According to the author of Ten Years Thinner, the glycemic index was developed 26 years ago, in 1981, by a team of scientists at the University of Toronto, led by a Dr. David Jenkins. The glycemic index of food is a scaled, numeric representation of the insulin response elicited by a particular food item.
Insulin, produced and secreted by the pancreas, is the hormone that removes glucose from the bloodstream.
Glucose is the only “monosaccharide” that our tissues can utilize directly. Fructose (found mainly in fruit) and galactose (found mainly in dairy products) must be converted into glucose first, before they can be used.
This conversion takes place in the liver. Because of this conversion, it takes longer for fruit and dairy products enter the bloodstream gradually. However, foods that break down into glucose - breads, pasta, cereal, corn, rice and potatoes - enter the bloodstream quickly, and produce an insulin “spike.”
Because an insuin spike is bad for you…so are those foods! You don’t need to cut them out together…just cut back.
