The Idiots Guide to the GI Diet
Rarely has a diet received as much praise from nutritional experts as the GI diet. It does not involve drastic changes in lifestyle or diet, but rather makes sensible suggestions to the way we look at food. It doesn't promise to make you loose 10 stone overnight, but it will help you loose weight gradually and leave you feeling more energized during the day.
'The new yardstick in nutrition is the Glycaemic Index of foods' - Patrick Holford (one of the UK's leading nutritional experts)
GI stands for 'Glycaemic Index' and although this sounds rather scientific, and puts many people off, it is actually a very simple concept to understand.
10 Steps to Understanding GI
- Our bodies are built to take in as much energy as possible to either use to power our bodily functions or to store for when food isn't available.
- In the modern Western World there are very few of us who will ever need to use stored energy. The result - we get fat.
- Our body's main source of energy is glucose.
- Any carbohydrates we eat are eventually broken down into glucose to be used as energy by the body or stored as fat.
- Different foods are broken down by the body and release their glucose at different rates.
- Because the body uses glucose as its energy source it also uses this as a marker to tell us when to eat. If we have glucose in our blood stream then our body has energy available, so there is no need for us to eat. If we don't have glucose in our blood stream then our brain tells us we are short of energy and we need to eat more food to get some more glucose; so we feel hungry.
- If we eat foods that release their glucose quickly then it enters the blood stream quickly. The body uses the energy it needs and then stores the rest as fat. When this has happened and all the glucose has been removed from the blood stream, no energy is available to the body and so we end up reaching for the biscuit tin again to get another hit of glucose and energy.
- If we eat foods that release their glucose slowly the body has a constant stream of energy available to it. It doesn't have a large amount that is accessible in one go so doesn't store the excess as fat, and because there is a constant stream of energy we don't feel the need to keep eating more food to get energy.
- The speed with which a substance releases its glucose is measured on the GI scale.
- The GI scale runs from 0 to 100. If a product is broken down into glucose quickly it has a high GI value, so glucose itself has a GI value of 100. If a product is broken down into glucose slowly it has a low GI value.
- So if you eat foods that have a high GI value you get energy quickly, but your body stores what you don't use as fat, and then you are left low on glucose and wanting more to eat.
- Foods that have a low GI value release their energy slowly. Your body has less energy at any one time to store as fat and you feel less hungry as you have a more constant supply of energy.
Research
One of the most often referred to studies in context to the GI diet was published in the Lancet and involved US researchers feeding animals either high or low GI foods over an eight week period. The results were incredibly significant with animals on the high GI diet having over 70% more body fat than those on the low GI diet.
Furthermore in recent research conducted at the Harvard Medical School on 'The Effect of Carbohydrates on Glycemia', it was consistently shown from studies in adults lasting up to six months that more weight was lost in subjects following a diet rich in low-GI carbohydrates compared to reduced-energy diets, reduced-fat diets, or high-GI carbohydrate diets.
Quick Tips
1. Instead of using sugar try Perfect Sweet, it is a new natural sugar alternative, made with pure xylitol. Its looks and tastes just like sugar, but has a GI value of just 7, as apposed to sugar which is in the high 70's. Its also good for your teeth and may even help strengthen your bones.
2. Natural fats, such as Omegas 3 and 6, are important parts of a healthy diet and foods rich in them, such as avocado, nuts, seeds, and fish also have low GI values.
3. Milk is an excellent source of protein and calcium and has a low GI value (try to use lower fat milks)
4. Chocolate may have been put in the bad food camp, but it has a relatively low GI value, so feel free to tuck in every now and again.
