The Glycemic Load (as opposed to the Glycemic Index) tries to let us know how a specific meal of various food combinations will affect our blood chemistry. Both The Paleo Diet and The Zone try to construct meals that have low (but not too low) glycemic loads. This regulates the rate of entry of carbohydrate into the bloodstream and the body's subsequent insulin response. The higher the glycemic load of your diet, the more likely you are to become obese, develop diabetes and suffer a heart attack. Diets with a high glycemic load also produce chronic hidden inflammation that eventually manifests in a whole host of debilitating diseases. As you become more food savvy, you can calculate the glycemic load of your meals, but for beginners the basic split (one-third lean protein, two-thirds fruit and vegetables, a dash of extra-virgin olive oil and ultra-refined fish oil supplementation) is all you need.
An exception to this is eating immediately after training. Here you want to eat meals with a high glycemic load so that your body's energy stores are immediately restored. For those of you who find it hard to give up bread, potatoes and pasta etc., this is the one time when you can indulge those foods. Eat them in moderation in the hour immediately following a hard training session. If you want to remain off these foods, certain fruits will do the job also, bananas being the most well known. More to come...