The Hemp Connection:
glycemic load

The Mediterranean Diet is healthy, it’s true, but it’s not the only healthy way to eat. It just happens to be one that is heavily researched… and therefore marketed by the commodity boards representing foods that grow well in the Mediterranean. It so happens that California, the world’s eighth largest economy, and Chile, a country with a large agricultural tradition, have climates similar to the Mediterranean. Both economies depend on our love of the Mediterranean diet to thrive, and they therefore are a big part of the reason why so much research money has been invested into this way of eating.
I love the Mediterranean diet myself, but I sure don’t want anyone out there from other cultures abandoning their way of eating because it’s Northern European… or African… or Tasmanian. Mother Nature doesn’t play favorites—she makes sure she takes care of her Eskimos just as she nurtures her Italians. I thought it would be fun to survey varieties of cuisines around the world so that no matter what your origin, there’s something out there that is good for you.

I’ll start with German food, which is part of my personal heritage and what I was enjoying for lunch today. I made a salad with vegetables that likely would show up on a German summer salad, including two different types of radishes.

We got rutabagas and potatoes in our box this week, and I made the rutabaga-potato salad recipe our chef created. I had some lowfat chicken-apple bratwurst in the freezer, so thawed and cooked them up to have ready for the rest of the week’s lunches.

And… for dessert, I had some plain yogurt that I ground some Trader Joe’s coffee/chocolate/sugar mix on top of.
Let’s break that down for closer inspection.
Salad My salad had two different kinds of radishes, carrots, onions, celery, and a variety of lettuces. I sprinkled some German dill salad mix on top, then added apple cider vinegar and canola oil before tossing. Radishes: Great for cancer prevention. See my colleague Dr. Chris Wharton’s article on why radishes are so nutritious for more information. That beautiful red color? Comes from antioxidants similar to the ones blueberries get all the credit for. Onions: Very important to German cooking. And they are part of the __________family of vegetables, famous for __________________________-- Lettuce: I mixed several varieties to get more red color, again, to get more antioxidants.
Bratwurst The traditional version is a little bit fatty, but these days there are so many varieties chicken, turkey, and low-fat sausage, it’s easy to make a high-protein, low fat choice. This lunch, I had the green apple/cinnamon chicken variety from Fresh and Easy. Each link only had 110 calories.
Potatoes Potatoes? Yes, potatoes! How many of you stay away from them because you’ve been told they are high glycemic? Well, they are, if you don’t eat them wisely, such as eating them, super-sized, as French fries dripping in pro-inflammatory omega-6 oil.
The poor potato in this situation is not the culprit here, it’s the messenger. If you eat a small baked potato in a balanced meal, you’re doing ok. The potato salad I made has two benefits. Baked and then cooled potatoes contain resistant starch, a form of carbohydrate that is not immediately absorbed into your bloodstream. It passes into your large intestine where it ferments and becomes food for healthy bacteria (food that feeds those bacteria is also called prebiotic). Secondly, the dressing for this salad was vinegar. And as you’ve heard here many times before, vinegar helps to keep your blood sugar stable after meals, potentially as well as metformin. So a little bit of potato salad, without the mayo, holds potential to be PCOS-friendly.
Vinegar One of the strong points of the German diet is the vinegar. In addition to the salad, it’s used in pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, and sauerbraten. If it's sour, it's likely ok to eat!
Cheese Though I didn’t have any with this meal, cheese is something Germans love! A common breakfast is a piece of thinly sliced cheese on a slice of whole kernel rye bread, topped with a tomato. Cheese, remember, in moderation, has been found to be associated with increased fertility. The reason it works in the German diet is because, unlike Americans, Germans don’t shred, smother, and melt it on anything and everything they eat. It’s eaten in small portions and used to accent the rest of the food on the plate.
Berries Germany is pretty far north, meaning in the summer it is a fruit basket of flavor. Currants, strawberries, cherries, apples, peaches, grapes… you name it, someone is growing it. Mit sahne (with cream) is a popular way to serve fruit, and if it’s real cream and it’s minimally sweetened, it’s wonderful treat!
I have to tell you, the German meal I described above left me feeling so full and satisfied I wasn’t hungry until long after sundown. It really reinforced for me the power of eating balanced. Talk to people of German heritage, and they’ll often tell you about a grandparent or great-grandparent who lived, relatively disease-free, into their 90’s. They certainly didn’t get there on 800 calorie diets… perhaps we should be taking this diet a little more seriously instead of discounting it because of its potatoes.

“Gretchen, oh Gretchen! It’s Halloween, come on, I’m so tiny, just eat me. You deserve a treat. I’m only here once a year.” Sound familiar when you substitute your own name?

A few M&Ms, an itty-bitty Butterfinger, those adorable little packets of candy corn, or whatever form of cheap sugar it is that you favor are probably calling your name – LOUDLY – right about now. If you haven’t already succumbed repeatedly to the bowls scattered throughout many offices, or sneaking some out of the stash you intend to distribute tonight, or if you didn’t full-on snag an entire bag of your favorites for yourself, which is even now lurking in your desk drawer. I know the drill. You’ve got that guilty laugh, don’t you?

