GI News—December 2014

• Why are there different GI values for the same food? 
• Why Prof Jennie Brand-Miller is uncomfortable with traffic lights and rating stars. 
• Is fast weight loss better than slow and steady?
• Do school gardens get kids to eat more veg? 
• Get cracking with macadamias, says dietitian Nicole Senior. 
• Recipes from Joanna McMillan, Anneka Manning, and Johanna Burani. 
• New quick meals with the GI Symbol. 

GI News 
Editor: Philippa Sandall
Management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD
Contact: info@gisymbol.com
Technical problems or faults: smb.ginewstech@sydney.edu.au
GI testing: sugirs.manager@sydney.edu.au

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Food for Thought

Reaching for the stars. 
How do you sum up the nutritional quality of a food on its label? How can a food labelling rating system be simple, but not too simple? How can we be sure it does not have unintended consequences? How does it keep pace with advances in nutrition science? In this edited transcript of a presentation given in Sydney, Australia, in July 2013, Professor Jennie Brand-Miller talks about what we really need on food labels to help us make better choices. 

“I am uncomfortable with traffic lights and rating stars. Why? If breast milk were sold in the dairy compartment, it would have at least two red marks – one for saturated fat and one for sugar (human milk has the highest sugar content of any mammalian milk). This is because the algorithms that underpin traffic lights and rating stars are based on the old nutrition that has past its use-by date.

• The energy content (calories/kilojoules) of a food is not the best way to judge a food – lentils and liquorice have the same energy density. 
• The fat content of food is not the best way to judge a food – nuts have more fat and are more energy dense than French fries. 
• The sugar content is not the best way to judge a food – dried fruit is full of sugar. 
• The sodium content is not the best way to judge a food – soft drinks are low in sodium. 

What’s wrong with the current traffic lights and rating stars? They ignore micronutrients – vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. They ignore two important proven attributes of foods in the new nutrition – the protein content and the GI of the carbohydrates. Both these factors are proven to help to curb appetite.

Appetite matters. Appetite is what drives our energy intake.

It is not possible to balance energy intake and energy expenditure by counting calories. Firstly, no one knows how many calories they expend each day. Even if you knew, the calories on the food label are not precise enough.

Secondly, mathematical modelling shows that a small but persistent excess of only 7 calories or 30 kilojoules per day over and above energy requirements for 10 years underlies the current epidemic of obesity. The best way to balance calories in and calories out, is to weigh yourself regularly or use the belt test.

What would I like to see on food labels? I’d like to see a system that:

• Focuses on the positive. 
• Rates foods according to their contribution to desirable macronutrient and micronutrient intakes. 
• Uses Adam Drewnowski’s Nutrient Rich Foods Index, which rates individual foods based on their overall nutritional value, as an essential component. 
• Encourages higher protein intake, particularly from legumes. 
• Distinguishes between naturally-occurring and added sugars. 

I would advocate that we make the most of something we already have available to use on our food packaging here in Australia and that is proven to work: two certified and recognisable symbols that are signposts to both healthy foods and healthy diets.

One is the Heart Foundation Tick, which encourages eating healthy types of fat.

The other is the Glycemic Index Foundation Low GI Symbol, which encourages eating healthy carbs. And here I have a duality of interest to declare. The University of Sydney owns the Low GI Symbol trademark. Research shows that the low GI focus automatically improves diet quality because it increases fibre intake, it reduces saturated fat, and it improves micronutrient intake. While the low fat focus had unintended, undesirable consequences, the low GI focus has had unexpected benefits.


My take home message for Australians: The Low GI Symbol + the Heart Foundation Tick = is good nutrition by default.”

You can download the full “Old Nutrition, New Nutrition” presentation HERE.

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller holds a Personal Chair in Human Nutrition in the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise and Eating Disorders and Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.

What's new?

Dietary Dilemmas. 
Popular diets can help you lose some weight in the short term, but keeping the weight off after the first year and the diet’s impact on heart health are unclear, according to a new systematic review.



After analysing clinical trials on four popular diet plans that that promote weight loss and improved cardiovascular health and advocate carbohydrate restriction – Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, and Zone – researchers found:

• All four result in a modest weight loss at one year, as did those in the control group who received the usual care. Those on the Atkins diet lost an average 4.6 to 10.3 pounds; Weight Watchers participants lost an average 6.6 pounds; Zone dieters lost an average 3.5 to 7 pounds; and control lost about 4.85 pounds.
• In studies involving head-to-head comparisons, there were no marked differences between Atkins, Weight Watchers, and Zone diets at improving cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, or other cardiovascular risk factors.

Dr David Katz critiques the study in his editorial, “Diets, Diatribes, and a Dearth of Data” in the same journal HERE.

