Glycemic Index Basmati

The Glycemic Index Basmati and other grains is generally quite good, especially when compared to short grain white rice, or taco shells....:

To remind you of the value ranges for the GI:

Glycemic Index of Rice and Grains

Buckwheat 54
Bulgur 48
Basmati Rice 58
Brown Rice 55
Long grain White Rice 56
Short grain White Rice 72
Uncle Ben's Converted 44
Noodles (instant) 46
Taco Shells 68

The Mechanics of the GI

You need to understand the mechanics of the GI. here is a short decription what happens when you eat too much food with a too high GI, resulting in a overly high Glycemic Load (GL):

When you eat a lot of fat with a lot of sugar, you are eating a lot of calories, probably more than your body can use at that moment. These excess calories will end up as fatty acids or glucose in your blood. When there is an excess of fatty acids in your blood, your body will keep some fat in your blood and store the rest in fat cells.

Your liver also clears cholesterol from your blood either by turning fats into bile that is stored in the gall bladder or making more cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides (HDL and VLDL).

Insulin does increase fat storage when glucose is in excess and thereby enhances the storage of fat. If you are losing weight though, glucose will be burned as fuel for your body before it is stored.

Insulin doesn't contribute the largest source of blood fats, which is from food fat. We know that the best way to reduce blood fats is to restrict total fat especially saturated and trans fat in food.

People with type 2 diabetes often gain weight because they have higher insulin levels in their blood and poor insulin receptors on cells. So they need more insulin to move glucose out of the blood and into cells to be metabolized.

In persons with type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent), the injected insulin can't be "turned off" by the body and continues to work on clearing glucose from the blood. A person with type 1 diabetes needs to balance the amount of carbohydrate they eat and the amount of insulin they take. Too many calories results in weight gain when insulin levels are increased to take care of high blood glucose.

To conclude: Because insulin is secreted to metabolize glucose which results in storing more fat in cells. Therfore you need to restrict carbohydrates because they increase blood glucose and thereby stimulate the release of insulin. No!!! this is faulty logic.

Insulin is produced in response to even small increases in blood glucose above fasting levels. Furthermore, insulin levels decrease as carbohydrate is cleared from the blood. The real problem is too many calories which increases fat storage.

Glycemic Index Basmati