Would you like to know how to eat carbohydrates safely and how to lower the glycemic index of the foods you love?
If you'd like to continue eating bread, potatoes, or other starches (and who doesn't?!), then there are a few tricks to help you lower the glycemic index of these favorites.
Why Lower the Glycemic Index?
If you lower the rate at which the sugars in your food hit your bloodstream (this is called their “glycemic index”) and control the sharp blood sugar spikes they can cause, you are also minimizing the problems this can lead to, such as weight gain, nerve damage, stroke and cancer. Simple as that. 
The Perfect Health Diet
These tips come from a book that I've learned a ton from, The Perfect Health Diet. While my conclusions differ from theirs some (and mine have evolved over the years quite a bit, too), mostly I agree with their recommendations.
Their “perfect” diet includes “safe starches” like potatoes, berries, and rice, but recommend avoiding things like grains and vegetable oils. (There's a lot more in the book, including their complete what-to-eat and what-to-avoid list, I'm only hitting on parts of it today.)
Of course I'm totally locked in with avoiding vegetable oils, those are disgusting and make me sick, too (literally). Read more about healthy fats here.
But when it comes to the grains, I do believe that properly preparing them can make them much safer to consume. Others will flat out need to avoid grains if they have a compromised immune system or a gut that can't handle them, but we're all different. At our house, most of the grains we eat are fermented, soaked, or sprouted, but not all. Sometimes I'll use white einkorn flour since it's such an old, traditional grain. However, any grains around here are all eaten with plenty of healthy fats, and you'll read more about why that's so good below…
From the book…
How to avoid hyperglycemic toxicity:
You might think that the answer is to consume very few carbs. But this would be naive!
It turns out that on low-carb diets, much of the body becomes insulin resistant – meaning that it doesn't respond to insulin signals and so doesn't take in glucose after meals. This happens so that glucose will be directed to the liver, where it can be stored in glycogen and released later for use by the brain.
This “physiological insulin resistance” is a protective response of the body that assures that the brain gets the benefit of a limited supply of glucose. But it has a paradoxical effect: because the rest of the body is refusing to take up glucose and the liver takes it up slowly, a meal of carbohydrates is followed by higher postprandial (after-meal) blood glucose levels in low-carb dieters than in high-carb dieters. (But later the book also says how unnatural and dangerous high-carb diets are…)
In short, low-carb dieting can increase the risk of postprandial hyperglycemia.
My takeaway from that little blurb:
THIS must be why it seems that any attempt at very low-carb dieting I've done in the past few years (to ‘lose a few pounds that have crept on') has led to gaining that AND a little bit more back on when I eat normally again!
Anyone else experience this after low-carbing?
So as a side-note, lately I keep my weight more stable by not doing extreme low-carb and instead lowering grain consumption (and especially limiting sweets!) when the scales misbehave. I'll still eat the ‘safe starches' they talk about in the book, along with a small amount of properly prepared grains, and also avoid conventional wheat for the most part. (I prefer spelt or einkorn these days. Click those links for where to buy. Also, have you seen this post on wheat sensitivities and alternative grains?)
The best strategy for glycemic control
Some of these may be new to you and some you may have practiced for years…
The trick is to prepare the starch properly and to eat it as part of a meal, in combination with other foods. Here are some ways to reduce the GI of starchy foods:
- Cook them gently. When starches are cooked in boiling water (as with home-cooked rice or boiled potatoes), their GI is fairly low, around 50-60: but when they are roasted at high temperatures, their GI often approaches 100.
- Avoid industrially prepared foods. To speed foods through factories, industrial foods are often processed at very high temperatures, raising their glycemic index. Commercial puffed rice or instant rice has a GI almost double that of home-cooked rice.
- Eat starches with fat. (This is my favorite one to implement!) Fat greatly slows down the speed at which starches are digested, substantially reducing the peak blood glucose following a meal. Dairy products – milk, butter, and sour cream – are especially helpful. Put some butter on your potato! (Especially butter or ghee from cows on pasture!)
- Eat starches with vegetables. Including fiber in a meal significantly reduces the GI of accompanying starch. Vegetables are the natural way to add fiber to a meal.
- Eat starches with acids, especially vinegar. Vinegar, pickle juice, and many other acids reduce the GI of starches. (This makes me very happy since I sooooo enjoy my salads before meals with balsamic vinegar like this one or dressings made with citrus like this one! Or even a good pickle on a bun with a burger or sloppy joes!)
The effect of all these measures is to lower the GI of starchy foods by more than 50%. If starchy foods are gently cooked and eaten as part of a meal that includes vegetables, fat, and an acidic sauce, even diabetics can expect a low risk of postprandial hyperglycemia.
Isn't that great news?!
- Click here to get The Perfect Health Diet.
- Also read this related article: This Cooking Trick May Cut Rice Calories in Half
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Low carb will increase insulin sensitivity NOT insulin resistance! Insulin triggers the uptake of glucose by the cells. If you constantly hit your body with carbs (high carb diet) then the production of insulin or response to it dulls after a while, think of the body getting bored ie resistant. With low carb the less frequent sugar spikes makes the cells more sensitive and alert to insulin making them better at taking up glucose.