Lose it fast or lose it slow? Fast weight loss is more quickly regained is dietary dogma. But the findings of a two-phase, randomised, non-masked, dietary intervention trial report that an obese person is more likely to achieve a weight loss target of 12.5%, and stick to the weight loss program, if losing weight is done quickly. The initial rate of weight loss did not affect the amount or rate of weight regain: with similar amounts of weight regained by 3 years by participants on both diet programs, who completed both phases of the study.

Fruit and Veg. Getting People to Eat Them.
Worrying about the kids “eating their greens” (or any other veg) goes with the territory of being a parent. But few adults are eating enough fruit and veg either according to the latest National Nutrition Survey. A mere 6.8% Australians met the recommended daily intake (5 serves) of vegetables and 54% the recommended daily intake (2 serves) of fruit.



Most people know they should eat more fruit and veg; getting them to do so is hard. In recent years, school kitchen-garden programs have been enthusiastically promoted as being the answer to at least get the kids to eat more greens. But, in the first large cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate a school gardening intervention, little evidence was found to support the claims that school gardening alone can improve children’s fruit and vegetable intake. However, gardening interventions implemented at a high level within schools have the potential to improve children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake by a portion. Improving children’s fruit and vegetable intake remains a challenging task say the researchers. Parents will agree.

To end on a more upbeat note, here’s an opportunity in February for the whole family to celebrate (and tuck into more) tomatoes: the second Tomato Extravaganza in the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.If you want to grow your own, the October issue of Gardening Australia Organic Gardener has tips on resilient varieties plus a problem-solving guide.

Bulking Up with Maltodextrins in Foods and Pharmaceuticals.  
Maltodextrins are widely used in processed foods as bulking agents or fillers and as fat replacers in “low fat” products – and you will find them listed on the label. They are also widely used in pharmaceuticals (and placebos) as non-active ingredients (excipients) to help provide taste, shape and solubility – but they don’t have to be listed on the label, because they aren’t active ingredients.

Findings of a rodent study in PLosOne demonstrate that maltodextrin exposure “promotes the formation of a novel protective niche for Salmonella through dampening host anti-microbial responses to enhance intracellular survival and mucosal colonization. These results suggest that consumption of processed foods containing the polysaccharide maltodextrin may contribute to a greater risk for enteric infection and may be an environmental priming factor for the development of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease.”  

So what are maltodextrins? Think of maltodextrins (modified food starches) as a family group, not as an individual ingredient. They are carbohydrates: chains of glucose molecules ranging from three to nine glucose units long. They are produced by processing corn (maize), potato, rice, tapioca, or wheat to break down the starch. As they are flavourless and only moderately sweet, they are commonly added to processed foods to provide bulk and texture and to help blend ingredients together. The FDA’s Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) lists maltodextrin as a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) additive. In their rush to condemn added sugar, everyone seems to have forgotten about maltodextrins. Why does it matter? They contain essentially the same amount of calories, total carbohydrates, and fibre as do refined sugars and, without fortification, are just as devoid of vitamins and minerals. They also have a high glycemic index. In a nutshell, maltodextrins can be as detrimental to our health as added refined sugar.

This is an edited extract from The Ultimate Guide to Sugars and Sweeteners reproduced courtesy The Experiment Publishing (New York). 

Nicole's Taste of Health

Get Cracking – It’s the Festive Season. 
Is there a more luxurious nut than the macadamia? Its delicate flavour, velvety texture and perfectly mouth-sized roundness just trumpet specialness, happiness and joy. I associate macadamias with Christmas time – probably due to their premium price and the gift boxes I’ve been lucky enough to receive over the years – so I can add “festive” to their list of charms.



The macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia) is native to northeastern New South Wales and central and southeastern Queensland. It’s also called Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, bauple nut, and Hawaii nut. It is known as bauple, gyndl, jindilli, and boombera in Aboriginal languages. They are the toughest nut to crack. Indigenous Australians used special stones to smash the strong outer shell and reach the highly prized kernel. These days we can buy them shelled for us.

Like other nuts, macadamias are among the nutrient-rich core foods it is recommended we eat on a daily basis. They’re heart-friendly because of their healthy fat content (mostly monounsaturated) and ability to lower bad LDL cholesterol. They are an excellent source of thiamine (vitamin B1) to help extract energy from food, rich in manganese essential for bones, and contain antioxidant phytochemicals to bolster the body’s natural defences.

Macadamias don’t have a GI value because they contain very little carbohydrate, but they can lower the GI of the meal or snack when eaten with high GI foods: macadamia nut butter on fluffy white bread moderates the GI of the bread. They do this because of their oil content which slows the rate of digestion. And while macadamias have high oil content, they are not a problem for weight control. Like other nuts they can actually help with weight management when enjoyed instead of nutritionally poor treats in a calorie/kilojoule-controlled eating plan.

