The veggies have it – again
Healthy eating is one of the best gifts a mother-to-be can give her growing baby says dietitian Kaye Foster-Powell in her Low GI Family Cookbook. ‘We shape our children’s health and wellbeing from the moment they are conceived. What a woman eats when she is pregnant influences her baby’s health in many ways. The nourishment her baby receives in the womb shapes how its body grows. The flavours of the foods she eats can play a part in her child’s later food preferences, and her baby’s birth weight can predict the risk of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease later in life.’
A new study published in Pediatric Diabetes reinforces the healthy eating message revealing the results of a Swedish study that suggest that pregnant women who eat vegetables every day seem to have children who are less likely to develop type 1 diabetes.
‘This is the first study to show a link between vegetable intake during pregnancy and the risk of the child subsequently developing type 1 diabetes, but more studies of various kinds will be needed before we can say anything definitive,’ says lead author and clinical nutritionist Hilde Brekke from the Sahlgrenska Academy.
Hilde Brekke
The researchers analysed blood samples from 5724 five year-olds in the study. In type 1 diabetes, certain cells in the pancreas gradually get worse at producing insulin, leading to insulin deficiency. Children at risk of developing type 1 diabetes have antibodies in their blood which attack these insulin-producing cells.
Of the children tested, 3% (191 children) had either elevated levels of these antibodies or had fully developed type 1 diabetes at the age of five. These risk markers were up to twice as common in children whose mothers rarely ate vegetables during pregnancy. The risk was lowest among children whose mothers stated that they ate vegetables every day.
Applying the term ‘vegetables’ to all vegetables except for root vegetables, the researchers looked at the mothers’ (self reported) daily consumption of veggies. The most frequently consumed vegetables in Sweden between 1996–99, when the data was originally collected, were tomatoes, cabbage, onions, lettuce and cucumbers.
‘We cannot say with certainty on the basis of this study that it’s the vegetables themselves that have this protective effect, but other factors related to vegetable intake, such as the mother’s standard of education, do not seem to explain the link,’ says Brekke. ‘Nor can this protection be explained by other measured dietary factors or other known risk factors.’
For a delicious way to up your veggie intake, tuck into Johanna Burani’s ‘Baked Belgian Endive’ recipe (see GI News Kitchen in this issue).
Chinese herbs show promise for diabetes prevention
A recent Cochrane review examined 16 randomised controlled trials of 15 different Chinese herbal medicines traditionally used for blood glucose control. ‘Chinese herbal medicines have been used for this purpose for a long time, so there is plenty of anecdotal evidence for their safety and effectiveness, but we were interested to find out whether scientific research could provide a basis for recommending these alternative treatments,’ says lead researcher, Suzanne Grant of the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney in Australia.
The researchers considered data from 16 clinical trials including 1,391 people who received 15 different herbal formulations. They found that the herbs generally helped lower ‘and normalise’ blood glucose levels in people with ‘pre-diabetes’. According to their findings, combining herbal medicines with lifestyle changes is twice as effective as lifestyle changes alone at normalising blood glucose levels. Trials included in the review lasted from one month to two years. No adverse effects were reported in any of the trials.
‘Our results suggest that some Chinese herbal medicines can help to prevent diabetes, but we really need more research before we can confidently say that these treatments work,’ says Grant. ‘The real value of the study is as guidance for further trials. We need to see more trials that make comparisons with placebos and other types of drugs, and better reporting on the outcomes of these trials.’
‘If people with pre-diabetes do want to try an herbal product,’ says Grant, ‘they should first consult their doctor and, ideally, take any herbs under a guidance of a health provider qualified in herbal medicine.’ In traditional Chinese medicine, herbs are recommended based on individuals’ unique situations, and not as a one-size-fits-all prescription. As far as safety, the review found no serious side effects attributed to the herbal products. However, Grant noted, like all medicines, herbs have the potential for unexpected side effects or interactions with other drugs.
Lower GI of your baking with whole pea flour
We are often asked for tips to help people lower the GI of their baking from cakes to cookies and muffins, slices and winter warming puddings. A new study published in the Journal of Food Science suggests that that using whole yellow pea flour instead of wheat flour will certainly help.
Christopher Marinangeli
PhD candidate Christopher Marinangeli, MSc, RD, of the University of Manitoba and colleagues baked banana bread and biscotti using either whole yellow pea flour or whole wheat flour as the primary ingredient. Subsequent GI testing in 19 healthy volunteers found that the whole pea flour banana bread and biscotti produced a lower glycemic response that was similar to plain boiled whole yellow peas. The whole yellow pea biscotti produced a lower glycemic response than biscotti containing whole wheat flour. The volunteers found the flavour of the banana bread and biscotti made with whole yellow pea flour acceptable.
