Low GI Dieting

I saw my dietician yesterday for a follow-up appointment. I explained to her that I suddenly picked up more than 6 pounds in one week during October 2008. When she weighed me I was down to 198 pounds, meaning I had lost all of that weight. BUT picking it up took one week, losing it took 6 weeks.

She gave me some additional tips for dealing with my slightly high cholesterol:

• Oats is excellent for cholesterol and should be eaten at least 2-3 times per week. It should be made by using about 2-3 tablespoons oats with water. I have to make it slightly waterish and then add oat bran (also excellent for cholesterol). I can have it with fat free milk.
• I should have 2-3 fruits per day. I can replace on portion of fruit with 1/3 cup of fruit juice, preferably red grape juice, berry juice or orange juice.
• Red meat should be limited to 2/3 times per week. The best cut would be lean fillet/rump or lean mince. We have cut down on red meat and only eat it about once a month, so this should not be a problem.
• Use margarine that has the approval of the heart foundation or a similar organisation.
• Low GI bread (whole wheat) with sardines and/or avo is excellent for reducing cholesterol.

She also gave me a new multivitamin with policosanol and betasitosterol, both of which helps reduce cholesterol. It also improves blood circulation, but might give me hot flushes.

I need to see her again in two weeks. She is worried that I might have a mental block @ 198 pounds. I agree with this. I really hope I can lose some weight before seeing her again.

I think I need to log my daily food intake again.

Tomorrow my stitches come out and then I can exercise again! Hoorah!

What is GI?

GI refers to the glycaemic index. The GI index is a way of rating carbohydrates according to how it is broken down into glucose in our bodies. If the foods break down fast in our bodies, it has a high GI value. High GI value foods are not as good for us as low GI value foods.

Pure glucose has a GI value of 100. All other foods are therefore measured against this value. A GI value can only be assigned to carbohydrates. Protein has no GI value since it contains no carbohydrates. Protein therefore has an irrelevant GI rating.

When we eat food, the carbohydrates are converted into glucose in the liver. After the conversion, the glucose is sent to the body’s cells where it is either used to provide energy for activities (such as walking or running) or stored in the muscles and fat stores for later use.

One shortcoming of the GI index is that it does not consider that the portion of carbohydrates a person consumes will actually influence how fast the food is broken down in our bodies.

The glycaemic load

The glycaemic load (GL) is an improvement on the GI value system. It takes into consideration that the glucose load that a food delivers into the bloodstream is affected by the portion consumed. Therefore, the amount of glucose released into the bloodstream is determined by the portion eaten and the speed at which it is broken down into glucose.

A small portion of a low GI food will cause a small load of glucose to be delivered into the bloodstream, which is the ideal situation.

One shortcoming of both the GL and GI is that neither takes the nutritional value of a specific food into account.

What is the benefit of the GI/GL foods?

When we eat refines carbohydrates, such as white bread, cakes and biscuits, the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose fast since they are all high GI foods. High GI foods increases the glucose in our bloodstream quickly, but the effect is short-lived resulting in us feeling tired and hungry fairly shortly after eating these high GI foods. Eating high GI foods also causes mood swings and sugar cravings.

If we eat low GI foods, such as wholewheat bread or vegetables, the carbohydrates are converted to glucose much slower and make us feel satisfied and energetic for longer periods of time. The challenge is to maintain a balanced sugar level throughout the day.

See also the following related posts:

GI foods and exercise
Some low GI diet information
My mealplan
First appointment with dietician

iVillage has recently published a newsletter with some interesting GI diet information:

Check it out:

The iVillage GI diet plan

GI meal plans for a week

GI Breakfast ideas

GI Dinner ideas

GI snack ideas

Since being sick, I have really been drinking a lot of this ice tea. I think apart from it being healthy due to the high level of anti-oxidants, it also aids weightloss. Drinking it makes me feel fuller for longer. The recipe delivers about 7 litres of ice tea which lasts me about 4 days. Making the ice tea is cheaper than soda so I can even save a few bucks this way.

