Reduce your blood sugar by avoiding white flour

White flour is a common ingredient in processed food but because it causes blood sugar to rise, it should be avoided whenever possible. Here's a guide to help you avoid high blood sugar by limiting your white flour intake and cooking your starches properly.

Have you ever noticed that some wheat breads are as smooth as white bread, while others have crunchy kernels in them? Those kernels take a long time for your body to break down. So do any whole, intact grains, such as wheatberries (small kernels of wheat, delicious in salads).

• Modern commercial flour, on the other hand — especially white flour — is extremely easy for the body to turn into blood sugar, which is why we suggest throughout this article that you choose whole grains that are still intact and foods such as beans, lentils and wheatberries instead of those made from white flour. (Unfortunately, we're surrounded by white-flour foods. You'll need to make a conscious effort to cut back.)
• Until the 19th century, the main way to turn grain into flour was to grind it between stones, sometimes powered by a water wheel. Making very fine flour took a lot of work, and it was available only in small amounts to the rich. Then high-speed, high-heat steel rollers, which make very fine flour quickly and inexpensively, were invented, almost instantly transforming our diets into blood sugar nightmares.
• In a study, folks who ate a high-protein diet consumed 25 percent fewer calories than those in the high-carb group.
• Modern manufacturing also allows grains to be turned into highly processed forms such as corn-based cereals or puffed corn snacks, which tend to have higher GLs than grains left intact, like popcorn, or those milled in an old-fashioned manner, like coarse, stone-ground wholewheat flour used in stone-ground wheat bread.

All starch, whether it's made of straight or branched chains, is composed of crystals, which don't dissolve in cold water.

• Think of a grain of rice or a piece of raw potato — put it in water and it stays the same. But heat breaks down those crystals so the starch can dissolve in water — a little like a snowflake that comes in from the cold.
• When you cook a starchy food, it absorbs water and becomes easier to digest.
• The more overcooked rice or pasta is, the faster it makes your blood sugar rise.
• When starch is heated and then cooled, it can return, in part, to its crystal form; that's why hot potatoes have a high GL, while potato salad's is slightly lower. Just make it with olive oil instead of mayo to keep it healthier.

Keep this guide in mind and reduce your blood sugar by avoiding white flour and preparing your starches the right way.