‘We add Xanthan gum to all recipes because it creates a better texture to the final product since the pea flour lacks gluten, says Christopher Marinangeli whose team made this tiramisu using whole yellow pea flour. We are currently testing the tiramisu recipe in the GI News Kitchen and will publish it early in the new year. Meanwhile, here’s the biscotti recipe used in the study. If you use the new low GI sugar (Logicane) says GI Symbol’s Dr Alan Barclay, you will lower the GI of your baking even more!
Whole pea flour chocolate and hazelnut biscotti
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280 g whole yellow pea flour
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 cup (200 g) white sugar
100 g hazelnuts, toasted, skins removed and chopped
85 g semi sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
Preheat oven to 150ºC (350ºF) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
The once humble prune forges ahead as the most super of the super fruits 
Christmas is just around the corner and it’s a time when we turn to fruit cake, fruit and nut slices, nuts, dried fruit … which makes me think of prunes.
One of the loveliest of all dried fruits, prunes are one of my favourite snacks and ingredients. There’s something so appealing about their flavour, it’s one that teams with pork and lamb as well as homely compotes to serve with custard or creamy rice. And they’re the ideal snack when you crave something sweet but don’t want lollies or chocolate. And they are really dried plums, usually from D’Agen or Moyer varieties, and are one of the more nutritious dried fruits and deserve to be included in your meals.
Laxative reputation: Prunes have long had a reputation as a gentle laxative and digestive aid. Obviously they’re high in fibre – a serve of prunes gives you 4 grams of fibre, as much as from two slices of wholemeal bread.
However their laxative effect is not just due to their fibre. Prune juice, which has little fibre, is equally as effective. Nutritionists believe it’s due to a combination of three unusual prune components – high levels of sorbitol (a natural sweetener found also in pears and apples), dihydroxyphenyl isatin and chlorogenic acid. All three have an ability to stimulate intestinal movement.
Fibre can help keep hunger pangs at bay. Most of the fibre we eat isn't absorbed, so it doesn't contribute kilojoules/calories which is why high-fibre foods feature so prominently in weight loss diets. Plus, 6 prunes have just 400 kJ or 95 calories!
Photo courtesy Aus Prunes
Good for nutrition: A serve of 5 or 6 unpitted prunes (around 50 g or nearly 2 oz) makes a quick healthy nibble. They have virtually no fat and 22 g carbohydrate (of which 16 g are sugars which accounts for their natural sweetness). They have a low GI of 40 so they’ll stick with you for longer and help you manage your blood glucose levels. You also get a healthy dose of beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body, plus a number of minerals notably potassium and boron, plus a little iron.
Weight for weight, prunes have more potassium than bananas. Studies have shown potassium helps prevent hypertension (high blood pressure) and stroke. Their high potassium content also protects the heart and kidneys from damage by too much salt. The average diet in countries like Australia, NZ, the UK and the US and Canada has too much sodium and not enough potassium.
Prunes score high for antioxidants too – at least equal to that of well known antioxidant-rich blueberries. Antioxidants help to slow the oxidative damage to our bodies and may slow the aging process
Seems I’m not the only person to love them. Last year, according to the Australian Prune Industry Association, Australians spent more than $30 million on prunes and consumed a staggering 3500 tonnes of them.
To find out more about the power of prunes and for some great recipes to make the most of them in your day visit Aus Prunes or Sunsweet
BBQ prunes with poached oysters
This recipe from Aus Prunes is the perfect finger food for a festive feast – you can whip them up in just 15 minutes. And if you are calorie counting at this time of year, 1 serving has 48 calories 200 kilojoules.
Makes 12
12 small fresh oysters
Juice ½ lemon
1½ cups chicken stock
12 large pitted prunes
6 slices prosciutto, fat trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
Spray oil
Sprigs rosemary
Drizzle the oysters lightly with lemon juice. Heat the chicken stock until simmering. Poach oysters gently for 1½–2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain and cool. Place a poached oyster in the centre of each prune. Roll a slice of prosciutto around each prune and secure with a tooth pick. Spray lightly with oil and sprinkle with a few rosemary leaves. Place prepared prunes on hot BBQ with a few sprigs of rosemary and cook for 3–5 minutes.
Each piece
Energy: 200 kJ/ 48 cals; Protein 4 g; Fat 1.5 g (includes 0.5 g saturated fat and 14 mg cholesterol); Carbs 4 g; Fibre 1 g
Catherine Saxelby is an accredited dietitian and nutritionist and runs the Foodwatch Nutrition Centre. For more information and delicious recipes the whole family will love, visit foodwatch.com.au.
American dietitian and author of Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Johanna Burani, shares favourite recipes with a low or moderate GI from her Italian kitchen. For more information, check out Johanna's website. The photographs are by Sergio Burani. His food, travel and wine photography website is photosbysergio.com.
