GI Diet
GI Diet
What is the GI Diet?
GI stands for Glycemic Index and is a measure of the impact of food on your blood sugar. Foods with a high GI tend to quickly raise your body's blood sugar levels, by contrast foods with a low GI will raise them more slowly and over a longer period.
Eating lots of high GI foods has two disadvantages:
1) The rush of energy given by high GI foods does not last and is soon followed by an energy lull. So you get hungry and want to eat more.
2) After eating high GI foods you will have a lot of readily available energy in your blood. Your body will use this energy first rather then other stores of energy like body fat. This makes it harder to loose weight.
How can the GI Diet help weight loss?
By eating meals that have a low GI you will feel less hungry. This means that rather then controlling your cravings for food by will-power alone your are controlling them by satisfying your body. On the GI diet your desire to snack or over eat should be greatly reduced, therefore by eating fewer calories you can control your weight.
What does the GI diet look like?
People on the GI diet will tend to eat meals that consist of foods with low GI and will be encouraged to avoid high GI foods. However mixing low GI foods with high GI foods lowers the GI of the whole meal, this can make it much less restrictive than other diets. Low GI does not always mean low fat, so it is advisable to watch the fat content in your meals.
What foods can't I eat?
On the GI diet there are no foods that you can't eat but the secret is eating more low GI foods than high GI foods. A list of low GI foods can be found here.
The main thing is not to over-eat and the purpose of the GI diet is to help you achieve that. It is important that you watch the portion sizes of your meals and try to keep them down.
| Classification | GI range | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Low GI | 55 or less | most fruit and vegetables (except potatoes, watermelon), grainy breads, pasta, legumes/pulses, milk, products extremely low in carbohydrates (fish, eggs, meat, nuts, oils), brown rice |
| Medium GI | 56 - 69 | whole wheat products, basmati rice, orange, sweet potato, table sugar, most white rices (eg, jasmine), |
| High GI | 70 and above | corn flakes, baked potato, watermelon, croissant, white bread, extruded cereals (eg, Rice Krispies), straight glucose (100) |
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