, has a glycemic index of 72, and a GL of 8.
Macaroni has a GI OF 23, and a GL of 47.

If you add a tablespoonful of oil (e.g. Olive,Canola...) to your favored plate of green salad to make a snack, it would make you feel satiety while you are eating a very healthy food according to all health recommendations.
In general, Use your own common sense and eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and other seeds. Avoid the refined carbohydrates... foods made with extracted sugars, flour, white rice or milled corn products.

Try our High Fiber diet at eDiets.com

Weight Loss Made Easy in 2007

Weight loss isn't easy to achieve but with a little determination and quality information you can make it happen. Many of you will start off the New Year with excitement about reaching your ultimate goals. Keep that excitement and let's begin with weight loss.

Weight loss is not something that can be done quickly in most cases, and indeed, as long as you are not competing Claudia Shaffer, why hurry! Don't go beyond"I Lost xx lbs in a week or a month..." It's more of a lifestyle change that you desire. If you really want to change then do it, learn how to do it.
A healthier you is a slimmer you! Take a healthy approach to life if you want to reap the benefits of weight loss. Your body can't function correctly and eliminate body waste efficiently if it's not in shape.
Some points you want to consider for your new healthier weight loss program will be gaining the knowledge to succeed. Another matter is your overall health.

weight loss is not easy and effortless. You will have to put work into it just as you do with other important things in your life. You just have to decide precisely what is important to you and if it is worth your precious time. I hope that you begin to think weight loss is one of your
ultimate goals this year.
Learn about portion sizes and negative calories.Calories do count though so make sure that you do count them if you want to see greater weight loss results.Put 2000-2500 Calories/day as a start, and to quit your
dinner as your final goal.

Some nutritious foods are known as "Negative Calories Foods". What are these "magical" foods? Tomatoes actually burn more calories when you eat them then they contain. Other foods that may fit into this category are: • Apples • Grapefruit • Oranges • Lettuce • Onion • Spinach • Broccoli • Celery and more that you can see in the archives. This means that you are consuming fewer calories than you are burning by your effort to chew and consume them. You burn more energy digesting them than they actually contain,simply because they gain weight when saturated with water, then
they need more energy to be moved off than other foods(if you want to go
deeper in their mechanism of action, just go to the archive).
Most negative calorie foods contain plenty of vitamins, minerals and enzymes to break down these foods for better digestion.

Portions are another key point to consider. You must realize that you have been forced by the media and fast food restaurants to consume unnatural portion sizes. "Super size it" is a phrase that you will realize is harmful to your health. "Just say no" is your new positive motto.
Eat your larger meals earlier in the day and don't skip breakfast.You may have greater results by setting a plan to eat six smaller meals throughout the day , and to exclude dinner from them.

Exercise can also help lose weight when you choose the appropriate one for your health condition.

OK,wanna easy scheme to start with? here it is :
Put a plan that you will eat 2000-2500 Calories/day, count 1 gram of carbohydrates and protein as 5 Calorie and 1 gram of fat as 9 Calories
and there is no need for precision, approximate every thing until you reach your goals and help yourself to just do that. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits and add fats if you want, until you find yourself having no desire in dinner! This is the key gold to weight loss and preserving a desired weight.

It Is Fats and Proteins that Affect Insulin Sensitivity

It Is Fats And Proteins And Not Carbohydrates That Affect Insulin Response or sensitivity.



What are the effects of fats ( saturated and unsaturated ), proteins and carbohydrates on the sensitivity of the cells to Insulin and other ligands that control cell activity?



First, let us see the recent researches that are connected to this aspect:



# At Rutgers University, Dept of Nutrition, Researchers found that fish oil- fed animals- have greater stimulation of the Glucagon stimulated adenylate-cyclase ( Glucagon is a hormone that raises blood glucose, and adenylate-

cyclase is its responsive enzyme). They found the stimulation is less in corn oil- fed animals, they found also that Butter fat- and all cholesterol supplemented group- fed animals show a depression in Glucagon-adenylate cyclase- stimulation. In other words, fish oil and corn oil increased blood glucose and Butter fat and cholesterol

supplements decreased blood glucose in this specific experiment.



