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A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Original poster

THE GI DIET - Support, Tips, Recipes And So Much More!!!!

432 replies

PuffTheMagicDragon · 28/01/2005 21:10

A thread for all us GI diet followers (and anyone interested in it).

If you have any yum recipes or tips to share, please do .

If you have any questions about following a GI diet, there's bound to be a Mumsnetter who knows the answer .

I'll be posting my progress on the thread weekly - if anyone else wants to - great!

Here are some useful links (some posted on other threads, but I thought I'd bring them together here):

Sunday Times GI Diet

The Glycemic Index (including database of foods)

GI diet recipe ideas at bottom of this page

OP posts:
emmamama · 06/05/2005 12:51

At the end of January when I started this I said to myself that when I got to 13.5 stone I would start running. This was because I never really thought that I would get there.

However that day has dawned and I am now about to go outside and make a complete fool of myself. What will the neighbours think? What if I can only manage a few metres? What if I see someone I know? HELP!!!!!!

robin3 · 06/05/2005 12:55

Baseball cap and some form of music so you can legitimately run past people you know and claim you never saw them.
I've only done running once in my life and found the first few times pretty appauling but improved pretty quickly after that. Of course I then gave it up otherwise I'd now be a stick and not need the GI diet.
Good luck.

emmamama · 06/05/2005 12:58

Right, warm up excercises done, no baseball cap to hand unforunately. Where do I put my front door key?

robin3 · 06/05/2005 13:02

Side of bra or tie round wrist or maybe wear bum bag

Caribbeanqueen · 08/05/2005 15:39

I heard that the Telegraph are doing a week long series of articles on the GI diet this week, with AWT recipes.

robin3 · 09/05/2005 09:18

Anyone seen it...I will buy a copy of it's in there and has recipes.

Emmamama...how did you get on with your run?

I really struggled to keep on the straight and narrow this weekend....too many cakes and biscuits flying around. Will ban my son from seeing his grandparents if this persists!

yoyo · 09/05/2005 09:42

AWT was featured in last month's Sainsbury magazine and is in this month's too. Lots of recipes but I think they are all from his new book which was on offer (£4.99 I think) with The Book People last week.
Haven't seen The Telegraph today.

piffle · 09/05/2005 10:17

Has anyone else got the Anthony Worrall Thompson book
It's amazing, so far I have baked the tomato filo tart, the orange and almond cake, the thai stemed salmon, the carrot and coconut harocit verts,the chickpea curry YUM!!!
I adore it, there are a few recipes of his in the Sainsbury mag, but have bought the book and the food is amazing. not much good if you do not like chopping up bits though, but I adore cooking and this book has gorgeous food in it!

Saker · 09/05/2005 11:01

Yes Piffle, I love it too, especially some of the veg dishes and I am usually a real meat eater. Although I am not sure how GI diet some of it is (as opposed to just GI) so I have avoided recipes with sugar in and higher fat ones. I might try the chick pea curry this week, I loved the spicy chicken and the carrot meza things were gorgeous. Unfortunately I ate about 10 as the children refused to eat theirs !

Original poster
PuffTheMagicDragon · 09/05/2005 11:02

Yes, I've got the book, only done the soups so far, but they really good.

OP posts:
yoyo · 09/05/2005 13:44

Bit worried about AWT. In The Independent today he says "I've lost a stone and I don't want to put it back on again". So how does he do it? By smoking 20 a day!! Not a good advert for the "diet for life" which I would have hoped would maintain the weight loss.

Caribbeanqueen · 09/05/2005 19:56

Well the Telegraph are doing the GI diet this week, I read the first article (no recipes) on the Telegraph online. Hope there are recipes the rest of the week.

yoyo · 09/05/2005 20:44

CQ - did you read the success story? Wasn't she 5'7" and weighed 9.5 stones but has lost 0.5 stone in 4 weeks? Oh to have such a weight problem!

Caribbeanqueen · 09/05/2005 20:53

I know, it's disgusting isn't it??!!

emmamama · 09/05/2005 21:06

Well I did my first run on Friday, I lasted about 5 minutes but thankfully no-one saw me. After speaking to dh about it it appears that I am running too fast!

So we both went out on Sunday and lasted about 15 minutes which considering the state I was in a few months ago is a near miracle.

