Tag Archives: Glycemic Index

Eat Potatoes White Foods – for a Leaner-Body?

I think it about time we started a little discussion about carbohydrates… and in particular, “white foods” including potatoes. One reason I wanted to talk about this is because so many health and fitness professionals trash talk potatoes about being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the high glycemic index. Some people are saying such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

Now while I agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be feeding our bodies. I don’t believe in avoiding any and all “white carbohydrates”.

Believe it or not “White Foods” aren’t always the enemy.

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is also a big mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s take a look at a few examples…

Onions and Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are chock full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals that aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet… such nutrients as allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), chromium, and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Cauliflowers

Here is another example of something white, that is great for you is cauliflower. Cauliflower is full of vitamin C, trace elements, fiber, and special compounds such as glucosinolates and thiocyanates, which are abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage. One little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables help to counteract other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess belly fat. So eat up that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. Ordinary white mushrooms are high in antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – white potatoes. Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index. If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, you will understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While making the assumption that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat easier than high glycemic index choices, it is not all that it’s cracked out to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest, such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, using glycemic load as an example… it is known that watermelons have quite a high glycemic index. However, the glycemic level of a normal serving of watermelon is just way too low for your body to start packing on body fat just because you ate a high glycemic index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that’s just not logical.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high GI. The point that I am trying to get across is… candy bars, cupcakes, and donuts etc make you fat. Not because they contain fat but because of all the added sugar… NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes… French fries excluded of course.

Also, as i mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. e.g if you mix a high glycemic index carbohydrate with an extra source of fiber, and healthy fats, or even certain proteins, effect of the increased blood sugar and glycemic response will be slowed down considerably by the way you combined the food. I talk in great detail about this topic in my book.

Back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form… with the entire skin, and please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either! French fries or Chips whatever you want to call them, are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health, but only because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Will eating 8 potatoes per day make you fatter? of course not.

On the subject of potatoes not being bad after all, I don’t remember where I read this, but I saw a study that had participants eat at least 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks.
At the end of the study, the potato eaters had consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes. They consumed less calories than normal! An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can imagine you’d be constantly full from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to affect your efforts to get leaner, especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. Let me share with you one of my favorite recipes for you to try, using potatoes.

Mikes’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish

* Desired quantity of baby potatoes (I like to use this mixture I found recently at a health food store… it is a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes)

* 1 red pepper

* 1 green pepper

* 1 yellow pepper

* 1 or 2 onions

* a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped

* 1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or coconut oil

* a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt)

Cut the baby potatoes into smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Slowly fry the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Mix together and serve. Its is a delicious and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my healthy potato recipe idea!

Mike Geary

Certified Personal Trainer

Certified Nutrition Specialist

Truth about Abs

Post workout nutrition for a better body.

Post workout nutrition ideas for healthy shakes, to help build muscle and enhance fat loss.

I was wondering about what is best to consume after a workout, to get nutrients back into my tired muscles. So I emailed Mike Geary who sent me a reply which I based this article on.

Your probably sick of hearing it. But your post-workout meal may very well be your most important meal of the day.

The reason is that when you have finished with an intense workout. You’re about to enter a catabolic state where your muscle’s glycogen is depleted. At this point increased cortisol levels, are beginning to excessively break down muscle tissue. This situation is not good, and the only way to reverse this catabolic state (and promote an anabolic state). Is to consume a quickly digestible post workout meal (can be a shake or smoothie) as soon as you can after training.

The goal is to choose a meal with easily digestible quick carbs to replenish muscle glycogen as well as quickly digestible protein to provide the amino acids needed to jump start muscular repair. The surge into the bloodstream of carbohydrates, and amino acids from this quickly digested meal promotes an insulin spike from the pancreas, which carries nutrients into the muscle cells.

Good post workout nutrition should mean that each meal contains between 300-500 calories to get the best response. A good example would be, a 120-lb female may only need a 300-calorie meal, when a 200-lb male may need a 500-calorie post-workout meal. Your post-workout meal should also contain anywhere from a 2:1 to a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein. While the majority of your other daily meals should contain a source of healthy fats. Keep the fat content of your post-workout meal to a bare minimum. Since fat slows the absorption of the meal, which is the exact opposite of what you want after a workout.

When deciding what you want to make for your post workout meal. The first thing to realize is that you don’t need any of these expensive post workout supplement formulations, that all those fancy ads will tell you, that you absolutely need. I prefer to make my own post-workout shakes from natural ingredients instead of using a commercial mixture, since many of them are low quality with hidden ingredients.

For the shakes, here are some things to keep in mind if you try it…

A good source of quickly digestible natural carbohydrates such as frozen bananas, pineapples, honey, or organic maple syrup are perfect to promote an insulin response that will promote muscle glycogen replenishment, and a general anabolic (muscle building) effect. The more you can do to assist the muscle repair process. The more you will increase your metabolic rate and that can help you to lose fat as well.

The best source of quickly digestible protein is a quality non-denatured whey protein and some fat-free or low-fat yogurt. Here are a couple ideas for delicious post-workout smoothies that will kick start your recovery process:

Chocolate Banana – blend together

  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup milk (I prefer organic grass-fed milk for max health benefits)
  • one and a half frozen bananas
  • 2 tbsp organic maple syrup
  • 30 grams chocolate whey protein powder – 38 g protein, 72 g carbs, 1.5 g fat, 450 calories.

