In Search of Low Cal, Low or No-Carb Snacks for Nighttime Snacking - Part One

David Mendosa’s Glycemic Index table is a veritable goldmine of information for anyone with impaired glucose tolerance, as well as for those who want to cut down their carbohydrate intake to lose weight or fight cell aging.

Yes, you read that right. Carbohydrates may accelerate aging. There is a theory that sugar and other high glycemic carbs which rapidly convert to sugar trigger a release of insulin to control the level of sugar in the bloodstream. Excess sugar in the bloodstream is inflammatory and causes a cascade of free radical damage.

To explain how dangerous this is, Dr. Nicholas Perricone points out that diabetics with poorly controlled blood sugar age one third faster than non-diabetics and are prone to kidney failure, blindness, heart attack and stroke.

So insulin comes to the rescue to clear the excess sugar from the bloodstream. And what do you suppose the insulin does with all this sugar? It stores it as fat.

And worse yet, until the insulin sweeps up the excess sugar, it runs rampant throughout the body causing glycation and cross-linking of the body’s collagen, i.e., accelerated cell aging.

David Mendosa calls a Glycemic Index of 55 or less and a Glycemic Load of 10 or less “low”, so I searched through his table for such foods. As I did so, I realized his table only addresses carbohydrate-containing foods.

Read more about low glycemic snacks.

Tags: low-carb eating, glucose and cell aging, Nicolas Perricone theory, diet tips, nighttime noshing, David Mendosa website, Glycemic Index, weight creep, Glycemic Load