Just gorgeous on their own, macadamias make the perfect delicious, nutritious, portable snack. They are also delightful in both the sweet and savoury recipes. On the sweet side, they make everyday wholegrain cereal taste like a treat, add fabulous texture to yoghurt, or give healthy edge to ice cream. They shine in baking such as loaves, cakes, tarts, muffins, muesli bars and cookies, and perfect in homemade sweets such as fudge, nougat, chocolate and toffee – Christmas gifts made with love anyone?

If you’re entertaining over the festive season, start with some simple spiced macadamias: toss raw macadamias in oil, sprinkle with your favourite spices and roast for around 10 minutes in a moderate oven. Try Australian native spices like wattleseed, pepperberry or lemon myrtle, Indian spice mix, chilli powder or good old garlic and rosemary. A macadamia crust on fish or meat, or stuffing in poultry, will certainly impress. Nuts add lovely texture and satisfaction to salads and macadamias partner well with sweet potato, beetroot, pumpkin, baby spinach, avocado and mango. Warm salads of grilled or roasted vegetables also taste great with chopped macadamias on top.

And let’s not forget macadamia oil. This delicately flavoured oil is also robust due to its stable monounsaturated fats. It has a high smoke point and can handle high heat cooking and has a long storage life. Try macadamia oil in baking or in salad dressings. Interestingly, the oil is highly valued for skincare products due to its excellent ability to moisturise. I hope you take some time to prepare good food for the ones you love this festive season. Season’s Greetings and best wishes to you and yours.

Buon appetito!



Nicole Senior is an Accredited Nutritionist, author and consultant who strives to make healthy food taste terrific. You can follow her on Twitter or Facebook or checkout her website

Disclosure: Nicole Senior provides Nutrition Consultancy services to The Australian Macadamia Society on a fee-for-service basis. 

In the GI News Kitchen

Family Baking.
Anneka Manning, founder of Sydney’s BakeClub, shares her delicious ‘better-for-you’ recipes for snacks, desserts and treats the whole family will love. Through both her writing and cooking school, Anneka teaches home cooks to bake in practical and approachable yet inspiring ways that assure success in the kitchen. In 2015 she is offering a wide range of classes including healthy Kids Lunchboxes, Savoury Baking and Gluten-free Baking. You can find out more about them HERE.

 
 
Macadamia, Date and Goji Berry Bars.
This dense bar is halfway between a fruit cake and a slice. Studded with macadamias, dates, goji berries and cranberries it has a real festive feel and makes a wonderful gift cut into four bars, wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon.

• Makes 24 pieces
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Baking time: 30 minutes

Macadamia oil or sunflower oil, to grease
200g (7oz) macadamia halves, toasted
150g (5oz) dried dates, coarsely chopped
100g (3½oz) dried cranberries
50g (nearly 2oz) goji berries
⅓ cup plain wholemeal or spelt flour
90g (3oz) LoGiCane sugar (see tip)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛  tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
1 tsp natural vanilla extract or essence



Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Lightly grease a square 18cm/7in (base measurement) cake tin and line the base and two sides with one piece of non-stick baking paper.
Combine the macadamias, dates, cranberries, goji berries, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl. Whisk together the egg and vanilla. Add to the macadamia mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until evenly combined.
Press the mixture evenly into the prepared tin with your fingers or the back of a spoon. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until golden and aromatic. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.
Cut into small pieces to serve.

Tip: Substitute raw sugar or Demerara for LoGiCane™ – a low GI sugar (GI54) developed in Australia by Horizon Science. The low GI value is due to the polyphenols that occur naturally in molasses, which are recovered by a membrane filtration process and incorporated back into the washed raw sugar crystals.

Per piece 
 510kJ/ 120 calories; 1.5g protein; 7g fat (includes 1g saturated fat; saturated:unsaturated fat ratio 0.2); 13.5g available carbs (includes 12g sugars and 1.5g starch); 2 g fibre; sodium:potassium ratio 0.13 

Joanna McMillan: What’s for dinner? 
Joanna McMillan PhD is a qualified dietitian and nutritionist. She is director of nutrition consultancy company Dr Joanna, and founder of Get Lean – the online healthy lifestyle system. She is a popular media spokesperson in Australia with regular TV and radio appearances, writes for several magazines and blogs, and has authored several books including The Low GI Diet (with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller). Joanna is a proud ambassador for Diabetes Australia and The Skin and Cancer Foundation. She is also a former fitness instructor and continuing exercise enthusiast which she juggles with being mum to two very energetic boys. Find out more at www2.drjoanna.com.au



Soto Ayam (Balinese Chicken Soup).
Street vendors in Bali sell this chicken soup in the hot humid climate, not only to fill local bellies with goodness, but to keep them hydrated. It’s refreshing, tasty and satisfying. If all your ingredients are ready, you can prepare this soup in about 10 minutes, but even if you are cooking from scratch (assuming you have your stock) it only takes about 20 minutes. I prefer to use soba (buckwheat) noodles when making this recipe, as we did in our photo shoot. These are low GI, wholegrain and gluten free.  Serves 4

