No, the G.I. Diet won’t have you ‘getting down and giving twenty’ or strapping on combat boots; but it will have you eating healthy with out having to count calories or portions.
The General Idea
The G.I. (Glycemic Index) diet is concerned with the impact different kinds of food have on the body’s blood-sugar levels. Quite simply, foods with a high GI ranking dump their glucose into the blood stream quickly, causing a spike in blood-sugar levels, and energy, while low GI foods release glucose more slowly. The idea behind monitoring this GI behavior is that low GI foods will provide a slow and steady energy source, keeping your appetite in check. When you eat high GI foods your blood-sugar and hunger spike and fall, causing you to reach for more snacks. A cycle of overeating often occurs, which results in weight gain.
The Glycemic Index
The Glycemic Index came about as a result of the early Eighties research of professor of nutrition Dr David Jenkins. During tests to discover various food’s impact on blood-sugar levels, he found that sugary foods they did not necessarily affect blood sugar levels as dramatically was thought. Often carbohydrate-rich foods, especially those containing processed white flour and sugar, had a much larger impact. In 1981 Dr. Jenkins created the Glycemic Index, which is a scale that lists foods in the order of blood sugar level impact.
Using a simple scale of 0 to 100, and using Glucose as the reference (with a score of 100), Jenkin’s index lists food with low GI near the bottom. The higher the number, the more of a GI the food has.
The G.I. Diet
Rick Gallup, former president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, is the author of The GI Diet and Living the GI Diet , both of which encourage those seeking weight loss to stick to low GI foods.
The G.I. Diet uses a “Traffic Light” system designed to make following a GI meal plan simple. The red light means stay away from these foods if you want to lose weight, the yellow light means go slow on these foods, while the green light means go for it; these foods are low GI and can be eaten in reasonable quantity. As mentioned on their website “If you can follow a traffic light, you can follow this diet.”
Final Thoughts
Some caution is advised when making means on a GI Diet, as combining foods together can mean changing the G.I. ranking of the meal. The rule of thumb here would be to consume mostly low GI foods, increasing the odds that total GI level would stay low enough for high energy weight loss.
There are many places on the web to find out more about Glycemic Index (sometimes spelled “Glycaemic Index”). As always, check with your doctor before you begin any diet regimen. Good luck, and healthy living!