style="font-size:15px;"> The Technical Bit – How We Work out the GI and GL of a Food
Note: if you don’t want to know about the science – and you don’t need to in order to follow the GL diet – then skip to Chapter 2.
GI – the First Part of the Story
To work out the GI of a food, scientists take whatever amount of a food is needed to give you 50g of carbohydrate. Now, with a food like bread that isn’t a problem because two slices of bread give us about 50g of carbohydrate. The bread is then fed to human volunteers and blood samples are taken from them at regular intervals to see how much glucose has been released into their bloodstream. The result of these tests is a GI number between 1 and 100.
Foods are classed as:
55 or less = low Gl
56–69 = moderate GI
70 plus = high Gl
So far, so good.
But let’s look at another food. Take carrots and use the same procedure. To get 50g of carbohydrate from carrots you would need to consume about one-and-a-half pounds (0.7kg). That’s a normal portion for a donkey maybe, but a bit excessive for the likes of us humans in one sitting. The volunteers (poor things) are fed the carrots, and the same blood tests and calculations are carried out as with the bread. The result is that carrots get a GI of about 75, making them high GI, which is why many GI diet books advise you not to eat them! Carrots are, in fact, a very healthy and low-‘GL’ food based on an average portion, so we can all thankfully continue to enjoy them as part of a balanced diet.
The GL Makes Sense of the GI
The GL goes a practical stage further. It takes the GI rating we’ve just outlined, but then very cleverly (thanks to Professor Walter Willett of Harvard Medical School who came up with the equation) takes into account the amount of carbohydrate in a portion of food we would normally eat. So now we know the effect a normal portion of carrots (around 100g) would have on our blood glucose levels, and that’s what gives us the GL rating.
It’s so simple and, more importantly, relevant to what we actually eat!
Foods rated using the GL do still get a number:
10 and under = low GL
11–19 = medium GL
20 plus = high GL
If you did want to count your GLs for the first few days to gain confidence that you are on the right track, you would be aiming to have 80GL or under on a low-GL day. A high-GL day would be 120GL or over.
BUT don’t worry. Although we do give some basic portion guidelines and GL references, you don’t have to count at all! Counting points and rigidly measuring and weighing foods is what turns us all off when it comes to diets. It’s the bit that makes diets boring, boring, boring and, besides, who has the time?
All you need to do is read through the rest of the book, start loving healthy, low-GL foods, losing weight and, best of all, be able to keep it off forever as the GL diet becomes a way of life.
As serial dieters we are all searching for our own elusive ‘diet freedom’. The GL finally brings this within everyone’s grasp without deprivation or hunger.
For us, this GL plan is the ultimate permanent weight-loss solution because:
It works – you’ll see results in just seven days.
It’s easy to follow.
It’s based on sound, sensible science.
It suits both men and women.
There’s no counting points.
There’s no endless weighing and measuring.
There’s no hunger or feeling deprived.
There’s no humiliation or guilt.
It’s a healthy diet you’ll want to adopt for life, not just for Christmas …
Oh … and it’s safe!
* The Harvard Medical School has carried out the longest running studies into human nutrition, stretching back over 20 years, and these are still continuing today.
Chapter 2 HOW TO FOLLOW THE 7-DAY GL DIET
OK, so now you’ve got the gist of how and why the GL diet works, are you ready to get cracking?
This chapter is designed to give you a short and sweet, whistle-stop tour of how to use the book, eat fantastic low-GL food from the 7-day plans and, of course, get results.
We have written The 7-Day GL Diet to give you enough guidance to guarantee results. You can start by making small changes a week at a time until, before you know it, you are actually living a healthy low-GL lifestyle. If all you want to do is follow the diet for seven days to lose a few pounds then that’s no problem, but we’d like to think you’ll want to carry on once we get you feeling all the benefits of eating low GL. Once you feel confident about which foods are low GL and which aren’t, we think you’ll want to join the thousands of successful ‘Diet Freedom Fighters’ (as they like to be known) out there who now make eating low GL part of their day-to-day routine. You can of course carry on using all the recipes, food lists and shopping guides long after the first seven days. Remember, this doesn’t have to be a short-term quick fix – it can be a way of life.
Because the three of us are so different – and the feedback we’ve had tells us you are all so different too – we’ve carefully designed three seven-day plans to suit the variations in the way we all eat and prepare our food. If you want to pick one of the plans and follow it to the letter for seven days, that’s fine; or if you prefer to mix and match, choosing meals from all of the plans, then that will work too. You can also follow each of the plans in succession for three weeks, checking your results as you go – do whatever is going to fit in with your lifestyle and feels right for you.
Whichever way you choose to use the plans, here are a few golden rules that will help you stay on track, and lose those unwanted pounds and inches.
The 7-day GL Diet Secrets of Success
Whichever plan you want to follow, make sure you eat three meals and two snacks each day. This will prevent the dreaded hunger pangs you so often get on a diet, whilst ensuring you meet your nutritional needs for the day.
Use