It’s darn near impossible to be perfect around the issue of refined sugar. It’s in everything from the obvious baked goods and candy to the less obvious prepared salad dressings and sauces – even a Chinese stir-fry or some other meat dishes. Many of us set abstinence from sugars as a goal, and/or adhering to a low-glycemic diet. This is a great idea generally speaking. But we’re entering the time of year when treats abound (I’d say treat season pretty well spans Halloween through Valentine’s Day, which is a long time to be totally out of control), and it’s time to get a grip on yourself, and implement a strategy that works. Here are some of my favorite self-protection strategies:

• Don’t buy the stuff – DUH!? If you don’t have it in your house, you can’t eat it. Or at least you’d have to go make a special trip to buy it, which gives you enough time to re-think that idea. Refusal to participate in self-destruction is empowering.

• If you must buy it, buy something you don’t like – personally, there’s no way on earth I’m going to eat gumballs, Twizzlers, or Skittles. If that’s what I’m handing out, it’s ALL leaving the house. Saved!

• Turn down offers quickly – when you’re standing at the receptionist’s counter staring at that giant bowl of toxic sugar, and she pushes some on you like a perfect hostess, quickly excuse yourself by saying you’re diabetic, you’re allergic to chocolate, or whatever else you need to say. This is one occasion where you should feel free to lie. It’s highly likely the embarrassment and potential questioning (“Um, I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but didn’t you say you were diabetic?!) will prevent you from sticking your hand in that very public bowl.

• Buy yourself a real treat – if I’m going to do chocolate, I want it to be European, very dark, very smooth, and preferably kind of expensive. That doesn’t sound like any of the usual Halloween treats, does it? Better yet, buy yourself a non-food item as a reward for your good behavior. Make your calories and your glycemic bumps meaningful, for cryin’ out loud!

I’m all for self-indulgence, but I believe it is best practiced with thoughtfulness and, frankly, dedication. We should PLAN for indulgence, actually. It shouldn’t be random, stupid, or designed to give you a sugar rush followed by a sugar crash, wildly fluctuating insulin levels, and a bad mood (because yes, the sugar crash causes headaches, stomach aches, insomnia, and contributes to anxiety and depression).

In the world of PCOS, you need to make smart choices. I don’t think choosing cheap Halloween candy is a good choice for your mind or your body because it doesn’t make you feel better, bottom line, and I’m all about feeling better, not throwing things out of balance.

Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at Gretchen@drhousemd.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.

It's that time of year when it just doesn't help things to use the stove or oven. Anything cool--keeps your body temperature down, and keeps your kitchen from heating up the house.

That is why, in my home, this is gazpacho time of year. Traditional gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup. Have you tried any of the fruitier varieties? Here are some great fruity gazpacho recipes from around the Internet just waiting to be tried!

Blueberry gazpacho (pictured here)
Mango gazpacho
Watermelon gazpacho
White gazpacho (with grapes)
Peach gazpacho
Pineapple gazpacho

These recipes are not very high in protein, so be sure to add a cold bean, lowfat cheese, or bean salad to help temper the glycemic load. Also, instead of topping with sour cream, try plain Greek yogurt.

Hope this helps you to stay deliciously cool!

Many of you are following the Low GI (Glycemic Index) diet, which sorts food based on their potential to raise blood glucose. The approach I hear many on this diet use, is very black and white; in other words, if a food has a high GI, it's not to be eaten. Unfortunately, this may be overly restrictive and not entirely reflective of how food acts in the body. The glycemic load of a food is far more important.

Glycemic index for a given food is calculated when a food is eaten all alone, without any other foods. We simply do not eat that way. We eat foods in combinations, and what really matters is how the combinations of foods affect our metabolism.

The glycemic load of a food takes into account the amount of a food consumed as well as the amount of glycemic sugars (net carbs) it contains. Nutritiondata.com has a nice explanation of the concept, and for each food in its database, the glycemic load is provided.

A really good example of the importance of looking at the whole food is to look at the glycemic loads for 4 ounces of fat free ice cream vs. 4 ounces of regular ice cream. Four ounces of fat-free vanilla ice cream, the option many people would think would be best…has a glycemic load of 16, and four ounces of regular vanilla ice cream has a glycemic load of 8. That is because the fat in the regular ice cream helps to slow down the rate at which the sugar in the ice cream is absorbed into the bloodstream.

If you were to assume that because the regular vanilla ice cream was a better choice, however, and overindulge, it would only take a double serving to erase the difference.

Bottom line:
--Variety in food choices is as important to your overall blood glucose as is types of foods
--Too much of any food will eventually affect your blood glucose…there is no such thing as healthy bingeing or low glycemic food comas!
--When you eat a food with a high"glycemic index", eat a small amount in conjunction with foods that make it harder to have an immediate opportunity to raise your blood sugar.
--I have also found that"high glycemic" foods are best tolerated if eaten earlier in the day, so they have a better opportunity to be used in conjunction with your physical activity, rather than late in the day, when you're just not burning as many calories.

Nutritiondata.com recommends that glycemic load for a day be kept below 100. I would add to that, that the more the total can be spread across the day, the better.