3 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
¼ cup coriander, leaves picked
dried shallots, garnish (or you could use fresh finely sliced green onion)
2 tomatoes, cut into small dice
1 chicken fillet, cooked and shredded (160g/5oz cooked weight)
4 hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters
1 sweet potato, boiled to tender, chopped into small dice
200g/7oz soba or rice vermicelli noodles, cooked to packet instructions and drained
4 cups good quality chicken stock (preferably homemade)



Prepare all your ingredients. Bring the chicken stock to the boil. Portion the noodles, sweet potato and shredded chicken into 4 bowls.
Pour over the hot stock and then top with Kaffir lime leaves, coriander, tomato, boiled eggs and dried shallots. Serve immediately.

Per serve
1330kJ/ 316 calories; 23g protein; 7g fat (includes 2g saturated fat; saturated:unsaturated fat ratio 0.4); 38g available carbs; 3g fibre

Johanna's Italian Kitchen
American dietitian and author of Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Johanna Burani, shares her favourite recipes with a low or moderate GI. For more information, check out Johanna's website. The photographs are by Sergio Burani. His food, travel and wine photography website is photosbysergio.com.

 

Macadamia-Fig Granola. 
It’s been years since I’ve convinced my relatives and close friends living in Italy that a hearty breakfast with whole grains, fruit and lean protein is a much better idea than a small hard roll and marmalade. In fact, some are even baking double batches of their own granola. Here’s a recipe those new diehards can add to their collection. I can see them maybe replacing the macadamia nuts with walnuts or almonds but they’ll love the figs! Makes 14 ½-cup servings.

Cooking spray
6 cups old fashioned oats
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp chia seeds
½ cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup lavender honey
3 dried figs, coarsely chopped



Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C). Coat a large lasagna pan with cooking spray. Set aside. In a large bowl add the oats, cinnamon, chia seeds and macadamia nuts. Mix well. Pour the oil and honey into a microwavable cup. Heat on HIGH for 15 seconds. Pour over the dry oat mixture. Mix thoroughly to coat evenly.
Pour granola mixture into the prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes, stirring 4-5 times. When done, allow to cool.
Add the figs, mix well. Store in an airtight container.

Per ½ cup serve
967kJ/ 230 calories; 5g protein; 11g fat (includes 1g saturated fat; saturated:unsaturated fat ratio 0.1); 26g available carbs; 5g fibre; sodium:potassium ratio 0.04

Putting the Fun Back into Fitness with Emma Sandall

Yoga. 
Yoga is something different to everyone and people come to yoga at different stages in life. They move in and out of it – although certain practitioners and teachers are dogmatic about consistency!


Trikonosana

I first came across yoga through a beautiful school in North Bondi, called Dharma Shala. This initial experience has stayed with me. The room was small but comfortable. It was quiet, too. On entering we took off our shoes and made our way to a little table where the teacher would greet us and where we would pay ($17 back in the day). Then we would collect a mat and unravel it in a neat row next to the others.

While people arrived we’d lie on our backs, our arms above our heads and the soles of our feet together, in a position called Supta Baddha Konasana allowing the body to relax and hips to open before the class began.

Yoga means “yoking together” – the yoking together of mind and body. With that in mind – the philosophy of yoga can be applied to any activity in which the mind and body are connected in flow. But the exercises, postures, movements and technique of yoga practice is a system or discipline which encourages this implicitly. Built into the practice is an emphasis on breath, on quieting the mind and on being present. In other words, it is meditation through movement.

After settling ourselves into the soft ambience of the room for five minutes or so, the work would begin. Class was an hour and a half of flowing practice which linked traditional postures through breath and movement (vinyasa). The structure of the class would take us up from the floor into standing poses with names like warrior pose, tree pose, mountain pose challenging balance and endurance, to seated and lying poses which would stretch and strengthen the body in different ways finishing with bold back arches, shoulder stands and head stands, when the body was well warmed and connected.

Class always ended in shavasana, lying on the back again, relaxed, quiet, all the systems having been pulled or rather yoked together.

This type of class is often called vinyasa flow yoga. It draws on different types of yoga and brings them together through the teacher’s own practice and instruction. Basically, in a yoga class, your body will be stretched and strengthened with a focus on good technique, patience and perseverance.

People are either put off or drawn to yoga because of its “spiritual” nature. If taken lightly, this side of the practice can be used to connect you more deeply and respectfully to your body and the bodies of others. The spiritual or philosophical side helps you see the movements less as dry exercises imposed and more like experiences in the course of a personal and informative narrative, one which is different every day.
  

Emma Sandall is an ex-ballerina turned fitness and health guru. She teaches and coaches dance, fitness and Pilates and writes and produces video for all things movement related. Emma runs Body Playground, a space to activate and inspire body and soul.

