Type 2 diabetes is on the rise in recent times and considering our lifestyles today, it may only get worse. The approach of many of us nowadays is to live our lives the way we wish – we eat just anything and hardly exercise. Many even live with the disease without knowing and this is why you need to regularly check your blood sugar and to immediately see your doctor if there is any abnormality in your blood sugar level. This is to avoid the many complications that come with untreated diabetes.

There is a hormone produced by our pancreas that is central to the development of diabetes and the understanding of the way this hormone works will help you see how your lifestyle may have been increasing your risk for diabetes.

When you eat food, your pancreas usually responds by secreting insulin. Your food is converted to glucose and insulin helps to promote the absorption of glucose by the body cells.

Foods are not created equally and they therefore differ in the amount of glucose they release into the bloodstream when digested. The more the glucose produced from the digestion of your food, the more the amount of insulin that will be released. This is because your blood sugar level must be maintained at a particular level and insulin helps to ensure that.

Glycemic Index

When you eat foods or take drinks that are high in glucose, you end up causing a spike in your blood sugar and your body responds by secreting insulin to clear the glucose. The ability of a particular food to raise your glucose level is termed its “Glycemic index”. Foods with high glycemic index raise your blood sugar more compared with foods with low glycemic index. This invariably means that foods with high glycemic index will rapidly cause a higher release of insulin compared to foods with lower glycemic index.

Here is where the problem lies!

When your body keeps releasing high amounts of insulin, over time, your body may gradually develop resistance to it. Think of it as a child that is frequently scolded by his mum when he does wrong. The aim of the scolding is to correct the child but if the only method used in correcting the child is always to scold, then it may get to a time when the child becomes resistant to the scolding – the scolding seizes to have it desired effect of correction because the child has got so used to it. This can be likened to what happens when you continually take foods that have high glycemic index. Even though insulin gets secreted in high amounts, your body cells seize to have the desired response of absorbing the glucose leaving your blood with a high glucose concentration, a condition called Hyperglycemia.

So what kinds of food have high glycemic index?

Foods can be categorized into high, medium and low glycemic index. First of all, you must understand that foods that have high amounts of sugars are high on the glycemic index scale. This includes soft drinks, alcohol, packaged fruit juices, beverages, pastries and almost all processed foods you find in the supermarket. When you continue to take these foods, you are only setting yourself up for developing insulin resistance.

A study published in the Diabetes Care Journal for example found that people who take at least one soft drink per day are 26% more likely to develop diabetes compared to people who take only one sweetened drink in a month. This study only considers sweetened drinks. Imagine if it takes into consideration other sugar containing foods like processed foods then I believe the risk will even become much higher than 26%.

Foods with GI of less than 50 are categorized as low GI foods, between 50 and 69 are medium GI foods while that are 70 and above are high GI foods.

Not all naturally occurring foods are made equal. Some have higher glycemic indexes than others. Sadly, many Nigerian foods have high glycemic index. Foods like pounded yam, fufu and garri (from cassava), white rice, amala (from yam), plantain are all high glycemic index foods. These are however the foods that makes up most of the meal plans of Nigerians.

According to a research by E.S. Omoregie and A.U. Osagie and published in the Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, the glycemic indexes of the common Nigerian foods that we make into pastes were determined.

Below is the breakdown of the glycemic indexes of Nigerian processed foods as was discovered by the above research

Starch (Cassava) 98.60

Eba (Cassava) 82.25

Amala (Yam) 84.35

Agidi (Maize) 92.30

Tuwo Masara (Maize) 86.80

Tuwo Gero (Millet) 93.60

Tuwo Dawa (Sorghum) 85.30

Tuwo Shinkafa (Rice) 95.30

Semovita (Wheat) + 95.80

10% Corn supplement

Semolina (Wheat) 95.28



These are the foods that Nigerians often eat but looking at the glycemic index of all of them, they all fall into the category of foods with high glycemic index. In fact, the glycemic index of the foods were almost at par with that of sugar (100). They are therefore not great foods if you are looking to prevent diabetes and even worse if you are already diabetic. In case you are also interested in losing weight, you have to stay off these foods.

The reason why they have such high glycemic index is due to the way they are processed. First of all, the fiber content of the food is usually removed. Foods that are high in fiber usually have lower glycemic index. We usually do not digest fibers but they help in slowing down the release of glucose into the bloodstream thereby only causing a much slower and lesser release of insulin. On the other hand, the Nigerian foods considered above are very low in fiber content and therefore they cause a sharp release of glucose into the bloodstream which is how insulin resistance gradually develops.

Another factor is that these foods are grounded into flour and made into pastes. This slows down the time for digestion causing the glucose to be released faster unlike when the digestion takes a longer time.

It is quite sad that we are only told to abstain from these foods when we are diabetic. This however can only be because we focus on disease and not on health. Diabetes can be very much prevented if we eat these foods only occasionally and in moderation.

An example of a food that has high fiber content and therefore has low GI index is Oatmeal. Oats happen to be one of the healthiest food around and has been found to reduce your risk of diabetes and is also a choice food for diabetics. In addition, it also keeps your cholesterol level in check.

Ensure you are subscribed to my blog, www.doctorkuyoro.com , as I will be revealing different recipes that are high fiber and with low to medium GI that you can substitute the high GI Nigerian foods with. You also get a free e-book when you subscribe titled "6 Irrefutable Laws of Healthy Eating".

Educative!

Coca cola is one of the most famous and biggest product in the world despite all the negative reviews about its sugar content
What am I saying,most of our food content in Nigeria are high in glucose as you listed up there,cassava,yam,garri,fufu etc if you like extend your epistle to 500pages like the budget,this is what will still constitute most of our meal
Kudos to the research team

Greatzeus:
Coca cola is one of the most famous and biggest product in the world despite all the negative reviews about its sugar content
What am I saying,most of our food content in Nigeria are high in glucose as you listed up there,cassava,yam,garri,fufu etc if you like extend your epistle to 500pages like the budget,this is what will still constitute most of our meal
Kudos to the research team

Yes, Coca Cola is famous, but so has lifestyle diseases such as heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes and the likes become famous. Research has shown an increase in these diseases with the increased consumption of soft drinks and high carb foods.

Your line of thought seems to say "lets just eat what we like, who cares". We should all ask ourselves if we are ready to deal with these diseases in the future by ignoring some simple changes we can make to our foods today. It's a personal thing.

There are more and more research coming out everyday to show that the root of many diseases lies in our plates. So why not use these to your advantage and make important lifestyle changes.

I know this info has been since 2016 but if the author is avaluable plus respond. I'm trying to reconcile the info above with all this close to 100 GI, if other websites say GI of cassava is 46 and diabetics are actually encouraged in the US to eat more cassava, how can we say it's one of the cause of DM in Nigeria. Could it be more of a portion problem as opposed to a content problem? I'm reading that cassava, yam and sweet potatoes are actually great for sugar control.