Low GI Diet

The low GI diet is one of the increasingly popular family of diets which use the glycemic index to control blood sugar levels. The theory is, basically, that some carbohydrates make you hungry quite soon after eating them because they break down and are absorbed quickly. These are the high glycemic index foods, and include most refined carbs, breakfast cereals, potatoes and bread, even wholewheat. These foods unbalance the metabolism and lead to rapid weight gain, high blood sugar levels and increase the likelyhood of diabetes in the long run.

The low GI diet has been reviewed favorably by several scientific bodies, and the American Diabetes Association recommends it for type 2 diabetics after research showed that dieters who followed a low GI diet reduced inflammation markers significantly. In Australia, foods will soon be required by law to be labelled with GI information.

But don't despair! Following a  low GI diet doesn't mean you have to give up potatoes and bread and live off fruit and beans. Actually, adding a handful of bran, which is a very low GI food, can reduce the GI of most foods. In fact, any low GI food combined with a high GI food will lower the GI index of the meal as a whole. Although this is good news for those of us who like our piece of toast for breakfast, it can make meal planning complicated, and the maths involved in calculating whether a meal conforms to low GI diet rules can be a bit off-putting, to say the least.

So, how can you get started on a low GI diet without all this hassle? There are actually several options, ranging from Anne Collins comprehensive 28 day Low GI Diet, Woolworths New Revolution Low GI diet which is a 12 week plan, or the original Australian " Low GI Diet " book , written by Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller. All of these give plenty of meal plans, lots of information and ideas for appealing meals.

Of course, the cheapest option is to build your own low GI diet with information available in the public domain. The Glycemic Index is freely available on the web, as is plenty of information on low GI diet foods and how to lower GI indexes by combining foods, but personally, I found it hard to build myself a low GI diet by myself. There is so much information available, and so many opinions given, that I found myself getting really confused and frustrated. I couldn't even go and make myself a bowl of popcorn to relax with, since I had discovered that what I had thought of as a perfect diet snack is actually one of the worst offenders, with a GI value in the sky.

I guess I could compromise and just use low GI foods as far as possible, and this would probably improve blood sugar levels, especially if I controlled calories too. In fact this is probably the most realistic option for most people.