Let’s get a reality check here. We don’t often eat single foods at a time. When we eat a meal there’s going to be a mixture of different kinds of foods, each with a different GL – so what happens then? Eating a food with a fairly high GL, such as white rice, could cause the spike in blood sugars we mentioned earlier. To avoid this you have two options. You can simply swap it for one of the recommended alternative lower-GL foods, like pearl barley. Alternatively you can just cut down the amount of it you eat and combine it with lower-GL foods, such as lentils or beans. This will give you a lower overall GL score for that meal. You can do this with all kinds of foods, which is one of the main reasons why the GL Diet is so flexible and fits in with the real world.
So now you understand:
• how our bodies deal with the food we eat.
• that high-GL foods perpetuate a vicious cycle of hunger and cravings.
• that the GL of a food is a more realistic measure of its effect on the body.
• that low-GL foods = more slowly absorbed = less hunger and less fat storage = weight loss.
Brilliantly simple, hurrah!!
All you need to do is read through the rest of the book and start enjoying healthy, low-GL foods, losing weight – and best of all, be able to keep it off forever as the GL Diet quickly becomes a way of life.
As serial dieters, we are all searching for our own elusive ‘diet freedom’ or ‘freedom from diets’. The GL finally brings this within everyone’s grasp without deprivation or hunger.
‘I started with the GI, but found it contradictory and really confusing, then a friend told me about GL and I bought the book. I liked the fact that it’s based on the GI but it makes more sense to me by taking the amount of carbs you eat into account.’
Christine from Bournemouth
‘I was already GI-ing before GL-ing but it made a difference to me in that I lost the last half a stone I needed to.’ Caz from Rainham
‘When I followed a low-GI diet, I really overate on pasta, which I now know has a high GL. Plus I was afraid of watermelon, which I love. Now I know watermelon is okay and it was ridiculous to avoid it. Those are just two minor examples of why I think GL is better! There are many more. I find the more I read the more I can apply my new knowledge to the way I eat. I’m so grateful for finding this new way of eating!’
Sheryl from California, USA
diet freedom online club member
The GL Diet is:
Science made simple – no magic wands or pseudo-science here!
A healthy eating plan you will want to (and can) follow forever.
Safe and suitable for all the family.
Bursting with loads of delicious food choices and recipes.
About having three meals and two snacks every day.
About making educated food swaps to change the types of carbohydrate you are eating – not about cutting out food groups altogether.
About eating for health – it is so much more than just another weight loss diet! You will feel fantastic on it – we promise you that.
A great way to live and eat healthily, so even if you stop following it you will come back to it – everyone does! The improvements in how you feel will make sure of that.
A common sense, no nonsense approach that will fit in with the way we live today in our fast-paced society.
Brilliant for foodies and ‘fast’ foodies alike!
So effective because it works with your body, not against it.
But most of all …
GL is about results – it’s the perfect plan for losing weight because the weight comes off at the right rate for your body and so is more likely to stay off. There is no severely restricted start-up phase. The GL adjustments you are about to make are for good, and with the odd cheat and treat it is doable and enjoyable and will make you feel better than you have in years!
Chapter Three THIS DIET IS SERIOUSLY GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH
The GL Diet is not just a great eating plan for weight loss, it also embraces the importance of a healthy balanced diet and being physically active.
In this chapter we take you through some of the science and research that demonstrates how a low-GL diet:
• is beneficial to your health and wellbeing;
• improves the overall health of people with specific conditions;
• helps to improve symptoms of some common conditions.
Low GL and Diabetes
Because the GL Diet helps control blood glucose levels, it is beneficial to people with diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition where the body has lost the ability to tightly control the level of glucose in the blood. You’ll remember that in Chapter 2 we talked about how it’s the job of insulin to control blood glucose levels. People with type 2 diabetes don’t produce enough insulin and/or it stops working effectively.
Choosing a low-GL diet for people with type 2 diabetes makes sense – glucose is released more slowly into the bloodstream and less insulin is needed in order to keep blood glucose levels steady. For people who aren’t producing enough insulin, this means it’s easier to keep blood glucose levels balanced.
The scientists certainly seem to agree with us. A team from Colorado State University in the US looked at the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in urban areas of industrialized countries. The scientists found that over the past 200 years, the consumption of refined cereals and sugars has increased at almost the same rate as type 2 diabetes. The team concluded that the increased sugar in people’s diets was clearly linked to higher insulin levels and the subsequent increase in type 2 diabetes.
Another study of over 40,000 health professionals reported that a high-GL diet increased the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Similar findings were also reported by the American Medical Association who found that the women who ate more high-GL foods had a greater incidence of type 2 diabetes.
Both the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and Diabetes UK, the leading UK charity for people with diabetes, recommend a low-glycaemic, high-fibre diet as a means of maintaining good control of blood glucose levels and for helping to maintain a healthy weight.
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