Managing blood sugar is a BIG DEAL!

It’s one of the core baselines of good health.
But just what is blood sugar?
Blood sugar is basically the sugar ~ or glucose ~ in the blood. And glucose is the elemental factor of every single carbohydrate you eat.
Once the carbohydrate has worked its way through your digestive system, been reduced to a simple sugar such as glucose, and reached the bloodstream through the process of absorption, it’s taken to the liver where it’s either distributed to the cells for energy, or stored for later use.
Because of the liver’s limited storage capacity, any excess carbohydrates are converted to and stored as fat.
It’s your liver that regulates your blood sugar levels.
The more complex the carbohydrate, the slower the food moves into the bloodstream, allowing the liver to take up its sugar-load without becoming overwhelmed.
And this is what brings us to the Glycemic Quotient that you may have heard about.
The Glycemic Index is a ranking of carbohydrates according to how quickly glucose ~that simple sugar molecule ~ is absorbed into the bloodstream. (As you’ll see, slower is better.)
The Glycemic Index (GI) compares the rise in blood glucose caused by 50 grams of carbohydrates in any particular food to the rise in blood glucose caused by 50 grams of pure glucose.
As an example: pure glucose has a GI of 100 (our baseline). Here are the GI for some other foods we think of as starches:

• white bread has a GI ranging from 70 to 90
• a baked potato has a GI of 85
• a yam has a GI of 42

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According to the Glycemic Index model:

Low GI = 55 and under

Medium GI = 56 to 69

High GI = 70 and above

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Unfortunately, this ranking system was found faulty because something like carrots have a high GI, and we know they have many other health benefits.
Carrots are packed with fiber and nutrients, which slow the breakdown of the sugars in the digestive system. This allows the liver ample time to do its thing. Take away that fiber and you are indeed left with mere sugars, as in a glass of carrot juice.
In response to concerns with the GI rating system, a revised ranking system was developed to speak to how quickly sugars are absorbed physiologically ~ not just looking at the sugars in the food, but instead the sugars in relation to all of the food’s constituents, as well as the ways in which it moves through the processes of digestion.
This revised system is essentially distinguishing between the carrot and the carrot juice (both have the same sugars, but one contains fiber and the other does not).
This improved system is called the Glycemic Load (GL).
The load considers the total amount of rapidly absorbable carbohydrate (starch or sugar) as well as the GI.
Glycemic Load = GI x grams of carb per serving / 100

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According to the Glycemic Load (GL) model:

Low GL = 1 – 10

Medium GL = 11 – 19

High GL = 20 and over.

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A food like a whole grain or a carrot may have a relatively lower GL because the amount of starch or sugar in that food is mitigated internally by the fiber and nutrients that will slow its delivery into the bloodstream.
The bottom line is that if a food has a high GI but is packed with fiber it will have a lower impact on blood sugar and well-functioning insulin levels.
In the everyday regulation of health, what is it that we want?
One of my core principles is to eat fat, fiber & protein at every meal or snack to ensure the slower delivery of nutrients into the bloodstream for sustained energy and blood sugar control.
On top of that, we want to choose foods that are slower to digest. These are better assimilated into the body’s tissues. They have an inverse effect on blood glucose and corresponding inverse relationship to diabetes, heart disease, weight issues and cancer.

They also have the sweet ability to help us thwart those sweet tooth CRAVINGS!

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with bananas!
If you’re tapped into the Paleo craze, you’ve likely noticed the use of bananas in many a baked-good recipe.
Recently I decided to do a little experiment and research to determine whether the banana, previously thought of as a four-letter word (in my mind), because of its high sugar content, was all that bad.
First some facts, then some fun, then let’s peel back the nutritional facts on bananas. . .

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The Glycemic Index of a ripe banana = 52

The Glycemic Index of an unripe banana = 30

The Glycemic Load of a ripe banana = 12.4

The Glycemic Load of an unripe banana = 7.2

The Glycemic Load of raw honey = 14

The Glycemic Load of an apple = 11.4

The Glycemic Load of agave (not a fan) = 9.6

The Glycemic Load of coconut sugar = 1

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So is a banana so bad if it’s replacing a sweetener?
The only way to know is to try and see how it feels on your body.
Note: There are few instances where I’d recommend eating a banana straight up, but if combined with some protein-rich foods or flours ~ in your green smoothie or in a baked-good combined with coconut flour, garbanzo flour or nut flour ~ you may be able to put the brakes on the banana’s glycemic content enough to enable you to nix the sugar jar (alternative sugar or not!) altogether.
(By the way, I do have some other tricks up my sleeve for helping you to determine how foods affect your unique blood sugar, if you just can’t tell by listening in to your body’s cues. . . tricks that I’ll be revealing in the new You’re Not the BOSS of Me program.)
Join me for Thursday’s Q&A and let’s find some answers to your most slippery blood sugar questions.
Warmly,