Cooking low-glycemic foods is a wonderful tool for overall health, but it's especially beneficial for weight management and insulin resistance. Understanding the glycemic index and glycemic loads of foods, using appropriate portion sizes, sprucing up your favorite recipes, and using low-glycemic cooking techniques can start you on your way to successfully meeting all your health goals.

Before you start cooking up recipes that follow the glycemic index diet, you need to know the difference between the glycemic index and the glycemic load:The glycemic index (GI) places foods on a scale of 0 to 100, based on how fast they raise blood glucose (also known as blood sugar) levels. Foods that raise blood sugar quickly have higher GI numbers than foods that take longer to affect blood sugar.

Identifying low-glycemic foods to eat is the first step; the second step is discovering ways to cook them so that you enjoy making them part of your daily meals. Use the following tips on cooking low-glycemic grains, beans, lentils, and vegetables to help you get started:Grains: Pearl barley, quinoa, and wild rice are all examples of lower-glycemic grains.

Choosing recipes that are low to medium glycemic and lower in fat and calories is a great way to help you achieve your health and wellness goals. However, eating the appropriate portion sizes is also crucial when you cook glycemic index–based recipes; eating larger amounts of carbohydrates can raise the glycemic load of that recipe and increase the calorie level.

One of the simplest steps in adopting a low-glycemic lifestyle is looking at the foods and recipes you already like to cook and eat. You may find that some are naturally low glycemic and don't need any changes; others may need a little tweaking to fit your new lifestyle. Use the following tips to help you turn a high-glycemic favorite into a low-glycemic meal: Replace higher-glycemic ingredients with lower-glycemic alternatives.

Sautéing vegetables is a step up from boiling and steaming them. And you can keep this carrot dish low on the glycemic scale with a bit of olive oil and not too much butter. You don’t necessarily need a recipe to sauté veggies; for example, you can sauté some asparagus or spinach in a little oil and just sprinkle a little salt on top.

Vegetables are a major component of a low-glycemic diet, so eats lots of them. This low-glycemic recipe for wilted spinach with pine nuts perks up your palate with a bright lemon-dijon dressing. Prevent food boredom by trying new recipes like this one! The dressing in this recipe has lots of pizzazz — so much that you may not need to add all of it; the lemon flavor is strong.

Half a cup of quinoa has a glycemic load of around 9, making it a great and tasty low-glycemic option. Quinoa is a protein-rich grain that has a creamy texture and a nutty taste, which makes it a great base for this veggie-and-pine-nut recipe. It cooks as easily as rice and is one of the only plant-based foods that provide a complete protein (including all nine essential amino acids).

Potatoes au gratin is a creamy, cheese-spiked potato dish that may not sound compatible with a low-glycemic diet. You just need to know how to choose and eat your potatoes to make them a little lower in the glycemic department. Russet potatoes have one of the highest glycemic loads of any plant-based food, but potatoes in general are also loaded with healthy nutrients like fiber and vitamin C.