Perspectives with Dr Alan Barclay

Optimise Physical Performance with Low GI Carbs. 
For high intensity exercise that requires quick bursts of speed, like football, netball, basketball, marathons, etc., carbohydrate, or more specifically glucose, is the preferred fuel for your muscles. Consequently, eating enough carbohydrate at the right time in your training schedule, and before the event, has long been one of the key foci of nutrition advice. However, the role of the type or quality of carbohydrate in enhancing physical performance has not been clear.

Due to their slower rates of digestion, absorption and metabolism, low GI foods and meals provide a slow and sustained release of glucose, with a lower peak in blood glucose levels after a meal and correspondingly lower peak in insulin levels. The benefit of consuming low GI foods/meals prior to physical activity is that the resultant changes in blood glucose and insulin levels are not as rapid as what occurs when high GI foods/meals are consumed, so consequently consuming low GI foods/meals will lead to an increase in free fatty acid (blood fat) oxidation and more optimal maintenance of blood glucose levels, leading to more sustained glucose availability for working muscles. This means that consuming low GI foods/meals before an event should translate into improved physical performance.

In 2013, dietitians Talya Postelnik, Alan Barclay and statistician Peter Petocz set out to see if the body of scientific evidence supported this. They conducted a systematic literature review and found 15 studies in humans that met stringent selection criteria and were eligible for meta-analysis. When exercising to exhaustion, as may occur in many team sports or marathons, people that consumed a low GI food or meal between 0.5 and 3 hours before an event were able to keep going for an average of 22% longer. When participating in time trials, people that consumed the low GI food or meal were significantly quicker (3% improvement) than those that consumed the high GI foods/meals. So overall, the results do indicate that consuming low GI foods/meals before an event will lead to significant improvements in physical performance.



For optimal performance, it is important that you eat and drink foods and beverages that best suit your personal and cultural preferences, and the event you are participating in, so as always, see your Accredited/Registered Dietitian for personalised advice.

Alan Barclay (BSc; Grad Dip; PhD, APD, AN) is a consultant dietitian and Chief Scientific Officer at the Glycemic Index Foundation. He worked for Diabetes Australia (NSW) from 1998-2014 and is a member of the editorial boards of Diabetes Australia’s consumer magazine, Conquest, and health professional magazine, Diabetes Management Journal. He is coauthor of The Low GI Diet: Diabetes Handbook, The Low GI Diet: Managing Type 2 Diabetes, and The Ultimate Guide to Sugars and Sweeteners. Contact: alan.barclay@gisymbol.com.

News from the Glycemic Index Foundation

Quick Meals. 
As our lives get busier, there are more ‘quick’ or microwavable rice and related products (e.g., quinoa and chia seeds) finding their way onto our supermarket shelves, that can be enjoyed as sides for our main meals, or as a quick and easy lunch (served with canned fish, cold meat or poultry, etc. for a complete meal). In Australia, we have a rapidly growing range of delicious and healthy, low GI choices available at an affordable price.

Regular rice products

• SunRice Low GI Brown Rice – GI54 
• SunRice Doongara Low GI Clever Rice – GI54 

 Quick meals products 

• SunRice Low GI White Rice microwavable pouch – GI52 
• Coles Brown Rice and Chia Seeds – GI41 
• Coles Brown Rice and Quinoa – GI51 
• Coles 7 Ancient Grains – GI49 
• Coles Mexican Rice – GI47 
• Coles Simply Gluten Free Mexican Style Quinoa and Brown Rice Cups – GI49 
• Coles Simply Gluten Free Quinoa Cups – GI53 

Coles Supermarkets have some wonderful family recipes on their website with their rice products, but as yet nothing using the new “90 second” Brown Rice and Quinoa. With their permission, we asked Alison Roberts, Diabetic Living’s food editor, to recreate their Roast Vegetable Rice Salad for a family of four people using one packet of Coles Brown Rice and Quinoa. “It’s delicious,” says Alison.



Roasted Vegetable, Rice and Quinoa Salad.

• Preparation time: 10 minutes 
• Cooking time: 35 minutes 
• Serves 4 

500g (1lb 2oz) orange sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm (¾in) pieces
1 medium eggplant (aubergine), cut into 3cm (1½in) pieces
1 red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
2½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red capsicum (bell pepper), cut into 3cm (1½in) pieces
1 x 250g (8oz) packet Coles Brown Rice and Quinoa
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
80g (2½oz) pitted Kalamata olives, quartered
50g (2oz) rocket leaves
Freshly ground black pepper



Preheat the oven to 190°C/380°F (fan-forced). Line a large roasting pan with non-stick baking paper.
Toss the sweet potato, eggplant and onion in 1½ tablespoons of the oil. Spread the vegetables out over the lined pan. Toss the capsicum with another 2 teaspoons of oil in a small bowl and set the capsicum aside.
Roast the sweet potato, eggplant and onion for 15 minutes. Add the capsicum to the pan and roast for a further 20 minutes or until the vegetables are golden and tender. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, prepare the Rice and Quinoa following packet directions. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside to cool slightly. Add the balsamic vinegar, olives, rocket and remaining olive oil. Season with pepper and toss to combine.
Add the roasted vegetables to the rice mixture and toss gently to combine. Place on a serving platter and serve.