Ingredients:

6 Rooibos teabags

6 litre water

500 ml orange juice

500 ml pineapple juice

250 ml apple juice

0,5 cups xylitol or sweetener (optional)

0,5 teaspoon cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

2-3 pods elachi/cardamom (optional)

Method:

Boil the 6 teabags, cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom in the 6 litres of water

Once boiled, add xylitol/sweetener and mix till dissolved.

Add fruit juices and leave to cool.

Enjoy!

I had my second appointment with the dietician. She discussed the mealplan she formulated for me.

Some additional suggestions she made today:

• Instead of drinking dark diet soda, go for the light ones. The dark ones contain caffeine and phosphates which are bad for us over a long period.
  
• Starchy veggies/carbs should be left to cool down before eating. They can be reheated but should at least cool down once as this lowers the GI.

• The GI of certain foods can be lowered by adding oat bran. Aim to consume about 40 grams of this to increase fiber intake.

• Best fruits: strawberries, apple, pear, orange, papaya, mango.

• Corn is a good starch and can be eaten every day. Other good starchy veggies include butternut and sweet potato.

• When looking at the fat content of a product, try for <5gram or at least < 10 grams per 100 gram.

• Avoid yellow cheeses, go for white cheeses such as Mozarella or Edam cheese.

• Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.

• A high GI food can still be eaten if the GL (glyceamic load) is low. GL refers to eating a high GI food in small portions which does not have such a big effect on blood sugar.

Breakfast:

Essentially low GI bread with a low GI (preferably protein) topping, cereal with skim milk or fat-free yogurt with oat bran and nuts.

Morning snack:

Small fat-free yogurt (if not eaten for breakfast) or a low GI fruit.

Lunch:

Ideally a salad with chicken breast or tuna and some wholewheat crackers/wholewheat pasta.

Afternoon snack:

Low GI fruit

Supper:

Chicken or fish with low GI veggies such as cauliflower, green beans and low GI starches such as sweet potato, basmati rice or butternut.

Take-outs are allowed, but ask for no mayo and stick to wraps, where possible. Grilled food is better than fried.

I can highly recommend a GI guide which shows you almost all foods in the different food groups available. Somesimes it is surprising to see which foods are low GI and which are not.

I have managed to lose 2,8 pounds in the last week WITHOUT additional exercising WITHOUT making major dietary changes. I am soooo happy that the pounds are finally falling off.

I went to see a dietician today. It was my first appointment with her and I learnt so much. I have to go see her again next week so I can get the personalised mealplan she is doing for me. She is focusing on the low GI produts, so I don’t expect big changes to my current way of eating.

Although I have a lot of fat to lose, I have a good muscle weight (not quite sure what that means), so all is not bad.

Some of her recommendations:

• I need to cut down on my 4 cups of coffee per day and try to drink 2 cups and more rooibos tea. This should not be a problem.
• I should aim at doing regular exercise, even if only 10 minutes a day.
• I need to stop using sweeteners and use xylitol instead.
• I have omega 3 & 6 and chromium supplements to use. I should feel it working within 2/3 days. Good news!
• Eating 6 small meals a day is excellent and I should continue this.
• Instead of having marshmallows when I feel like something sweet, I can eat 2-4 small squares of chocolate (about 20 grams) a day - great news!

Overall she said that I should be able to alleviate most of my PCOS symptoms within 6 months!!!

I am excited!!!

Today is day 1 of my journey to health and wellness. I will be following a low GI diet. My food and exercise journal will be available at: Fitday.

I have a lot of weight to lose. The total amount of pounds I have to lose seems so daunting, so I have decided to set an initial goal of 11 pounds (5 kgs) over a period of 10 weeks, meaning I have to lose 1,1 pounds (0,5kgs) per week. In other words, by the end of Ramadaan, I should be 11 pounds lighter. This seems like a realistic goal.

I have been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, insulin resistance and slightly elevated levels of “bad” cholesterol. I am am using 0,05mg Eltroxin and 500mg Glucophage daily and need to make dietary changes to lower my bad cholesterol levels.

In this blog I will post about my daily ups-and-downs, my weighloss failures and successes. I also aim to provide more info and recipes on following a low GI diet.