Recently my doctor told me to eat a low glycemic diet. I've tried to eat healthy food for years and it amazes me how much there is to continue to learn. I'm vegetarian - mostly vegan - and don't eat dairy or wheat. There are so many food philosophies - local food, raw food, organic food - and now I was supposed to also attend the the glycemic load in food. How much more can I limit my diet, I asked myself? I thought the glycemic thing was just too much. However, the interesting thing is that I feel better, I love what I eat, and I've lost about 10 lbs.! I really didn't realize that starchy foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and bananas have a high glycemic load so even if they are organic and good for you they can impact your blood sugar levels. Yummy low glycemic foods are: broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, salad greens, celery, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, spinach, peas, berries, peaches, apples, cherries, pears, kiwi, plums, mango, pineapple, pinto beans, lima beans, kidney beans, and almost all nuts except cashews which are fairly high. For the first couple of weeks I didn't eat any grains because they have a pretty high glycemic load, but now I eat millet, quinoa, rice and buckwheat fairly regularly. I cut way back on using honey in my tea and now drink mainly green tea with nothing else in it. I've gone from drinking coffee lattes every day, to drinking chai tea with lost of milk and sugar, to green tea with lots of honey, to plain green tea. As much as I love my coffee and chai, I feel so much better when I just drink the green tea. If I want to splurge once in awhile I'll make some chai or - rarely - some expresso, but I really love the green tea the most now! A great resource to find out the glycemic load of various foods is: nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables
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