![[JOHANNA]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2008/sept08/joanna175.jpg)
Baked Belgian Endives
Italians love ‘indivia’. Vegetable greens, raw and cooked, play a prominent role in Italian meal planning all year long but some are given special attention for holiday meals. This recipe has graced our table at Christmas and special family events. The exquisite blending of its flavors belies the simplicity of the preparation of this side dish.
Serves 8 (2 halves each)
8 endives (witlof), approximately 5 oz (150 g) each
2 tablespoons salted butter
pinch salt
pinch sugar
½ cup (approximately 2 oz) crumbled gorgonzola
5 walnut halves, chopped (about 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts)
Per serving
Energy: 336 kJ/ 80 cals; Protein 2 g; Fat 6 g (includes 3 g saturated fat and 14 mg cholesterol); Carbs 1 g; Fibre less than 1 g
Cut back on the food bills and enjoy fresh-tasting, easily prepared, seasonal, satisfying and delicious low or moderate GI meals that don’t compromise on quality and flavour one little bit with Money Saving Meals author Diane Temple. For more recipes check out Diane's Money Saving Meals website.
Boeuf Bourguignon inspired by Julie and Julia
You get the flavour without spending a fortune in my simplified version of this classic French dish. It’s a heart-warming, make-ahead dish for wintry weather. I have cut back on the amount of meat and used shortcut bacon instead of a chunk of bacon to cut back on the sat fat. (Short cut bacon is a 'half rasher' - the streaky (belly), narrow portion of the rasher has been removed leaving the choice cut eye meat.) But I did use a good-ish red wine and a little butter (it is a French dish) combined with olive oil. Of course you can substitute margarine if you prefer. Serve with mashed potato (a low GI potato one preferably) or sweet potato and green beans. To cut the fat and calories, have a smaller serving and enjoy the hearty flavour.
Serves 6
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
800 g gravy beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped into chunks
150 g (5 oz) shortcut bacon, fat trimmed, chopped into large dice
½ teaspoon dried thyme
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1½ cups red wine
1 cup beef stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
8 small pickling onions, peeled, and halved if large-ish
300 g (10 oz) button mushrooms
¼ cup parsley
Myth: We can grow more food or import it. Technology will find a solution to food supply.![[NICOLE]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2007/dec2007/nicole125.jpg)
Nicole Senior
Fact: We must make some changes if our children are to inherit a decent quality of life.
While many of us are lucky enough to pick and choose what we eat for good health, we need to act now for our children to enjoy this privilege in the future. There’s much each one of us can do, and as the saying goes, think global, act local.
I attended the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance’s sydneyfoodfairness.org.au Food Summit 2009 recently and listened to a number of experts share some of the challenges ahead for Sydney (where I live) for human health and the health of the planet. It may well apply to your city too. Some of the key problems Sydneysiders need to deal with are food waste, poor agricultural practices and loss of agricultural land. With the super-indulgence of Christmas around the corner, food waste seems appropriate to tackle head on this month.
In New South Wales, 38% of the average household garbage bin is filled with food waste – about 800,000 tonnes a year. Look at it this way, we throw out about $600 million worth of fresh food because we don’t get to around to cooking it. And it’s not just a Sydney problem. Research conducted in 2004 found Australians were throwing away $5 billion worth of food every year– the equivalent of one out of every five grocery bags.
As well as throwing money out the window, food waste in landfill is an environmental disaster. Not only are the inputs of energy, water, feed and fertiliser squandered, but for every tonne of food waste, almost a tonne (about 9/10 of one actually) of greenhouse gas is produced.
Adding insult to injury is the large number of people who don’t get enough to eat, both at home and abroad. More than a million Australians for example – many of them children – experience food insecurity on a regular basis.
What can we do? Research shows, many people simply have no idea of the impact their food waste has, so awareness is vital. The UK is doing a great job with their campaign http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/.
Make avoiding food waste in your home your Number One New Year’s Resolution. With some simple changes to your shopping and storing routines you can help save your pennies and our planet.
![[SUN]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2008/oct08/nicole_books300.jpg)
How many steps?
Physical activity guidelines for weight loss and fitness recommend 30–60 minutes of activity per day. But realistically, how much is that? You can walk to the fence and chat with the neighbour for 20 minutes, then use the last 10 minutes to walk home.
On the other hand, some experts have recommended using a pedometer and trying for up to 10,000 steps a day. But again, this is not very realistic, because all these steps can be done at a dawdle.
Now a well known group of experts (American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2009;36(5):410-415) has suggested walking 3000 steps in thirty minutes on five days in each week. This can be three lots of 1000 steps in ten minutes each day. One hundred steps a minute should be the going rate.