Pineapple Vanilla – blend together

  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup vanilla yogurt
  • one cup frozen pineapples
  • 2 tbsp honey (preferably raw)
  • 30 grams vanilla whey protein powder – 35 g protein, 71 g carbs, 1 g fat, 430 calories.

When choosing a good whey protein, you need to realise that the quality vastly differs between brands and types. Most whey proteins are produced under high heat processes that destroy some of the fragile nutritional components of the whey. The best whey I’ve found is this great new grass fed RAW whey protein. As this is from grass-fed cows, it has higher levels of muscle building and fat burning CLA conjugated linoleic acid.

When looking to lose body fat, keep in mind that post-workout meals should have the opposite characteristics of all of your other meals throughout each day. While your post-workout meals should have quick high glycemic index carbohydrates, as well as quickly digested proteins. Your other meals throughout the day should be comprised of low glycemic index, slowly digested carbs and slow release proteins.

These are powerful strategies towards developing a lean muscular body with a low body fat percentage. Post-workout meals are great for satisfying even the worst sweet tooth. Since this is the one time of the day where you can get away with eating extra sugars without adding inches to your gut. Instead, it goes straight to the muscles. But only if your workout was high intensity, and involved resistance training for large portions of the body. However if all you did was low intensity cardio, you don’t need to make this type of post-workout shake.

For a more detailed nutritional analysis, with more of these various powerful post workout nutrition dietary strategies. Can be found in Mike’s best-selling No1 rated fitness ebook in the world, The Truth About Six Pack Abs.

Glycemic Index, and White Foods

In this article I would like to start a little discussion today about carbohydrates, in particular “white foods” as well as potatoes. One of the reasons I wanted to mention this is because so many health and fitness professionals dismiss potatoes as being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the so called high glycemic index. Believe it or not potatoes have a medium index. Some people say such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

OK, now while I certainly agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be eating when feeding our bodies. I don’t agree with avoiding any and all of these so called “white carbohydrates”. Now I know all the excitement lately has been about colorful foods and the protective antioxidants that they contain. They tell you to focus on colours and stay away from white.

“White Foods” aren’t  always the enemy

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is generally a mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s look at a few examples…

Onions & Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals. These aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet. Such nutrients as chromium, allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

In fact, onions are so powerful for our health, that one study of people that live to over 100 years old. Identified that a common thread of these amazingly healthy individuals was, that they ate a lot of onions throughout their lives. We also know that garlic is one of the most powerful substances for a strong immune system.

Cauliflower

Another example of something white that is great for you is cauliflower. Which are surprisingly high in vitamin C, fiber, trace minerals, special compounds such as glucosinolates which are anti cancer in nature, and thiocyanates (a lack of which can damage a persons immune system). These are specifically abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Another little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables, help to combat other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess abdominal fat. So eat up on that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but surprisingly, even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. White mushrooms are high in a couple types of antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine. Some types of mushrooms, such as portobella mushrooms, are surprisingly good sources of Vitamin D.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – the humble white potato (which by the way, can also be found in red, yellow, purple varieties, etc). Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index.  If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs ebook, then you’ll understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While a generalization can be made that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat more easily than higher index choices. It is not all that it’s cracked up to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest. Such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, it is known that watermelon has a high glycemic index. However the rise in blood sugar of a normal serving of watermelon is just  too low for your body to start packing on body fat, just because you ate a high index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that it just does not make any sense.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high Glycemic Index. The point I am making is that, chocolate bars, cupcakes, and donuts make you fat. Because they are full of sugar. NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes. French fries are excluded of course.

I also should mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. Again, I will talk about this in detail about the entire topic in my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, from a weight loss perspective.

Alright, so back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form – that’s with the entire skin left on. Please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either. French fries are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health. Because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Keep in mind that potatoes contain so many vitamins and minerals that the list is way too long to even try. If you eat the skins, you’ll get some fiber too.

Are eating 7-9 potatoes per day going to make you fatter?

There was a study which found that potatoes not being so bad after all. I cant remember where I saw this referenced. But I recently saw a particular study that had participants eat something like 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks. Here’s a good newspaper article on why potatoes are good for you.

At the conclusion of the study, the potato eaters had actually consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes, that they actually consumed less calories than normal. An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can’t imagine you’d be full constantly from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

Of course, this does NOT mean that french fries are ok to eat. Those will only make you fat, and the trans fat will lead to an early death. Seriously french fries / potato chips are one of the most deadly foods in our food supply.  Deep fried potatoes accumulate dangerous acrylamides absorbed from the frying oil that reacts with the starch, and these compounds are cancer causing.

Anyway, back to the 7-9 whole potatoes per day. I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to hurt your efforts to get lean, and lose weight. Especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. On that note, here is one of my favorite recipes, using potatoes.

Geary’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish Recipe

Desired quantity of baby potatoes, preferably a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes.
1 red pepper.
1 green pepper.
1 yellow pepper.
1 or 2 onions.
a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or mashed garlic from a jar, organic preferably).
1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or virgin coconut oil.
a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt).

Cut the baby potatoes into slightly smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Cook the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Stir it all together and serve. This is a truly delicious, and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my delicious healthy potato recipe. If you want more recipes like this get a copy of my book Truth about Six Pack Abs, which is full of information on weight loss and how to get lean and fit.