It is important for an athlete to consider many factors when making the right nutrition plan. But satiety is still one of the main problems in dietetics. No matter how hard you try to cut back on your calories using yoghurts and vegetables, sooner or later, hunger overtakes everyone. And the blame is the rate of digestion of foods, which indirectly depends on such a parameter as the glycemic index.
What it is?
What is the glycemic index? There are two main definitions. One is needed for people, which determines the level of sugar in the blood (patients with diabetes mellitus), the second is suitable for athletes. They don't contradict each other, they just use different aspects of the same concept.
Officially, the glycemic index is the ratio of blood sugar breakdown products to the total weight of the product. What does it mean? That with the breakdown of this product, the blood sugar level will change, in the short term, that is, it will increase. How much sugar will increase depends on the index itself. Another aspect of the glycemic index is important for athletes - the rate of absorption of foods in the body.
Glycemic index and diabetes mellitus
Before considering in detail the glycemic index in nutrition, let's delve into the history of the issue. Actually, it was thanks to diabetes that this index and foods with a high glycemic index were identified. Until the end of the 19th century, it was believed that all carbohydrate foods caused an increase in blood sugar in diabetics. They tried to apply a keto diet to diabetics, but they found out that fats, when converted into carbohydrates, cause significant jumps in sugar levels. Doctors created complex diets based on carbohydrate rotation that helped regulate blood sugar levels. However, these meal plans were extremely ineffective and gave highly individualized results. Sometimes diametrically opposite to what was intended.
Then the doctors decided to figure out how different types of carbohydrates affect blood sugar levels. And it turned out that even the simplest carbohydrates have different effects on the rise in sugar. It was all about the "bread calories" and the rate of dissolution of the product itself.
The faster the body could break down the food, the greater the jump in sugar was observed. Based on this, over 15 years, scientists have compiled a list of products that were assigned different values for the rate of absorption. And since the numbers were individual for each person, the meaning itself became relative. Glucose (GI -100) was chosen as a standard. And regarding it, the rate of absorption of foods and the level of increase in blood sugar were considered. Today, thanks to these advances, many type 1 and 2 diabetics can significantly expand their diets by using foods with a low glycemic index.
Note: The glycemic index has a relative structure, not only because the digestion time is different for all people, but also because the difference between the jump in sugar / insulin in a healthy person and a person with diabetes is significantly different. But at the same time, the overall ratio of time to sugar remains approximately the same.
Now let's look at how foods with a high glycemic index affect metabolic processes in the body.
- Any product (regardless of the GI level) enters the digestive tract. After that, under the influence of digestive enzymes, any carbohydrate is broken down into glucose.
- Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream, thereby increasing blood sugar levels... Sugar in the blood leads to thickening of the blood and complication of the transport function of oxygen through the veins and arteries. To prevent this, the pancreas begins to secrete insulin.
- Insulin is a transport hormone. Its main task is to open cells in the body. When he “perforates” the cells, sweet blood saturates the cells closed for normal nutrition. For example, muscle fibers, glycogen and fat depots. Sugar, due to its structure, remains in the cell and is oxidized with the release of energy. Further, depending on the place, the energy is metabolized into the product necessary for the body.
So, the higher the glycemic index of the product, the “sweeter” the blood becomes in the short term. This in turn affects the level of insulin secretion. Further three scenarios are possible:
- The body copes with the increased amount of sugar, insulin transports energy through the cells. Further, due to the sharp surges, high insulin levels lead to the disappearance of satiety. As a result, the person is hungry again.
- The body copes with the increased amount of sugar, but the level of insulin is no longer sufficient for complete transport. As a result, a person has poor health, a "sugar hangover", a slowdown in metabolism, a decrease in working capacity - increased drowsiness.
- Insulin levels are not enough to process the sugar surge. As a result, you feel very unwell - diabetes is possible.
For foods with a low glycemic index, things are somewhat simpler. Sugar enters the bloodstream not spasmodically, but evenly and in small dosages. For this reason, the pancreas works normally, constantly releasing insulin until it is completely dissolved.
As a result - increased efficiency (cells remain open all the time), prolonged satiety, low glycemic load on the pancreas. And also the prevalence of anabolic processes over catabolic - the body is in a state of extreme satiety, because of which it does not see the point of destroying cells (link catabolism).
