If the results of a new study are true, the Glycemic Index site may be your new best friend.

Glycemic index is defined as a measure of how quickly food is broken down into sugar in the body.

A study by Australian researchers showed that when comparing four diets, folks lost more weight when eating foods with a low GIs. Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller at the University of Sydney and colleagues also found that the diet lowered chances of developing cardiovascular disease than diets with a high glycemic index or high in protein.

The study put 129 overweight adults on four diets, according to an article from Reuters.

Diet 1: carbohydrates comprise 55 percent of total energy intake, protein 15 percent of total energy intake, high glycemic load (127 g)

Diet 2: similar to diet 1 except a lower glycemic load (75 g)

Diet 3: protein comprises 25 percent total energy intake (based on lean red meat), carbohydrate reduced to 45 percent total energy of intake, and high glycemic load (87 g)

Diet 4: Similar to diet 3, except low glycemic load (54 g).

The tream reported that each diet resulted in similar weight reductions (4.2 percent to 6.2 percent of body weight), however in the high-carb diets, lowering the glycemic load doubled the fat loss.

Proof positive that not all carbs are created equal, as the South Beach Diet and many others already proclaim.

If you are interested in finding out the Glycemic Indexes for the foods you eat, check out GlycemicIndex.com, which is hosted by the University of Sydney. It has a database where you can enter your food and calculate the GI.

It's a pretty wide database. When I put in apple, I got 31 results from raw to dried to muffin to apple juice and more.

The site also has a bookstore with a plethora of books on the Low GI Diet.

-- Amanda Barrett, amNY.com