#R.S.MacDonald and W.H.Thornton Jr. found that dietary fat composition has been shown to alter the plasma membrane lipid composition of adipocytes, muscles and other tissues. These changes in membrane lipid composition have been correlated with altered Insulin receptors binding and signal transduction( across the cell membrane).



#As is written in Medical Journal of Australia(e MJA), the functionality of proteins in the membrane is dependent on membrane fluidity ( which was found to decrease with age leading to a stiff membrane as S.M.Harman M.D. showed), especially when the proteins have to collide with other molecules to exert their effects (as in case of Insulin effect).



#Surveys in some Asian islands revealed that inhabitants never knew overweight, diabetes and cardiovascular

diseases while eating grains, vegetables,fruits and coconut oil until they changed their nutritional style to eating

the modern rich diet composed of meat, refined flour and the new wave oils, when they were found to have high incidence of cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes ( 1 out of 2 is diabetic).



Before we lead ourselves to certain conclusions of these scientific findings, let us first recognize the Insulin and other ligands ( molecules that bind a receptor to exert its effects, like hormones) receptors and their surrounding environment.



Cell membranes are designed to act like a boundaries between the cell and its surrounding environment. Both the cell and its surrounding environment are composed mainly of water, then the membrane should not be water soluble, and the material that fulfils this crucial function is phospholipids which is neither water soluble nor lipid soluble at its concentration in the membrane ( to keep an intact membrane and not a detached one).



The phospholipid molecule is present in edible fats in small concentrations (except egg yolk). It is a derivative of TriAcylGlycerol ( triglycerides) ,the main component of fats, and is composed of a molecule of Glycerol attached to 3 molecules of fatty acids and is not charged. But phospholipids has an electrically charged part attached to one of the fatty acids in a triglyceride molecule, this charged part acts like a polar head that is entailing a bi-forked uncharged tail composed of the remaining 2 fatty acids. An electric charge in a molecule increases its solubility in water.



The fluidity of membrane depends on the nature of the tail of a phospholipid molecule ( the 2 molecules of fatty acids in that molecule) when they are saturated fatty acids ( present abundantly in coconut and palm kernel oils), then they are closer to each other making a denser membrane, but when one of them is mono- or

poly-unsaturated fatty acid, then the part bearing a double-bond acquires coils acquiring the shape of the letter S when bearing 2 double bonds or half the latter S when bearing one double-bond.This bend or -kink- in the molecule shortens the molecule and causes a change in the electrical affinity of the adjacent molecule at the same time, leading to more spaces between them.



Cell membranes are composed of 2 layers of phospholipids having the polar multi-head part in the outer most and innermost surfaces facing blood and cytoplasm respectively ( both are composed mainly o water ). The non-polar tails of phospholipid molecules are included between the 2 polar surfaces, and they represent the matrix of the membrane. The nature of a phospholipid layer is determined in part by the lipid matrix of the membrane ( Diet ) and its polar heads part ( genetically ).



Embedded in these 2 layers of phospholipid are Protein molecules, which act like locks on the membrane and open the cells for import or export of metabolites (products of metabolism, like sugars, amino acids,fatty acids, electrolytes....etc). The keys of these locks are either hormones or neurotransmitters ( the end product of a nerve impulse or signal ).



The receptors or locks on the cell membrane are arranged within the cell membrane in such a way to expose its functional part with a spacial configuration that has a geometrical design and electric affinity to specifically fit a specific ligand ( hormone or neurotransmitter). Any change in the position of the displayed functional part of a receptor (lock) may change the response of this receptor to its specific key ligand, with an attenuated, impaired or abolished response.



We cannot derive any solid conclusions from these results, because scientific facts cannot be based on speculations or conventional wisdom, there should be a design of many experiments that lead to an approved conclusion leading to a specific recommendations. It is a premature time to throw accusations on this side or that side.



For you and me as folks reading these published findings, we can think about what we have in hands now of solid facts. We should eat polyunsaturated fats to supply us the Essential Fatty Acids, and we can now think about using the saturated fats when our food should be exposed to high temperature to minimize the production of Trans-Fats.

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