Mitigating the glycemic effect of food with exercise (1)

In order to decrease inflammation and AGEs, limitation of high glycemic index foods in the diet would be ideal; however, implementation of this is difficult. Since some people may be unwilling or unable to limit their consumption of high GI foods, alternative means of blunting the BG spike of high glycemic index foods would be useful. Post-meal exercise may be one method for attenuating the BG increase associated with such foods.Glucose is a primary fuel for exercise and is used preferentially before fat stores are mobilized. 

Insulin is necessary to stimulate the translocation of the GLUT4 glucose transport protein from inside the cell to the cell surface in order for glucose to enter a muscle cell in the rested state. Exercise stimulates the translocation of GLUT4 transport proteins without insulin, facilitating glucose uptake from the blood into cells.  Exercise plus insulin has an additive effect to some degree in the facilitation of glucose uptake by muscle cells. Previous research has shown that cycling (30 minutes at 70% maximum heart rate) blunts the BG spike after consumption of cornflakes (1 gm carbohydrate per kg body weight), 53 and another study 54 indicated that slow post-meal walking reduced the BG response to a meal of cornflakes (1 gm carbohydrate per kg body weight).Recent research determined that 30 min of light exercise (walking) reduced the blood glucose spike following consumption of a Milky Way candy bar, a typical snack, compared to the spike in BG that occurred when subjects sat after consuming the candy bar.