Does anyone still do Low GI?

[AuntieMaggie]

Been reading through old threads of people that were following a low GI but they seem quite old - is anyone still doing this or are you just keeping quiet about it?

I could do with some help!

I'm doing a variation of the Patrick Holford GL diet which is similar. What do you need to know? I'll help if I can. Also if you search for GI on the forum there is a link on here somewhere for a lowGI forum which might helP you. Good luck!

Yes I found the forum but they all seem to be a couple of years old. There were a few people on them that had lost a lot of weight... I wonder what happened to them!

I'm getting myself all confused. I was given a leaflet with a list of carb foods and whether they were low, medium or high GI. I was told that my diet is reasonably ok but I need to include more starchy carbs but at the same time I don't want to over do it and put on weight. I've been eating more pasta than I normally would and have put on a couple of pounds but its also that time of the month and I've had to change pill so I'm not sure what is causing that but I know when I eat pasta it doesn't fill me up like it should and when I was doing Slimming World if I had too much pasta I would put on weight.

I've ordered a Partick Holdford book that was recommended somewhere else, and a few PCOS books that talk about the GI diet too.

I think I'm getting infomation overload to be honest.

I was also told at each meal to have 1/2 veg, 1/4 carb and 1/4 protein if I can. But today I've made a pea, broad bean and green bean salad for lunch with feta so do the beans count as veg? there seems to be different opinions depending where i look!

My typical working day pre GI looked like:

Bfast: 1 slice granary toast with either jam or 2 boiled eggs

Snack: maybe a piece of fruit

Lunch: salad of some sort with salmon, chicken or ham maybe a jacket potato with cheese if i forgot my lunch

Snack: fruit/berries and mullerlight yogurt

Dinner: something meat based with rice or potatoes and salad or veg

so, quickly as am at work, this is my understanding of the GL book. Your usual day would now look like this:
breakfast: two poached eggs on wholemeal toast (no butter!)
snack: piece of fruit and small handful of seeds
lunch: your usual salad but no jacket pots, have chickpeas or mixed beans
afternoon snack: yoghurt ok i think but maybe try goats milk one instead - i have cucumber and hummus.
Evening meal: as before but no spuds, eat extra veg/pulses to make up for it.

So the principle is no white carbs (bread, pasta, spuds) and try to eat a small amount of protein at each meal, as that is what keeps your blood sugar stable I think. That's why you have seeds with fruit.

I haven't checked for weight loss as am doing this for the extra energy and stable blood sugar, but the GL book gives you portions and is designed to help you lose weight

I found the GI diet really counterintuitive so didn't bother with it. This makes sense to me.

goes without saying - no milk chocolate, sweets, biscuits, but you can have a couple of squares of dark choc if you like

I think that people have stopped following low GI plans in favour of low GL. I started off doing low GI but got a bit confused/bored as I kept reading different things about it, different advice etc. I then looked into low GL which does make a lot of sense. I have various cook books (Nigel Denby is good, as is the Holford diet) but I sort of do my own things as well. I'm vegetarian so mainly live off pulses and beans with the occasional oatcake or slice of rye bread. I also have ME and I have found that my symptoms are not as severe when I'm eating low GL so that's a definite plus.

I have certainly lost weight using low GI/GL but haven't followed an official plan so can't recommend one.

Also a lot of the low GI/GL recipes use fructose, agave syrup or various artificial sweeteners in place of sugar - it is worth doing some research about these. Personally, I would not use fructose or any sweeteners due to the health risks, so I tend to just avoid sweet foods most of the time and then have an occasional treat with real sugar in :)

Thanks :)

I'm frustrated because I thought I understood it when I left the dietician but since looking on the net I'm more confused. She told me to include more starchy carbs like pasta, rice and potatoes in my diet and gave me a leaflet which has an indication of the GI (low, medium, high) of the basics like bread, potatoes, rice, etc.

Having read the other thread though one of the posters there lost about 8 stone but also said she's done it by not eating 'white flour' products.

Today I'm having:

Bfast: piece of toast with peanut butter and an apple
Snack: 2 ginger oatcake things with a cuppa
Lunch: pea, broad bean and green bean salad with feta
Snack: melon and strawberries with a yogurt
Dinner: chicken and veg with some sort of sauce (haven't worked that out yet!)