I heard somewhere that fiber is important in whole fruits vs juices, because the fiber helps to keep the glucose from spiking as much as it would without that fiber (so, juice)
Firstly, is this true? And if so, would that mean eating a sugary, but fiber dense cereal, would be much better for your blood sugar then without that fiber? And in that case, couldn’t everyone just pair a really sugary snack with something fibrous to pretty much always prevent these quick spikes?
Sorry if these are all dumb questions lol.
You can science! When fibre mixes with fluids it will turn into a gel. Mix some metameucil or psyllium husk with water and let it sit for a while.
A glucose molecule can travel unimpeded through water and get to the intestinal wall for absorption quickly. That same glucose molecule travelling through a gluggy gel will be much slower to reach the absorption site.
So higher fibre foods tend to be lower glycaemic index than highly processed foods. Also when a higher glycaemic index food is consumed with fat and/or protein, it will slow down the glucose as well.
https://glycemicindex.com/faqs/
Yes. You are absolutely correct. Whole fruits are amazing for the reasons you mentioned, and juices are not as much as whole fruits.
You are right about the second point too. For example, as my nutritionist points out, eating dry fruits before any desserts or very sugary foods is good and prevents quick spikes. But then again, I don’t have diabetes, so I don’t know how much it matters. So it all depends.
Fiber is not just useful for quick spikes but for the overall well-being of the body, and let’s not even talk about how much fibres like psyllium husk affect those who have high cholesterol than statins. I will stop here.
I’m diabetic. When I was first diagnosed I experimented with my glucose monitor. I’d eat an orange and the drink the juice of a similarly sized orange. Ten times I did that, ten times the whole orange spiked my glucose levels far far lower** than the juice.
Even when I drink a glass a Metamucil mix (6g fiber) before meals it will lower my spike. Of course that only goes so far if I eat a couple donuts. Still spikes like crazy, just not as crazy.
And the research pretty much backs up my anecdotal evidence :)