By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet
I ate my second ear of corn for the season last night. It’s late August and this was only my second time to eat corn. Sounds odd, doesn’t it?
In my old days before the Plan Z Diet I might have had two ears of corn in one sitting. My husband would ask for corn probably three times a week. We both love corn. I thought it was good roughage. I thought if I only used a teeny bit of butter on it and a whisp of salt and pepper I was good to go.
When we went to the local corn festival we might both eat six ears each. That was our lunch. Corn and something to drink. We had a blast.
Since I have started the Plan Z Diet I have been enlightened and even shocked.
They don’t call it sweet corn for nothing.
Corn in the US has an amazingly high glycemic index. Our sweet corn hybrids score a 60 on the glycemic index. Compare that to Italian Ice cream; the really good stuff, vanilla flavored. That ice cream only scores a 57. Our sweet corn is sweeter than some ice creams.
Do another comparison. Sweet corn from New Zealand only scores a 37. Their corn 37. Our corn 60. Like I said, they don’t call it sweet corn for nothing.
Now, I’m not beating up on sweet corn. Moderation is all I’m talking about. You want to know what you eat will do to you. Sweet corn is full of carbohydrate. We teach on the Plan Z Diet that carbohydrates in too large a quantity will make you fat.
When you are rating foods with the glycemic index most nutritional experts would agree in general that below 50 is good. Above 50 is not. In America, many dieticians give us extra room for error. They rate things high, low and medium. Medium for many in the nutritional sciences would be 50 – 75. Sweet corn in the US ranks a 60. A Milky Way candy bar rates a 44. Go figure. I don’t believe there’s a medium. It’s high or low. In or out.
Our corn has been “modified” if you will, to make it as sweet as possible. Because I limit my carbohydrate intake as much as I do on the Plan Z Diet, when I eat corn now it tastes like candy. Candy corn. If I could get the same sweet corn as they eat in New Zealand I would. Then I’d eat it more often and with more pleasure.
If you are diabetic you’ve probably been introduced to the Glycemic Index already. If not, the most comprehensive one I know of is put out by the Mendosa group. Here’s a link to it. http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm It’s pretty easy to read and is very comprehensive. This one has food items on it from all over the world. This one even takes into account the glycemic load of a food. The load is what tells you how fast the spike will be in your blood sugar if you eat a particular food. Our sweet corn scores miserably on that scale too.
My one hint for eating sweet corn on the Plan Z Diet. Drench it in butter. When you have a food that has a high glycemic uptake and you balance that off it won’t hit your system so harshly. So the fat in the butter will make the corn easier on your system and slow down the glycemic uptake. Never thought someone would tell you the butter is the good thing for you, did you. I just did.
Cheers,
I ate my second ear of corn for the season last night. It’s late August and this was only my second time to eat corn. Sounds odd, doesn’t it?
In my old days before the Plan Z Diet I might have had two ears of corn in one sitting. My husband would ask for corn probably three times a week. We both love corn. I thought it was good roughage. I thought if I only used a teeny bit of butter on it and a whisp of salt and pepper I was good to go.
When we went to the local corn festival we might both eat six ears each. That was our lunch. Corn and something to drink. We had a blast.
Since I have started the Plan Z Diet I have been enlightened and even shocked.
They don’t call it sweet corn for nothing.
Corn in the US has an amazingly high glycemic index. Our sweet corn hybrids score a 60 on the glycemic index. Compare that to Italian Ice cream; the really good stuff, vanilla flavored. That ice cream only scores a 57. Our sweet corn is sweeter than some ice creams.
Do another comparison. Sweet corn from New Zealand only scores a 37. Their corn 37. Our corn 60. Like I said, they don’t call it sweet corn for nothing.
Now, I’m not beating up on sweet corn. Moderation is all I’m talking about. You want to know what you eat will do to you. Sweet corn is full of carbohydrate. We teach on the Plan Z Diet that carbohydrates in too large a quantity will make you fat.
When you are rating foods with the glycemic index most nutritional experts would agree in general that below 50 is good. Above 50 is not. In America, many dieticians give us extra room for error. They rate things high, low and medium. Medium for many in the nutritional sciences would be 50 – 75. Sweet corn in the US ranks a 60. A Milky Way candy bar rates a 44. Go figure. I don’t believe there’s a medium. It’s high or low. In or out.
Our corn has been “modified” if you will, to make it as sweet as possible. Because I limit my carbohydrate intake as much as I do on the Plan Z Diet, when I eat corn now it tastes like candy. Candy corn. If I could get the same sweet corn as they eat in New Zealand I would. Then I’d eat it more often and with more pleasure.
If you are diabetic you’ve probably been introduced to the Glycemic Index already. If not, the most comprehensive one I know of is put out by the Mendosa group. Here’s a link to it. http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm It’s pretty easy to read and is very comprehensive. This one has food items on it from all over the world. This one even takes into account the glycemic load of a food. The load is what tells you how fast the spike will be in your blood sugar if you eat a particular food. Our sweet corn scores miserably on that scale too.
My one hint for eating sweet corn on the Plan Z Diet. Drench it in butter. When you have a food that has a high glycemic uptake and you balance that off it won’t hit your system so harshly. So the fat in the butter will make the corn easier on your system and slow down the glycemic uptake. Never thought someone would tell you the butter is the good thing for you, did you. I just did.
Cheers,
To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/
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