When I was in Mexico over the summer, I met with a wellness expert named Charles Wills. He, and his colleague, Mia, showed me some cool ways to de-stress using imagery and deep breathing. Wills offers a wide variety of wellness consulting services, including weight loss. So I wrote an article on Suite 101 about how you can use the Glycemic Index to choose foods that will help you burn calories rather than store them as fat.
2026 Note: I don’t know whatever happened to Charles Wills, but he had some pretty good ideas. Also, Suite 101 is now defunct, but I captured the stories I wrote for it and here is the one referenced above:
Nearly 30 years ago, David J.A. Jenkins, MD, PhD, DSc, a professor in the department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, wrote an article for The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, ranking many common foods on a 100-point scale. The higher the value, the greater effect a food would have on increasing the amount of glucose in the bloodstream—an unfavorable state for diabetics.
Charles Wills, who runs wellness programs through The Wills System, believes that the Glycemic Index is not just valuable for diabetics, but for everyone who wants to be fit and to avoid degenerative diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes. Wills says that a diet consisting of foods low on the Glycemic Index can slow aging as well.
“When people glycate, the pancreas has to produce a lot of insulin, which takes the sugar out of the bloodstream,” says Wills. “The excess sugar goes to fat cells to be stored for a rainy day. The body turns the sugar into free fatty acids that should be released back into the bloodstream when the blood-sugar level is low. But, since insulin blocks release of free fatty acids, the body can’t get to its energy, and the person eats more, causing glucose levels to go up again. The pancreas makes more insulin, which makes the blood sugar plummet, and the person becomes tired and cranky. At the end of the day, weight has been gained from storing sugar in the fat cells.”
Wills adds that glycating at a high level increases oxidated stress, which causes high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, and diabetes. He also believes high glycation is directly related to aging.
Eat Better, Crave Less Junk Food, and Burn Calories
The typical American breakfast consisting of yogurt, cereal, a banana, coffee, and orange juice is unhealthy because it induces high glycation, says Wills. Instead, he suggests a three-egg omelet, low-fat cheese, and chopped vegetables, which causes the pancreas to produce only 20% of the insulin it would for the typical breakfast, so only a small amount of sugar enters the fat cells, and blood sugar drops at the same rate as insulin.
After a lunch of chicken, salad, and unsweetened tea, there isn’t as much of an urge to reach for a donut, and in the afternoon, the person is burning energy and actually losing weight, while being more productive, and feeling better about herself. After a dinner of salmon and chopped broccoli, the person glycates at a lower level, and when it’s time for bed, insulin levels are low, and fat burns all night long.
“Some foods raise insulin levels like sugar does,” says Wills, who is in residence at a Zoetry resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. “Baked potatoes and white bread are like eating a bowl of sugar. But broccoli takes longer to burn, and it’s full of omegas, nutrients, and vitamins. It has the same number of calories as bread, but it doesn’t raise insulin levels as high.”
Wills says most people are unaware which foods raise blood sugar. He says to avoid bananas, melons, papayas, pineapples, mangoes, and kiwis. Good foods, those lower than 40 on the Glycemic Index, according to Wills, include apples, peaches, plums, oranges, tangerines, berries, nuts, cold-water white fish, broccoli, and avocado.
Most people would think that carrots would be a good diet food. Who hasn’t seen a co-worker reaching into a baggie of carrot sticks? According to Jenkins’ 1981 article mentioned above, carrots deliver a whopping 92 on the Glycemic Index. So, it’s worthwhile to review the Glycemic Index to make simple, yet effective diet changes for measurable results.