Per serve 
1440 kJ/ 345 calories; 7 g protein; 13 g fat (includes 2 g saturated fat; saturated:unsaturated fat ratio 0.2); 46 g available carbs (includes 15 g sugars and 31 g starch); 6 g fibre; sodium:potassium ratio 0.24

Q&A with Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions. 


Why are there different GI values for the same thing? It’s very confusing. 
If you are a fan of Google (and who isn’t) you’ll find various GI values for the same foods and beverages. I have to say that I have no idea where some values come from. Certainly not any scientific research we have seen in peer-reviewed journals or from the GI test facilities we collaborate with.

First of all, some foods we think of as being the same are actually different. The popular potato: same? No. Different. There are many varieties. Ditto for rice. Back in 2007, when we saw the evidence mounting that it is the potato variety that affects its glycemic impact not the cooking method, we sat down with potato expert Graham Liney, grower Frank Mitolo and Dutch potato breeding company Agrico to put a low GI potato on the table. Three years after the first crop was pulled from the soil, Carisma was internationally certified as the first low GI potato (GI 55). Dr Kai-Lin Ek reports on it here and on what we are doing to identify other low GI potatoes.

Secondly, the testing method matters. A food’s GI value must be measured in people (we call this ‘in vivo testing’) and these days, according to ISO 26642:2010 (the international standard). There is (as yet) no easy, inexpensive substitute test. There are also old GI values from the early days of testing, which brings us to carrots.


Photo courtesy Hachette Australia: The Low GI Family Cookbook

Raw or cooked, carrots are good for you and they won’t send your blood glucose on a roller coaster ride. End of story. Why? Well, not only are they a low GI food (41), they have very few carbs. In fact, to get a hefty portion of carbs from carrots you’d have to crunch through at least 5 cups or 750g (about 1½ lb) at a sitting – a pretty awesome achievement even for carrot lovers. How did the high GI carrot myth happen? Well, they were first tested way back in the early days (1981) – only five people were included in the study, the variation among them was huge, the reference food was tested only once and the result was a very high GI. And it was that early high GI result for healthy foods like carrots (along with watermelon) that became the stick to beat the whole GI concept with for years – and still to this day for the anti-GI stalwarts.

• Lesson One: you can’t win ’em all. 
• Lesson Two: A food’s GI value was never meant to offer the only criterion by which it is judged as fit to eat. It’s a useful tool from the nutrition tool box to help you choose more of those smart carbs when creating a healthy eating plan.

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller (AM, PhD, FAIFST, FNSA, MAICD) is an internationally recognised authority on carbohydrates and the glycemic index with over 250 scientific publications. She holds a Personal Chair in Human Nutrition in the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise and Eating Disorders and Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. She is the coauthor of many books for the consumer on the glycemic index and health.

It’s Time to Get Mobile Friendly. 
From January 2015, GI News is getting a new look so it will be as easy to read on your phone or tablet as it is on your laptop and desktop. It will also be easier for you to share the stories and recipes you like, print them and Tweet them.

At the same time, we will be moving from Blogger and our base at the University of Sydney to WordPress and the Glycemic Index Foundation. The Foundation, a not-for-profit health promotion charity supported by the University of Sydney and JDRF, can provide us with the ongoing technical support we need.

Everything else will stay the same – the same team and the same range of stories, recipes and quality of content.

We do hope you like the new look and enjoy the benefits of the changes. We look forward to hearing your constructive comments on how we can deliver an even better GI News to your Inbox.

– Jennie Brand-Miller, Philippa Sandall, Alan Barclay

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GI News—November 2014

• What you need to know about stevia; 
• Dr Alan Barclay on the fibre paradox; 
• Prof Jennie Brand-Miller: why we don't talk about simple and complex carbs any more; 
• Fat cats, hungry birds and jet-lagged mice; 
• Put fun into fitness with walking says Emma Sandall; 
• Nicole Senior checks out sweet strawberries and Anneka Manning and Johanna Burani show us how to make the most of them.

GI News 
Editor: Philippa Sandall
Management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD
Contact: info@gisymbol.com
Technical problems or faults: smb.ginewstech@sydney.edu.au
GI testing: sugirs.manager@sydney.edu.au

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Food for Thought

Paradoxically... 
When it comes to paradoxes, nutrition science produces its fair share. The French paradox has been followed by the Spanish paradox, the Australian paradox, the alpine paradox and more.

