Learn About Glycemic Index with a Delicious Fruit Salad Recipe

Fruit salad

Ingredients (serves 4 - 6)

• 1 grapefruit
• 1 orange
• 1 pomegranate 
• 1 banana 
• 1 kiwi 
• 1 pear 
• 1 apple
• 1 pinch fresh mint leaves (optional)

For the syrup:

• Freshly squeezed assorted fruit juice
• 1 pinch lemongrass, chopped
• 1 lime
• 1 dessertspoon honey
• A thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced

Method

1. For the salad, cut the orange and grapefruit and squeeze their juice into a bowl. Set the remaining peels aside.
2. For the syrup, add 100 ml purified water to the orange and grapefruit juice. 
3. Peel the lemon while retaining its white pith. 
4. Add honey to the sugar and citrus mixture, then lemongrass, lemon peel and ginger. 
5. Remove pomegranate seeds, thinly slice the banana, and use a vegetable peeler to cut the remaining lemon peel for decoration. 
6. Thinly chop kiwi, apple and pear and sprinkle with lemon juice.
7. Transfer all fruit to a serving dish and pour over the desired syrup amount, perhaps 1 tablespoon. 
8. Garnish with lemon peel and mint leaves and serve.

Enjoy... :)

Per serving, this recipe contains:

• 159 calories
• 1-5 gr protein
• 36 gr carbohydrate 
• 4 gr fiber

Fruit and vegetables are basic, indispensable food groups. Fruit requires thoughtful consumption because of fructose, particularly portion control in diabetes. Fructose is absorbed in the small intestine and metabolized by the liver. Consuming 2 times requirements (%15-20) can raise fasting total and LDL cholesterol. This does not mean avoiding fruit. Particularly among people with diabetes, a common misconception is that sweet, high-glycemic-index fruits should not be eaten.

Glycemic index

For a food containing 50 gr carbohydrate, its glucose response after 2 hours is expressed as a percentage of that produced by bread, the reference. This evaluates glucose elevation relative to bread. Foods receive GI values from 1 to 100 indicating how rapidly they raise blood sugar. High-GI foods are absorbed faster than medium- or low-GI ones. Low GI is ideal for glucose control. Most fruits have low GI; starchy vegetables such as potatoes and grains have high GI. People with diabetes can eat high-GI fruit with portion control: larger amounts of low-GI fruit and smaller amounts of high-GI fruit. For example, replace 4 prunes with 1 dried fig. 1 fruit portion should contain 15-30 gr carbohydrate.

A dietary plan should consider not only snack-fruit quantities and GI but consumption frequency, because nutrition substantially affects quality of life. Fruit glycemic indices are:

According to this table, fruits scoring 55 or below have low GI; those scoring 56-69 have medium GI; and those scoring 70 or above have high glycemic indices.

Fruit belongs in daily diets. A valuable study reported in 2016 evaluated fresh fruit and cardiovascular disease. Consumption was inversely related to blood pressure and glucose. Largely independently of these and other dietary and nondietary factors, higher fruit consumption was associated with markedly lower risk of major cardiovascular events. Fiber also benefits bowel health. Unless a health condition prevents it, eat fruit with its peel rather than juicing. Prefer whole fruit because juice has higher GI and increases calorie intake.