Glycemic index of foods

Grains:
      The researchers found that the GI of wheat, maize, and oats increased from whole grains (lowest GI), cracked grains, coarse flour, to fine flour (highest GI). Pleasant surprise is pearled barley, which has a glycemic index of 36. Hulless barley -- particularly the non-waxy variety -- almost certainly has an even lower glycemic index than pearled barley, because pearling removes some of the fiber.

        In fact just eating one type of grain eating a variety of grains helps diabetes to be completely under control. Rice, wheat, barley, oats, quinoa, buckwheat, kamut, Ragi, maize, and millet are grains which one can eat in different forms. They can be eaten as such steaming or boiling (rice, barley) and mixing them with vegetables. They could be used like flakes (rice, oats, barley) or puffed form (rice, ragi, millet and corn) or they could be ground to flour and eaten like porridge (millet, ragi, buckwheat, kamut) or they could be used like tortillas (corn, wheat) etc. It’s important that all the grains food be whole and not processed to keep the fiber in them.

Which grains the best.

All grains are good

Which rice to eat?

Brown rice has a lower glycemic index than white rice, everything else being equal. Therefore brown long-grain rice or if you can eat brown Basmati rice, which will probably be your best for  rice eaters.

      Identify your chief carbohydrate source and make sure that source is unrefined. For examples for many Indians the main source of carbohydrate is rice, so switch to unpolished brown rice. Even for idli (fermented rice cakes) and dosai (rice pan cakes) use the brown rice. For those who use wheat based products use whole-wheat flour (brown in color). Those who use pasta, bread, tortillas etc should use whole, unrefined flour instead of refined one. Stone ground flours have more fiber content than the whole flours.

   Instead of eating one type of grain eat different grains to meet your carbohydrate needs. Eat them in soaked and fermented form. This is the health secret of all ancient cultures |(see Earth Therapy page and Sakthi Kitchen pages for more information).

Soaking brown rice (infact any grain or beans or legumes) is shown by research New Research  to significantly reducing the nerve and vascular damage that often result from diabetes

Vegetables:

All vegetables steamed and spiced to suit one's taste is the best way to eat. Whatever could be eaten raw is also the best from, either in salads or in juice forms.

Fruits

Fruits may have easily digested form of sugars but they provide other valuable nutrition the body needs. Hence it’s good to eat fruits but take care of eating your main source of carbohydrates the grains.

Legumes

All beans and legumes are good. A more pleasant surprise is the very low glycemic index of a tasty bean called channa dal (chick peas or Garbanzo). This is also called split chickpeas or split garbanzo. Kidney beans, pinto beans, blue beans and several others are rich in fiber and other nutrients and so good for diabetics.

     Please Click here  to read here about different types of beans, grains, vegetables that are good for general health and also specifically for diabetics. You will also find some model recipes which you can modify to suit your needs.

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