The French paradox was based on observational studies that found that despite enjoying their cheese, butter, cream, foie gras and confit de canard, French people had low rates of coronary heart disease (CHD), in seeming contradiction to epidemiological research from the 1950s that had shown that that eating lots of saturated fat increases your risk of CHD. What were the French doing the rest of us weren’t?



Writing in The Lancet in 1992, Professor Serge Rénaud (“father of the catchphrase”) suggested that a glass of red wine might be the mitigating factor. “In most countries, high intake of saturated fat is positively related to high mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the situation in France is paradoxical in that there is high intake of saturated fat but low mortality from CHD. This paradox may be attributable in part to high wine consumption. Epidemiological studies indicate that consumption of alcohol at the level of intake in France (20–30 g per day) can reduce risk of CHD by at least 40%.” One has to say “the rest is history”. The outcome was an increase in red wine sales and numerous best-sellers sharing the secrets behind the French paradox with us.

What a success story, but sadly, too good to be true. It’s just a story. We now know it is wrong to assume that saturated fat is all that matters to predict CHD risk, it is just one of many dietary, lifestyle and genetic factors involved. And it is wrong to suggest drinking a few glasses of red wine will make it better. If anything, the whole story proves once more the concept that the balance of diet in general is more important than any single component in preventing disease and ensuring good health and it’s not a good idea to take the findings from observational studies of one group of people and willy-nilly apply them to another. So let’s not go there again, which brings us to some current single-nutrient solutions.

Based on the best available evidence, certain factors in carb-containing foods have been identified as “good” (e.g., fibre) and “bad” (e.g., added sugar). Much of the evidence for fibre and bowel cancer and added sugar and type 2 diabetes, however, is only observational: data analysis has come up with associations. Such findings don’t prove cause and effect, for that you need well designed clinical trials which take time, money and ethics approval, which tends to put them in the “too-hard-not-feasible” basket. So, back to observational and animal studies.

In our own backyard here in Australia, our health authorities adopted the international advice to increase fibre to protect us from bowel cancer and to decrease added sugars so we don’t get fat or get type 2 diabetes. Obedient as ever in public health matters, Australians have taken this advice on board: our consumption of added sugars is down and our consumption of fibre is up. But we haven’t been rewarded with the expected health outcomes: we have some of the highest colorectal cancer rates in the world and our rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes continue to rise. Now that’s a paradox, isn’t it?

Not really. The focus on the magic bullet, simple “single nutrient” message is the wrong message; as Dr David Katz says it is repeating the “dietary follies of history”. “We can never get to good diets (or good health) one nutrient (or food) at a time.”

In his review, The French Paradox: Lessons for Other Countries,  Jean Ferrières writes: “The French paradox does not teach other countries any lessons since each country has probably its own appropriate preventive solutions. In primary prevention, adherence to lifestyle guidelines is associated with a very low risk of CHD. The French paradox concept should foster research on protective CHD risk factors while conveying, in primary prevention, messages promoting healthy behaviour such as regular physical exercise, optimal diet, and life without smoking.”

What's new?

Sweet as! Four stories on sugars and sweetness feature in this issue of GI News. 
Run Rodent, Run! 
In September 2014, a study linking artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose and saccharin) to the risk of diabetes hit the headlines. If you saw the headlines, you may have been tempted to bin your favourite alternative sweetener. What got lost in reporting was the fact that most of this research was in mice. They were overfed pure saccharin – the sweetener identified by the researchers as the most potent, and the focus of the majority of the research in the rodents. The result: it altered their glucose tolerance and gut bacteria (microbiome). The small observational study in humans tacked on the end of the report looked at all sweeteners, but it was in a very small number of people for this kind of research, and it only proves associations – not causality. Dr Alan Barclay has put some context around this.

• Saccharin has been around for over 100 years and the diabesity epidemic has only developed over the last few decades. 
• The use of saccharin is decreasing. It is no longer a particularly popular alternative sweetener—aspartame (which was included in the study), stevia and cyclamate are much more widely used in Australia. 
• The rats were fed around 17 times more saccharin than a typical (Australian) adult consumes according to the results of Australia’s most recent sweetener survey. 

“Perhaps the simple conclusion” says Alan “should have been that it’s not a great idea to feed your pet mouse vast quantities of pure saccharin. The take-home? Ultimately, the dose makes the poison. Even too much water can kill you.”

Next time you see sensationalist headlines proclaiming “X” sweetener causes obesity / diabetes / heart disease, etc... ask: Was the research conducted in people; and would you consume the amount of sweetener the participants were fed on a regular basis over a long period of time? If you answer no, chances are the research finding does not mean much to you. If you choose to use an alternative sweetener to help cut calories or manage your blood glucose levels, do so in moderation (as in all things), and opt for using a variety of nonnutritive sweeteners to reduce the likelihood of excessive consumption of any single one.

