A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, says that high carbohydrate diets my increase the risk of some types of breast cancer after the menopause.
Adding super foods such as chia seeds and wheatgrass powder, into your diet could help reduce the impact that carbohydrates have.
Carbohydrates are important for your body, the supply the body with energy. However, the problem is, that some carbs are much better for you than others. For example, delicious as they are, many of the processed foods like white rice, pasta, and white bread etc, have had most of their nutrients and fibre removed, and what's left over is primarily sugar and starches, that are easily absorbed by your body.
There are two different ways to measure the effect that carbohydrate foods have on our blood sugar levels:
The first method is called the Glycaemic Index, or simply GI. It uses a scale from 1 to 100, to illustrate how much the food is increasing our blood sugar levels. The bigger the GI number, the greater increase in blood sugar, and the greater the risks of many serious diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The second way of measuring, is the Glycaemic Load or GL. The GL includes within it, the GI of the food and in addition, includes the overall amount of the foods carbohydrate.
As such the GL is generally considered to be more accurate in assessing the affect that different foods have on our blood sugar and insulin levels.
High Glycaemic Load indicates a higher risk of breast cancer in some women.
The study consisted of 334,849 women, with an age range of 34 - 66, and was conducted over a 12 year period. The researchers looked at the women's diet in terms of GI, GL and total carbohydrate intake.
During the course of the study 11,576 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers found that postmenopausal women with a high GL and high carbohydrate diet, had a significantly higher risk of breast cancer, when compared with the rest of the group.
The risks of breast cancer were unchanged for other women who were not postmenopausal, but who also had the same high GL and high carbohydrate diet.
The study's authors commented on the research findings saying: "Our results also suggest a potential interaction between fibre intake and glycaemic load and carbohydrates on the risk of breast cancer,".
Healthy fats, and dietary fibre can both help slow down the absorption of carbohydrate into your system, and this will help lower the overall GL of your diet. So they key to this is eating the right foods, favouring those high in dietary fibre, that'll keep your blood sugar levels steady.
An easy way to do this: Replace everything white with brown. For example swap white bread for brown bread, white rice for brown rice, and pasta for wholemeal pasta. Also, adding super foods can help a great deal. Why not try some Wheatgrass powder, spirulina and chia seeds, they'll all help to lower the GL of your meal.
Adding super foods such as chia seeds and wheatgrass powder, into your diet could help reduce the impact that carbohydrates have.
Carbohydrates are important for your body, the supply the body with energy. However, the problem is, that some carbs are much better for you than others. For example, delicious as they are, many of the processed foods like white rice, pasta, and white bread etc, have had most of their nutrients and fibre removed, and what's left over is primarily sugar and starches, that are easily absorbed by your body.
There are two different ways to measure the effect that carbohydrate foods have on our blood sugar levels:
The first method is called the Glycaemic Index, or simply GI. It uses a scale from 1 to 100, to illustrate how much the food is increasing our blood sugar levels. The bigger the GI number, the greater increase in blood sugar, and the greater the risks of many serious diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The second way of measuring, is the Glycaemic Load or GL. The GL includes within it, the GI of the food and in addition, includes the overall amount of the foods carbohydrate.
As such the GL is generally considered to be more accurate in assessing the affect that different foods have on our blood sugar and insulin levels.
High Glycaemic Load indicates a higher risk of breast cancer in some women.
The study consisted of 334,849 women, with an age range of 34 - 66, and was conducted over a 12 year period. The researchers looked at the women's diet in terms of GI, GL and total carbohydrate intake.
During the course of the study 11,576 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers found that postmenopausal women with a high GL and high carbohydrate diet, had a significantly higher risk of breast cancer, when compared with the rest of the group.
The risks of breast cancer were unchanged for other women who were not postmenopausal, but who also had the same high GL and high carbohydrate diet.
The study's authors commented on the research findings saying: "Our results also suggest a potential interaction between fibre intake and glycaemic load and carbohydrates on the risk of breast cancer,".
Healthy fats, and dietary fibre can both help slow down the absorption of carbohydrate into your system, and this will help lower the overall GL of your diet. So they key to this is eating the right foods, favouring those high in dietary fibre, that'll keep your blood sugar levels steady.
An easy way to do this: Replace everything white with brown. For example swap white bread for brown bread, white rice for brown rice, and pasta for wholemeal pasta. Also, adding super foods can help a great deal. Why not try some Wheatgrass powder, spirulina and chia seeds, they'll all help to lower the GL of your meal.
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Click here for more information on wheatgrass powder and chia seeds. Also published at Post Menopause, Fewer Carbs May Cut Breast Cancer Risk.