Nutrition Space

"I'm wonderng if rice wafers are ok to eat as a snack as I see on the glycemic index that they're actually quite high on the index. If I only have 2 will that raise my blood sugar levels?"

Yes rice cakes do sit quite high on the Glycemic Index, with low-amylose versions being higher still. Amylose is quite a resistant starch which doesn't raise blood glucose as fast. The reason why some rice cakes wouldn't have much of it, is due to the processing and the type of rice used. But don't panic about this too much, because it's not all doom and gloom for the humble rice cake.

The Glycemic Index is a scale which rates the speed at which a carbohydrate containing food raises blood glucose levels. Foods are typically rated against white bread which has a GI of 100, this allows an easy reference for people. In this case, glucose would therefore be rated with a GI of 140. It's more practical for us to assess against white bread - if we assessed against glucose having an index of 100, then white bread may not look as bad to some people. Theoretically though, the GI is rated against glucose (GI=100)

Rice cakes have an approximate GI of 61 for high amylose to close to 99 for low amylose.

But wait, we really need to look at the Glycemic Load.

Glycemic Load measures the total effect that our portion of our carbohydrate meal will have. Glycemic Load is calculated by taking the total carbohydrate grams of our portion and multiplying it by the GI and dividing by 100.

So let's take 1 rice cake - approx 5g of carb with a hypothetical GI of 99. 99x5/100=4.95. So the Glycemic Load of 1 rice cake is 4.95, which is pretty low, even though the GI is high. Your 2 rice cakes will give you a GL of 9.9, which is still fairly low. Eat 10 rice cakes and that GL races up to 49.5, which is great if you need some quick energy in the case of hypoglycaemia or endurance events. Fat loss, not so much. Even a low GI food can be turned into a high GL food...so watch your portions.

There are a few things that will lower the GI of a food; fat, protein and fibre are the ones you can control (processing, types of products used etc are reasons why one brand of rice cake can be different from another). If you ever find a chocolate cake that says low GI, don't get excited, it's lowered its GI probably by including copious amounts of fat and can also be influenced by other additives, types of flour etc. This DOES NOT make cake...any cake a health food.

Adding a lean protein like tuna or cottage cheese or a healthy fat like avocado to your rice cakes will help lower the GI. It will still have the same GL, but the load won't enter your blood stream as rapidly, meaning that you'll feel more satiated for longer, and those hard working fat burning hormones have a fighting chance to do their thing without battling against insulin.

Short answer, 2 rice cakes will be fine, always top it with healthy food and try to buy wholegrain rice cakes. And if all round health is your M.O. leave the flavoured ones on the shelf.

Stacey
4 Nov 10

What am I supposed to eat before my morning cardio? some people say nothing as its better fat burning. Some say just have a coffee as that helps fat burning. If I eat, what can I eat? Can you help.

There is such varied opinion and research on this topic that it is a hard one to answer. So let's look at a few of the theories.

Eat a very small something before working out: This one is supported by one well known nutritionist that I know of, the reason behind this is to pretty much wake the body up and tell it that it's time to start using energy. And this small something was literally a very small something, this nutritionist mentioned even something as small as a strawberry with a tablespoon of yoghurt. Some research has also suggested that men do well having something to eat before training.

Eat what you prefer to burn before working out: Research popped up earlier this year saying that if you start the day with the fuel you prefer to burn then you will burn it preferentially for the day. So that means if you want to burn carbs, then eat a higher carb breakfast, or if you want to burn fat - go for the protein/fat option. You'll find many people will just have a small protein shake in water before training - this doesn't have such a huge spike on insulin, but can provide a little extra energy to work harder.

Eat nothing before working out: This is based on the theory that glycogen is depleted therefore the body has to derive it's energy straight from body fat. However, it takes a couple of days of starvation to fully deplete glycogen, unless of course your diet really is tight enough that you are just eating enough to refill glycogen and then deplete it during the day. A large body of research shows this is an effective way to burn fat in the morning. Me personally...I just don't have time to wait an hour for food to digest before cardio, so I go empty stomach, and if that's helping my fat burning...great! Eating nothing seems to be the most popular choice

But a word of caution - if you are susceptible to hypoglycaemia, I recommend you either do your cardio later in the day when you are fuelled up, or try a small amount of straight glucose before cardio (like a barley sugar)

Have a coffee before working out: This has a couple of benefits. Drinking coffee assists in releasing free fatty acids into the blood stream for oxidisation. Secondly, it raises adrenalin which also helps with fat burning, but also gives us a kick that can make us work harder and burn more calories. However, drinking coffee on an empty stomach for an adrenalin burst can fatigue the adrenal glands and over time can result in adrenal fatigue (particularly if you are also a stressed person). Adrenal fatigue isn't pretty. I used to do the coffee before cardio thing...but decided my long term energy levels were a bit more important. By the way, energy drinks and coffees loaded with sugar don't come into this category, you will spend your whole workout burning off the sugar.

And of course, don't forget about the good ol' daily deficit. If you are still eating more calories than you expend, or if the calories you are eating aren't clean then you are negating the whole effect of those early mornings.

Stacey
28 Oct 10

Will rice wafers increase my blood sugar eventhough they're high GI?

What am I suppose to eat before morning cardio?

More Articles...

Go on facebook!