Glycemic Index Benefits in Improving Heart Health

It seems like a stretch to imagine a link between eating foods high in starches and sugars and heart disease, but the link is most definitely there. Every time you overindulge in high Glycemic Index foods, your entire system has to go into “High Alert” in order to bring your system back down to more normal functions.

Since sugars and starches are our body’s main sources of energy, when we ingest these types of foods, our bodies try to either use it all or store whatever can’t be burned as a quick source of needed fuel. When we overdose on high Glycemic Index foods, we are asking our body to work that much harder. Every system in our body begins feeling the burden we have just given it. Our blood pressure increases in order to move the sugar and insulin in our bloodstream as fast as it can. Along with that, our heart must go into “marathon mode” in order to keep all of the blood moving and to increase the oxygen needed to perform all of these functions.

Even hearts of healthy marathon runners can give out unexpectantly. It isn’t a stretch to imagine that when the heart of a person who isn’t quite as healthy, who is overweight, doesn’t exercise and who continuously feeds their body food that keeps it unhealthy – it just isn’t hard to imagine this poor heart wearing out.

It was found that people who continued diets high on the Glycemic Index were twice as likely to have a heart attack or develop heart disease within the next decade as those who followed a diet based on foods that were lower on the Index.

And if you are a woman, you must become even more aware of the threat of heart disease and strokes. Women have now surpassed men in the number of heart attacks, strokes, and in the number of deaths. Women are more likely to die within five years of suffering a heart attack or stroke than a man is. In fact, the numbers show that almost twice as many women die from coronary attacks every year than men do. Heart disease and strokes kill more women every year than all of the cancers combined.

As you can see, this isn’t a situation to be taken lightly. Knowing that there is a way to improve your heart health significantly should be a major priority in your life. Especially if you are someone whose family history includes a lot of family members who suffer from heart attacks or strokes.

Again, focusing your diet on mostly foods from the low Glycemic Index list will significantly improve your heart’s health and may increase your life span by many healthy years.

 Click here: For the Glycemic Index Guide