Glycemic index of foods (table)
To create an adequate nutrition plan that will allow you to successfully gain muscle mass without feeling hungry and at the same time not swimming in excess fat, it is better to use the table of the glycemic index of foods:
| Carbohydrate product | Glycemic index | Protein product | Glycemic index | Fatty product | Glycemic index | Ready dish | Glycemic index |
| Glucose | 100 | Chicken fillet | 10 | Fat | 12 | Fried potatoes | 71 |
| Sugar | 98 | Beef fillet | 12 | Sunflower oil | 0 | Cakes | 85-100 |
| Fructose | 36 | Soy products | 48 | Olive oil | 0 | Jellied | 26 |
| Maltodextrin | 145 | Carp | 7 | Linseed oil | 0 | Jelly | 26 |
| Syrup | 135 | Perch | 10 | Fat meat | 15-25 | Olivier salad | 25-35 |
| Dates | 55 | Pork side | 12 | Fried foods | 65 | Alcoholic drinks | 85-95 |
| Fruit | 30-70 | Egg white | 6 | Omega 3 fats | 0 | Fruit salads | 70 |
| Oat groats | 48 | Egg | 17 | Omega 6 fats | 0 | Vegetable salads | 3 |
| Rice | 56 | Goose egg | 23 | Omega 9 fats | 0 | Fried meat | 12 |
| Brown rice | 38 | Milk | 72 | Palm oil | 68 | Baked potato | 3 |
| Round rice | 70 | Kefir | 45 | Trans fats | 49 | Cottage cheese casserole | 59 |
| White bread | 85 | Yogurt | 45 | Rancid fat | 65 | Pancakes | 82 |
| Wheat | 74 | Mushrooms | 32 | Peanut butter | 18 | Pancakes | 67 |
| Buckwheat grain | 42 | Cottage cheese | 64 | Peanut butter | 20 | Jam | 78 |
| Wheat groats | 87 | Serum | 32 | Butter | 45 | Rolled vegetables | 1,2 |
| Flour | 92 | Turkey | 18 | Spread | 35 | Pork shashlik | 27 |
| Starch | 45 | Chicken legs | 20 | margarine | 32 | Pilaf | 45 |
Dishes with a low glycemic index can only be prepared with ingredients with a low glycemic index. In addition, thermal processing of fats and carbohydrates increases the blood sugar rate, which inevitably increases the index.
Is it possible to determine the glycemic index without tables?
Unfortunately, a table with products and their units of bread is not always at hand. The question remains - is it possible to independently determine the level of the glycemic index of a particular dish. Unfortunately, this cannot be done. At one time, scientists and chemists worked for almost 15 years to compile an approximate table of the glycemic index of various foods. The classical system involved taking blood tests 2 times after taking a certain amount of carbohydrates from a particular product. But this does not mean that you should always have a table of the glycemic index of food with you. You can make some rough calculations.
First of all, it is necessary to determine the presence of sugar in the product. If the product contains more than 30% sugar, then the glycemic index will be at least 30. If there are other carbohydrates besides sugar, it is better to define the GI as pure sugar. If sweeteners are used in the product, then either fructose (the only natural analogue of glucose) or the simplest carbohydrate is taken as the basis.
In addition, you can determine the relative level of GI by the following factors:
- The complexity of the carbohydrates included in the product. The more complex the carbohydrates, the lower the GI. The relationship is not always accurate, but it allows you to identify foods with a high GI and avoid eating them.
- The presence of milk in the composition. Milk contains "milk sugar", which increases the GI of any product by an average of 15-20%.
The relative GI can be determined experimentally. To do this, it is enough to find out how long it takes to get a strong feeling of hunger after the last meal. The later the hunger sets in, the less and more evenly insulin was released, and hence the lower the GI level of the combined meal. So, for example, if you feel severe hunger within 30-40 minutes after eating, then the relative GI of the products included in the consumed dish is quite high.
Note: This is about consuming the same amount of calories while covering the complete deficit. As you know, the human body feels comfortable if the calorie intake of food is in the range of 600-800 kcal.
It is important to understand that this method of determining the glycemic index in foods is relevant only for athletes who are not on the drying stage. People suffering from diabetes mellitus or being on a hard carbohydrate drying, it is better to use the tables after all so as not to expose your body to unnecessary risk.
Outcome
So what role do high glycemic index foods play for the athlete? This is a way to speed up the metabolism, eat more, but there is always the risk of overloading the pancreas.
The consumption of foods with a high glycemic index is justified only for ectomorphs during the period of winter weight gain. In other cases, surges in sugar are likely to negatively affect not only health, but also performance and mood.
As for foods with a low glycemic index, their digestion carries a large glycemic load, instead feeding the body more nutrients.
