Sherdog article on carbs

[James Fuller]

Here is a link to the training article by Conway on Carbs.

Carbohydrates
Its all very boiler plate stuff but one thing I am curious about is this quote:

2) Save fruits and other quick energy carbohydrate sources for the morning and try to avoid them directly before going to bed. If you are going to spike your blood sugar, use the spike to start your day or workout strong.

Now it is my understanding that alot of fruits such as apples, pears, avocado etc. are quite low on the glycemic index (mid 40's) as well as in the glycemic load index (between 4-5) which I think is the most complete model we have for understanding how carbs work. So what am I missing in my understanding? How can they be low on these scales yet still be responsible for spikes in blood sugar?

 

[Goat Meal]

I'll take a crack at this but I'm not sure if it'll be right.

The body breaks down all carbs into monosaccharides. Stuff like whole wheat and some fruit takes longer to breakdown and presumably is why it's lower on the GI because it enters the body as a disaccharide. When it's all said and done our body ultimately breaks it down into a simple sugar resulting in a spike.

 

[Dogstarman]

The way I understand it everything spikes your blood sugar, even eating a steak will give you a spike. Even thinking about food is said to give you a spike in blood sugar to prepare your body for the upcoming meal. If I'm wrong apologies but that is the way I understand how insulin works in the body.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[redaxe]

Well the article is basically assuming that you're not eating high glycemic index carbs like simple sugars AT ALL, in fact it specifically tells you not to, so fruits and whole grains should be your only source of "quick energy carbohydrates." Eating candy before bed would make your blood sugar spike even worse. It's all relative.

Basically the message is, no carbs of any kind late at night.

 

[XTrainer]

There are a lot of things going on here, and nothing at all. I'll try to explain.

GI can be roughtly defined as how quickly carbs are digested and get into your bloodstream. Keep in mind that GI is a bit of a dubious measure to begin with and can be affected by numerous factors (for example, grinding or blending your carb source increases GI; same for ripeness). And that's without getting into all of the more complicated internal stuff that can alter the "effective" GI, so to speak, of a food. Keep in mind, for all the stock that so many fad diets put into GI, it's really little more than a matter of time. There are a lot of other factors you should be thinking about before you get hung up on this.

Glycemic load considers not only the GI of a food, but, much more importantly, the quantity. Foods with a relatively low GI can have a very high glycemic load...we see this often with "whole grains," since, whatever their GI, they are still very dense sources of carbs, and are customarily eaten in large portions (in carb terms).

Now, neither GI nor GL are necessarily related to insulin response, which is probably the most important consideration of those three, and has a tremendous impact on blood sugar levels (and a lot of other things besides), especially if we look at this from a long-term perspective.

 

[James Fuller]

Very interesting points. Will read up on the things you guys have mentioned esp you, xtrainer. gracias.