Some Carbohydrates Are Better Than Others When Trying To Lose Weight

If you are trying to lose weight, maintaining a steady blood sugar level is a very important component of your dieting effort. While your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level which causes you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. While other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly leveling out you blood sugar resulting in less hunger and less food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as compared to pure glucose. Glucose has a GI of 100 and all other carbohydrate based foods are ranked against it. Foods with a score of 70 or more are defined as having a high GI while those with a score of 55 or less are considered as low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level which can lead to many health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. While eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay even thus, keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to fill fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

· Helps you to lose and manage your weight.
· Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.
· Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
· Reduces your risk of heart disease.
· Improves your blood cholesterol levels
· Reduces hunger and keep you fuller for longer.
· Helps you prolong physical activity.
· Helps you to re-fuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia. They maintain a searchable database of over 1600 entries at http://www.glycemicindex.com.

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Making Recovery a Long Term Success

Here is a great guest post by Philip Reed on recovering from sports injuries.

Regardless of you activity level- extreme or gentle- caring for your body after an injury is essential, especially for those over 40. Sports medicine professionals will all agree that though injury prevention is the number one priority, proper after care and rehabilitation can mean the difference between long term problems and long term recovery.

What most people don’t realize is that sports medicine treatment after an injury is extremely multi faceted. It can include physical therapy, nutritional direction, or orthopedic surgical options. The sole purpose of these professionals is to ensure the safe return to regular activity and the long term success of recovery.

Should you ever find yourself the unfortunate victim of an injury, perhaps even one serious enough to require treatment at a sports medicine hospital, making sure that you are supported and under the care of someone who specializes in sports injuries will be very important, particularly if you intend to return to your sport or activity of choice. A regular doctor may have a perfectly reasonable plan for recovery; however a sports medicine practitioner will be focused on far more than just the specific source of pain. Keeping the broader picture front and center gives you a far better chance of a full return to normal activity because more than just the injury are being examined and treated. When you sustain a sports injury after the age of 40, this is a very important distinction in care models. Healing time can take far longer and the injury itself can be far more severe than the same issue in a younger person so it is incredibly important to give yourself every advantage to make sure you are back to 100% as quickly as possible. Obviously, some of the onus of recovery does rest on your shoulders- making sure you are following your health care professional’s instructions with regards to exercise, medication and appropriate activity level.

So though sports medicine professionals will always insist that prevention remains the most important goal for any athlete or sports enthusiast, but that of course doesn’t help much after you’ve already hurt yourself. Your best move is to make sure the right people are looking after you and helping you to get back on your feet.

Or back to the court, or rink, or track.