The glycaemic index (GI) is a useful a tool for controlling blood sugar levels in diabetics, people with hypoglycaemia as well as in sportsmen and women.

This article looks at how you can use the GI to control your blood sugar levels in diabetes and hypoglycaemia, for slimming and sport.

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Tips to lower the GI of meals
If you need to lower the GI of a meal, then you can do the following:

• Add vegetables to a starchy meal to reduce the GI - eating a green salad with meat and rice lowers the high GI of rice
• By cooking starches and cooling them down, you can lower their GIs - for example cold maize meal porridge has a lower GI than hot porridge, and cold potato salad has a lower GI than hot boiled potatoes.
• Select foods that are less ripe - for example a firm, yellow banana has a lower GI than a soft, ripe, mushy banana (75 vs 90)
• Add organic acids like vinegar to a high starch meal - serve that salad with a bit of oil and vinegar to lower the GI of the starch in the meal
• Use what we call the "second meal effect" to lower the GI of your diet - e.g. by eating foods with a low GI at breakfast (All Bran cereal, milk and orange juice) the effect carries over to lunch (bread, lettuce, ham, apple).
• Add legumes to meals to lower the GI - dry beans, peas and lentils, tinned beans, bean soup, and textured vegetable protein (Toppers) will all lower the GI of a meal (e.g. eat baked beans with toast, 3 bean salad with rice, or add a tin of butter beans or Toppers to stews served with mashed potato)

Replacement foods
Here is a list of foods that can be substituted for high GI foods to lower your blood glucose and insulin levels:

Brown and white bread - replace with wholewheat bread which contains plenty of unprocessed wheat grains, bran, oats and raisins (bake for yourself if you have blood sugar problems or need to slim)

Processed breakfast cereals - replace with Raisin Bran, maize meal which has been cooked, cooled and heated up again, oat porridge, Maltabella

Plain biscuits and crackers - replace with biscuits or rusks which contain dried fruit, whole grains, bran and nuts (start baking again!)

Tropical fruits - replace with fruits that grow in a cool climate like apples, peaches, pears, and citrus

Potatoes - replace with pasta, legumes, samp, long grain rice, Basmati rice

White rice - replace with cooked crushed wheat

Cooked maize meal (mielie pap) - replace with cooked, cooled and reheated maize meal porridge

Tips for sportsmen and women
While you are training you need to eat foods with a low GI to give you sustained energy release (see last week’s Topic for a list of foods and their GIs), e.g. dried fruit, fruits such as apples, pears, bananas that are not too ripe, oats, pasta, rye bread, etc.

However, when you need an instant short sharp burst of energy or when you are feeling really exhausted after training, select foods with a high GI to restore your blood glucose levels, e.g. jelly beans, Lucozade, mashed potato, refined cereals, etc.

Tip for slimmers
Remember that you can combine foods with different GIs and that this is particularly useful for those of you who are trying to lose weight and don’t want those horrid hunger pangs and dizzy spells caused by low blood sugar levels. - (Dr I.V. van Heerden, DietDoc)

Any questions? Ask DietDoc

Read more on the topic by purchasing Eat Smart, Stay Slim, by Liesbet Delport, through Kalahari.net.
 

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