Robin3 - thanks for your tip about the bra!
And another first for me- chickpea and spinach tortilla for dinner tonight (Helen Foster). i suspected it might be a bit bland but not at all. Plenty left for lunch tomorrow too. After another run that is.

yoyo · 10/05/2005 10:02

CQ - just went to re-read Telegraph article and the woman was 9 st and is now 8.5 st!! Not sure who this is meant to inspire.

Original poster
PuffTheMagicDragon · 10/05/2005 14:34

Well done with the running emmamama!

After my 6lb weight gain last week , I've lost 4lbs this week, mainly due to de-bloating after the bread I think.

I was wondering, should we start up a fresh thread as this is quite long now?

Also, I'd quite like a thread just for the recipes, as it's a really useful resource. I'm no good at cutting and pasting, but was wondering, if we did have a separate recipe thread, whether we could cut and paste the ones on here onto it and then add new ones.

What do you think?

OP posts:
yoyo · 10/05/2005 14:37

I think a GI recipe section would be excellent.

Caribbeanqueen · 10/05/2005 14:48

Agree that a new thread and a separate recipe thread would be good.

Thanks for the earlier tips on snacking. I never snack in the morning, mainly because I am usually and mother/toddler groups and all they offer is cake, so I need to start bringing a banana or something. I manage to bring something healthy for dd, so can do it for me too.

Off to get the Torygraph now and see if there are any recipes among the stories of stick thin women losing weight

yoyo · 10/05/2005 14:52

CQ - it's all about breakfast today. Two recipes - berry crepes and Morning glory poached fruit. Bit disappointing really. Don't think you'll glean anything new. The real-life story is more realistic though!!

robin3 · 10/05/2005 16:34

Would really like a new recipe thread.

Well done Puff on weightloss. It must be hard to stay on track when you've been doing it for so long and already lost so much.

BellaLasagne · 10/05/2005 16:34

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't had time to read this whole thread so apologies if this has been discussed already.

I'm read conflicting opinions over the GI of rice - one article said only basmati was low, another said it was medium and only brown rice was low.

Anyone got any superior advice?

Thanks

robin3 · 10/05/2005 16:42

I know there is conflicting advice but in my book it says that no rice is low GI....best is Basmati which is medium GI. Even rice cakes are out. Not sure if other books concur with this.

I've totally substituted rice with bulgar wheat which is faster to cook and IMO tastes better and isn't nearly as weird as you think it will be.

Had a indian takeaway of Friday night....just ordered the chicken dish and a chick pea dish and made the bulghar wheat at home with a little stock powder. Probably full of fat but didn't cause a high GI reaction so ok as a treat and saved myself the £10 we would normally spend on some boiled rice and a nan bread.

Original poster
PuffTheMagicDragon · 10/05/2005 17:23

Agree with Robin.

Definitely no low GI rices as far as I am aware.

I've got a few GI diet books now, and the most detailed explanation comes from Helen Foster's "Easy GI Diet":

High GI Rice - any rice that takes less than 10 mins to cook, jasmine, or sticky rice.

Medium GI Rice - white rice (but I think you have to be careful not to buy quick cook white rice), brown rice, wild rice, basmati rice

Low GI rice - no such thing

She goes on to explain that the GI content of the rice depends on which of the 2 types of starch it contains - amylose, which is tightly bonded together, or amylopectin, which is more branched out. Because of its tight bonds, amylose tends not to break down as easily as amylopectin, so types of rice high in amylose have a lower GI than those high in amylopectin.

The theory is that if the grains stick together it is a high GI rice, if they don't it's a lower one. But apparently easy cook rices have made this test tricky unless you are a rice expert!

I don't eat much rice these days, but if I do, I tend to have either basmati rice, brown rice or wild rice and avoid anything which says "quick cook" or "easy cook" on the packaging.

OP posts:
yoyo · 10/05/2005 17:44

Rice is a confusing area though. In The Telegraph article yesterday (which seems to be based on Rick Gallop) under the "GREEN (eat freely)" column for grains it listed: barley; basmati rice; brown rice; quinoa; buckwheat; bulgur wheat; wild rice. Under the "RED (avoid these)" column for grains it listed: arborio rice; millet; instant rice.

Eat freely seems a dodgy thing to say!