Very helpful!

Mostly a reference and cookbook, but very thorough in the explanation behind using the glycemic index in food planning. Helpful for anyone planning to be serious about glycemic index eating. I only wish it had more menu plans.

I had no idea that Rice Krispies were so high on the GI. I thought I was doing relatively good by not feeding my kids obviously high sugar cereals like Fruit Loops and Coco Puffs. Apparently not. Having had gestational diabetes the concept of eating low GI foods is appealing to me, hopefully to prevent the onset of Type II Diabetes, and I am constantly trying to improve our family's nutrition. It's also good information for me managing Parker's diet since he can't break down medium chain fats for energy and seems to go through sugar lows if I don't give him low GI - complex carbs regularly throughout the day. My only quibble with the edition of the book I read was I didn't like the way they laid out recipe ideas. They were written in paragraph format instead of listing ingredients and then providing instructions like most recipes are written.

Got this off paperback swap when we were working on diet for N...also J has a major family history of diabetes, so we figured the whole family could benefit from the info. The recipes at the end were delightful.

Good resource.

A simple but helpful insight into the effects of high glucose spikes. And how to prevent them

If you have type 2 diabetes issues then you should read this book. A carb is not a carb and the American Diabetes Association refuses to pay head to the sold research explained in this book that has been around since the early 80's. There are newer editions of the book out there but this is a good start on learning about Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load and what they can do to help you control your blood sugar issues.

After reading the "Abs Diet" I was curious to read more about the glycemic index. It assigns a value to pretty much every type of food(w/ carbohydrates) based on how quickly your body can break it down.
For example, fruits/vegetables have a low GI number and thus take longer to digest because they are more complex than simple sugars. And then foods highly processed or made with simple sugars (white bread, candy, etc), which not only breaks down fast leaving you more hungry, but requires a high level of insulin.
And a high level of insulin over a long period of time is what causes Type 2 diabetes! Very interesting stuff, though a little boring at times.

At the time of reading this book I had been a Type 1 diabetic for about 27 years. I had heard of the low carb diet thing, but thought it was all about weight loss because of the Atkins hype. This book helped me understand food and diet SO much and get better results with my glucose levels.

Some interesting things, but awfully repetitive and some suggestions that are disputed, like repeating a thousand times to have a low-fat diet.
I discovered a few things about the best foods to keep a steady sugar level on my blood, but I wish they had gone deeper about the effects of sugar.
It could have been a much smaller book, really. I pretty much skipped the recipes section.

good & easy ideas for eating better

I even tried a recipe in it that used butternut squash (I don't like squash) and it was AMAZING and tasted like something you would get in a restaurant.