For more information on weight loss for men, check out Professor Trim's website http://www.professortrim.com/.
![[ALAN]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2009/april2009/alan125.jpg)
Alan Barclay
POM Wonderful joins GI Symbol Program
POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice with its impressive line-up of polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) now carries the GI Symbol. Made from the juice of five fresh pomegranates, it contains no added refined sugars, artificial ingredients or filler juices. As with all fruit juices, keep those portions moderate. Here’s what you get: 1 cup POM Wonderful 100% Juice:
GI 53, available carbs per serving 37 g; GL per serving 19; Energy per serving: 630 kJ/150 cals.
Catherine Saxelby reported on pomegranates in the February 2009 issue of GI News. Here are some of her tips for ways to enjoy pomegranate juice:
GI Q&A with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller
A high fat food may have a low GI. Doesn’t this make these foods sound healthy, even when they’re not?
The GI is a measure of carbohydrate quality, not an all-in-one index of a food’s nutritional worth. We don’t recommend jelly beans simply because they are low in fat and the same goes for foods that are low GI but ‘nutritionally challenged’. It’s important to think about all of the different nutritional qualities of a food, and not only its GI. For example, potato chips and French fries are lower GI than baked potatoes. Corn chips are lower GI than sweet corn. The reason: large amounts of fat in food tend to slow the rate of stomach emptying and therefore the rate at which foods are digested. Yet the saturated fat in these foods makes them less healthful and contributes to a greatly increased risk of heart disease.
If we were to weigh the health benefits of a high GI but low fat food (e.g. potatoes) versus one high in saturated fat but low GI (e.g. some biscuits), then we vote for the potatoes. Again, the GI was never meant to be the sole determinant of what foods you choose to eat. It’s essential to base your food choices on the overall nutrient content of a food, including kilojoules, fibre, fat and salt. This is where the GI Symbol Program helps consumers identify nutritious sources of low GI carbs.
Save foods that contain saturated fats, even if they’re low GI – such as confectionery, cakes and biscuits – as treats for special occasions.
New GI values with Fiona Atkinson
We don't just test health food. And I have to say I have never seen so many smiley volunteers when they heard we were GI testing chocolate mud cake, pavlova, Christmas mince pies, Christmas cake and rum balls! After all, it is the festive season whether or not you are a believer. What did we find? Well, no surprises in the calorie and fat department. So if you are celebrating, enjoy these foods, but remember they are treats for special occasions, so keep those portions moderate, slip into damage control mode and successfully navigate your way through the silly season.
Chocolate mud cake (a bought one from Woolworths supermarket): GI 43
Per 100 g serving you'll get 1650 kJ/393 cals, 4 g protein, 21 g fat, 46 g carbs and 2 g fibre
Pavlova (Woolworths Select Classic Pavlova Shell, prepared with whipped cream, sliced strawberries, sliced banana and passionfruit): GI 49
Per 100 g serving you'll get 816 kJ/194 cals, 2 g protein, 9 g fat, 26 g carbs and 2 g fibre
For American readers, pavlova is a light and airy, frothy meringue cake made up of egg whites and sugar that is crunchy on the outside and gooey inside, then piled high with whipped cream and fruit. Traditionally the fruit used is kiwi berries, but any fruit will do. Named for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, recipes for pavlova first showed up in written form in the early 1930s.
Christmas cake (Big Sister Christmas Rich Fruit Cake): GI = 53
Per 50 g serving you'll get 766 kJ/183 cal, 2 g protein, 7 g fat, 28 g carbs and 2 g fibre
Rum balls (Christmas Selection by Woolworths Rum Balls, packet of 12): GI = 50
per 25 g serving (1 rum ball) you'll get 363 kJ/87 cal, 1 g protein, 3 g fat, 14 g carbs and 1 g fibre
Mr Kipling Christmas Mince Pies (pastry top and base, deep filled): GI = 58
Per pie (59 g) you'll get 986 kJ/235 cal, 1.5 g protein, 9 g fat, 37 g carbs and 1 g fibre
GI testing by an accredited laboratory
North America
Dr Alexandra Jenkins
Glycemic Index Laboratories
36 Lombard Street, Suite 100
Toronto, Ontario M5C 2X3 Canada
Phone +1 416 861 0506
Email info@gilabs.com
Web http://www.gilabs.com/
Australia
Fiona Atkinson![[FIONA]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2009/may2009/fiona125.jpg)
Research Manager, Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service (SUGiRS)
Human Nutrition Unit, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences
Sydney University
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone + 61 2 9351 6018
Fax: + 61 2 9351 6022
Email sugirs@mmb.usyd.edu.au
Web http://www.glycemicindex.com/
See The New Glucose Revolution on YouTube
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