Healthy living: Enabling a low glycemic diet
About 72% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa has increased their dietary intake of carbohydrate foods in the last few years, particularly from the consumption of cassava products, including garri, eba, and fufu. However, this has resulted in a high glycemic index (GI) in the human body. GI measures the increase in blood glucose levels due to consuming carbohydrate-based foods. A food’s
Healthy living: Enabling a low glycemic diet
About 72% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa has increased their dietary intake of carbohydrate foods in the last few years, particularly from the consumption of cassava products, including garri, eba, and fufu. However, this has resulted in a high glycemic index (GI) in the human body.
GI measures the increase in blood glucose levels due to consuming carbohydrate-based foods. A food’s GI depends on several factors, such as nutrient composition, cooking method, and the amount of processing it undergoes. This can be ranked based on three categories—low, medium, and high.
Over time, high consumption of carbohydrate foods has been linked to different health conditions such as obesity, Diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers.
According to previous research, consumption of low GI diets is better for controlling and managing blood glucose which will lead to insulin resistance.