Glucose not taken up the cells (ie in a resistant system) will eventually be grabbed by the liver and converted to fat due to the apparent lack of need by the cells.
This is correct to what my Doctor says.
Julie Stinnett… good article!
Can how you cook rice also affect the gi ?? Currently only use a rice cooker but open to ANY and ALL options to a lower gi rice thank you in advance?
I’m not sure Niccii, but we love this rice sometimes (https://amzn.to/1OYZGr4) and I’m guessing the GI would be lower because it’s sprouted and so it’s closer to a plant than a grain.
Kelly
Thanks for this, Kelly! Awesome info 🙂
Me too! I’ve been putting it in ever since! 🙂
This all makes sense, and I generally follow these guidelines already. However, as someone with prediabetes it is not entirely effective, you still have to limit carbs!!!
I’m currently on the Candida diet… No sugars or grains, or starches, or anything else I like :(… But weirdly, I have gained weight!!! This must be why. Grrr…. Why are some starches considered “safe”? Like rice? Because the GI can be lowered?
You’ve probably gained some weight because your body is absorbing nutrients more effectively. Focus on more nutrient dense foods. A high fat, moderate protein, low carb PERMANENT dietary change will work wonders in your case.
Get the cheesecake recipe from dr. Davis’s book, “wheat belly”. Uses stevia and almond flour
Ironically the way to blunt the impact of carbohydrates is by eating fructose. Fructose blunts the insulin response believe it or not.
Just put the word paleo in front if whatever he wants to make. Watch for too much sugar though.
I love this coconut pumpkin custard: https://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2009/10/28/recipe-coconut-pumpkin-custard. Panna cottas are also a great option, or simple baked vanilla custards. All made with raw honey!
Organic Brown Rice syrup can be used to replaced corn syrup in pecan pie – cuts glycemic index significantly – although I would cut the brown sugar in half next time, it was too sweet w/ 1/2 c. https://weelicious.com/2011/11/16/pecan-pie/
You can often cut the sugars in a recipe. You can use natural substitutions sometimes. I’m thinking grandpa is not a young man and splurging on a holiday dessert may be a bigger blessing than overdoing the healthful aspect. So, make it a bit better but make it wonderful. Food is one of the few pleasures in life sometimes.
I find that the sugar in most sweet recipes can be cut by 1/3 to 1/2 without affecting how the recipe turns out. Also, recipes in cookbooks written before the end of WWII tend to have a lot less sugar. It was expensive back then, and people weren’t yet acclimated to everything being overly sweet.
This was also good – I think I used truvia for the sweetener? https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/11/low-carb-gluten-free-pumpkin-crepe-cake-2.html
Japanese Cheesecake! No weird ingredients, 6g of carb for 1/12th the cheesecake, which is a damn good deal. We made this for my son’s first birthday and for Thanksgiving – always a hit, so light and delicious… https://www.thecookbookchronicles.com/blog/?p=3906
Choosing desserts higher in fat and protein will help moderate any spike in blood sugar. Consider full-fat organic dairy based desserts (mouses, pudding, cheesecake,) or or use coconut oil or butter as a main ingredient (like with fudges, barks, caramels, pie crusts, or baked goods).
Here it is
https://veganyackattack.com/2012/01/04/raw-chocolate-mousse-pie-with-chocolate-drizzle/
There is an excellent recipe for raw choc mouse tart, made with nuts for the crust, and avocado and raw cacao filling it was so good and healthy!!!
It’s Christmas. Fix him something sweet, and worry about it later
Here’s a list: https://lowcarboneday.com/recipe_index/dessert
Ask him what is his favorite sweet treat. Then adjust it to less carbs.
After reading PhD, I replaced our pepper shaker (salt and pepper were in a little basket my high school son gave me with chocolates 20 years ago) with a cruet of apple cider vinegar. We add it to starchy foods because it tastes good and is good for us. In fish and chips shops in England they always have malt vinegar for the chips.
Some times I add quinoa to the rice thinking the fiber will slow down the GI, good or bad?
I love quinoa and do have it once in a while.
Here’s what Paul from Perfect Health Diet says about it:
https://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/09/the-oldest-profession-quinoa-millet-and-emmer-and-einkorn-wheat/
Kelly
Oh and see the first comment for good info from Chris Kresser, too. 🙂
Okay question, so I like to cook rice by first frying it in coconut oil at around 6 on my stove, it’s an electric, so med high heat. In a separate pot I heat up water just under boiling and add it to the rice. Do you think this is a safe way of cooking rice or is there more healthy way that also tastes good?
Mmmmm, I’m going to try that. Anytime you can get more coconut oil into your diet it’s a good thing. 🙂
Here’s my post with more info: https://kellythekitchenkop.com/2012/08/virgin-coconut-oil-what-it-is-and-why-i-love-it.html
Kelly
I recall Sally Fallon Merell recommending to put enough butter on your bread so that you can see your teeth marks in the butter after taking a bite of bread.
Another reason to love Sally!
Great article. I agree about the grains too…. But everyone is different.
I remember hearing Dr. Oz talk about putting red wine vinegar in the spaghetti sauce for this reason.