Hello,

I have been eating in the zone (roughly) for about 5 years and had my blood tested recently with wonderful results. What I wonder about is incorporating more carbohydrates into my diet now that there has been more research done into the glycemic index of individual foods. For instance, some fruit -grapefruit- rates very low on the GI indicating that it isn't likely to cause much of an insulin spike. Additionally, pasta, which is normally considered a real problem carb because it has such a high gram # per serving ratio, has recently been recognized to be a slow-release carbohydrate, primarily because durum is slow to metabolize.

Specifically, has there been any new research that adjusts the traditional 1,2,3 ratio's? For instance do some carb's = 1/2block rather than a whole block because they are slow-release carbohydrates? I really haven't looked around too much so there might be something on this site right before my nose, but any thoughts, links, further reading recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Llyfre

Even though a carbohydrate may have a low GI, it's density could still result in an unfavorable choice-as you note with pasta and its #of grams per serving. Although it may be low GI, its glycemic load (or GI x g) is high, such that it would still result in greater amounts of insulin, regardless of how fast it is metabolized.

However, if you stick with the Zone recommended serving sizes (ie, 36g carbohydrate for a 4-block meal), the glycemic load takes care of itself with respect to foods having similar GI. The concerns are the volume of food and the quality/quantity of nutrients. 1 cup of low GI pasta and 12 cups of broccoli are both 4 block amounts that may have similiar G-loads, but the brocccoli naturally has greater volume and substantially more nutrients.

Certainly you can mix/match carbohydrate choices to suit your needs, just be sure to keep the glyemic load for a meal below 3000.