Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Linda Bacon Page A

More on the politics of food and weight in chapter 5.)
     
    These refined products spill into your blood quickly: From your body’s perspective, there’s not much difference between a slice of refined bread (even if they call it “wheat bread”) and a tablespoon of white sugar. While the government insists that manufacturers “enrich” refined breads, grains, and pastas by adding back certain vitamins and minerals, this does nothing to slow the rate of glucose entering your bloodstream, nor does it completely restore valuable nutrients.
     
    Will eating high-glycemic foods cause you to gain weight or develop health problems? Despite the concerns evoked when one considers their actions in the body—and the media hype—there is very little consistency in the epidemiologic research that examines the association between high-glycemic eating habits and increased risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or weight gain. 139 The ambiguity in the research probably reflects the limits of scientific reductionism: that overall dietary patterns play a much larger role in weight and health and the impact of individual nutrients is only apparent when part of a larger trend. In other words, you may be able to get away with a high-glycemic eating style if your other dietary choices support good health.
     
    The difficulty with a high-glycemic eating habit may have more to do with what it’s missing than what it contains: fiber. Fiber plays a large role in how your body handles other carbohydrates. It acts as a dense filter, slowing the rate at which other carbohydrates are digested in much the same way a sand bag slows the rate at which rainwater enters the ground. This filtering, in turn, results in a slow, steady release of insulin, instead of that abrupt spike. Fiber also provides a sustained feeling of fullness, magnified by the water it absorbs. In fact, foods high in fiber will make you feel fuller than the same amount (or more) of any other kind of food. 140
     
    Yet less than one of the 10.6 servings of grain products we eat in an average day is made up of fiber-rich whole grains. 136 And the typical American diet contains two to three times less fiber than that of our (thin) Paleolithic ancestors. 141
     
    In the studies that suggest high-glycemic foods increase diabetes risk, that risk disappears when the diet is otherwise rich in fiber. 142 143 144 145 146
     
    Fiber-rich foods include whole, unprocessed vegetables, grains, beans, fruits, nuts, and seeds. One study found eating just three extra apples or pears a day led to significant weight loss in “overweight” people. 147 (The study just measured short-term weight loss, so don’t take it seriously as a weight loss technique. My point in mentioning it here is that higher fiber eating appears to reduce calorie intake in the short run. This makes sense, given its effect on satiety. And rest assured, increasing fiber is great advice for general health improvement, regardless of its impact on weight.)
     
    Instead of regularly drinking apple juice, perhaps you can occasionally enjoy a juicy apple? Unlike fruit, fruit juice is stripped of the fiber—and is lower in other beneficial nutrients as well.
     
 
    Choosing Whole Grains
     
    Whole grain products can typically be identified on a food label. Look for the word “whole” in the ingredients list. If you see the word “enriched,” it’s a sure sign it’s not whole grain.
     
    Food companies can sometimes make it difficult to determine which foods are whole grains. Many breads are colored brown and made to look like whole grain, but are not. Also, some food manufacturers make foods with whole-grain ingredients, but, because whole-grain ingredients are not the dominant ingredient, they don’t give you the benefits of a whole-grain product. (Don’t get tricked by small quantities of a whole grain—ingredients are listed in order of weight, so make sure the whole grain appears first.) Another way to identify