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. Check out
our recipes
section for more examples of what you can eat.
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.
List of High,
Medium and Low GI Foods