When snacking is dangerous: if you graze all day, certain food choices can put your health at risk - News and notes: diet and nutrition - Brief Article

Natural Health, Dec, 2002

EATING SMALL MEALS AND SNACKS may seem like a smart way to maintain your energy. But all-day grazing can put you at risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, according to a recent report in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

The increased risk results when insulin, which regulates blood sugar, spikes after eating foods that have a high glycemic index (GI), a measure of how high a food raises blood sugar, explains lead researcher Victor Zammit, Ph.D., head of cell biochemistry at Hannah Research Institute in Ayr, Scotland. If you eat only three meals a day (even high-glycemic ones) your insulin levels have time to even out, says Zammit. But if you eat high-glycemic foods between meals, your insulin levels stay dangerously high.

The fix, says Zammit, is to eat snacks that have a low GI. For a detailed list of low glycemic foods, visit the GI Website created by the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia (www.glycemicindex.com); choose snacks with a GI under 50.