Fat cats. 
We have a soft spot for things that taste sweet. Cats don’t. The mammalian sweet receptor is composed of two protein subunits, known as T1R2 and T1R3. Each is coded for by a separate gene. In place of a functional sweet taste receptor gene, researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center discovered that domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) have a defect in the gene encoding the T1R2 protein that makes them unable to detect sweet tastes. They also detected the same gene defect in tiger and cheetah, suggesting that it is common to species throughout the cat family.

“This type of gene is known as a pseudogene and is somewhat like a molecular fossil,” comments Xia Li, PhD, a molecular geneticist at Monell. “It presumably once coded a functional protein, but no longer does so.” Li explains, “Genes contain signals that indicate the start and stop points for information about the amino acid sequence of a given protein. We found a deletion of 247 base pairs in the gene that codes for T1R2 in the cat. As a consequence of this deletion, the stop point is shifted. The T1R2 protein is not made and thus is unavailable to join with T1R3 to form a working sweet taste receptor.” This molecular change was very likely an important event in the evolution of the cat’s carnivorous behaviour according to the researchers.



But around 57.6 percent of the domestic cat population in the US is overweight or obese according to research carried out by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP). Since it can’t be an excess of added sugars they are consuming, perhaps it’s a case of way too many calories and a super-sedentary lifestyle?

Hungry Birds. 
Our sweet tooth has a long history we reported in GI News in January 2013.The earliest visual evidence is in rock art dating back thousands of years that depicts honeycombs, swarms of bees, and honey collecting. But there is also much older evidence in the evolution of the mutually beneficial relationship between the honeyguide bird and the hunter-gatherer in Africa. Yale anthropologist Brian Wood and his co-researchers describe this in Evolution and Human Behaviour.


Photo courtesy Brian Wood

“When searching their woodlands for nests of honey bees, Hadza hunter-gatherers (an ethnic group that has traditionally subsisted from hunting and gathering who live in northern Tanzania near Lake Eyasi) are often helped by the Greater Honeyguide (Indicator indicator), a bird that flies ahead of them, leading them to nests of the honey bee, Apis mellifera .... During a typical guiding sequence, a honey-hunter follows the bird as it swoops, widely fanning its feathers, from one perch to another, and the two engage in an ongoing exchange of whistles and chatter. The honeyguide eventually perches near the nest of an A. mellifera colony, which is usually inside a tree. The honey-hunter then conducts a final search for the exact tree and nest location. After finding the nest, the honey-hunter lights a torch, climbs up to the nest entrance, blows in smoke to subdue the bees, chops open the tree with an axe, and reaches in for the honeycomb. While this happens, the honeyguide usually perches quietly nearby. The special nature of the Hadza-honeyguide relationship is attested to by the fact that honeyguides often perch comfortably within arrow-shot distance of Hadza, even though men hunt other bird species of similar size.”

What is the origin of this behaviour? ... We propose that in a first, commensal phase, honeyguides preyed upon the bee nests and discarded honeycomb that hominins made available through their honey hunting. In a second, mutualistic phase, honeyguides evolved the habit of actively leading hominins to bee nests. Finally, in a third phase of manipulative mutualism, hominins began to actively change the payoffs received by honeyguides – either by actively “rewarding” them or by reducing their immediate payoff. The Hadza we observed did not actively reward honeyguides, but such may occur in other contexts ... Based on within-species mtDNA variation scientists conservatively estimate that I. indicator is at least 3 million years old. We think it is reasonable to assume that an initial commensal association between hominins (Ardipithecus ramidus or an Australopithicine) and honeyguides arose in the Pliocene.”

Jet-Lagged Mice?
Who can resist a story about jet-lagged mice?  We can't, and neither could Ted Kyle of ConscienHealth. Those headlines about jet-lagged mice and jet-lag causing obesity all come from a new publication in Cell that's really about the effect of a disrupted sleep cycle on gut microbes. You can read all about it HERE. 

Understanding stevia.
Coca-Cola is about to launch the lower-kilojoule Coca-Cola Life in Australia. Like Pepsi Next, it’s a blend of stevia and sugar that provides the sweetness. So what is stevia? This edited extract from The Ultimate Guide to Sugars and Sweeteners  reproduced courtesy The Experiment Publishing (New York) explains. 




Stevia’s leaves contain steviol glycosides – some of the sweetest plant compounds that have been successfully commercialized as high-intensity sweeteners. Stevioside and rebaudioside A are the two you will find in foods and beverages and in tabletop and pourable products. They have zero calories and no impact on blood glucose levels, because the body does not metabolize them and they are excreted.

The favorite marketing word to describe steviol glycosides is “natural” because they come from a plant and are not entirely created in a laboratory beaker. Manufacturers tend to describe the extraction process as similar to making tea: steeping the leaves in water, then purifying the sweet extract. In fact, the journey through the laboratory to get to the sweetener in the packet or box is a little more complicated. Here’s how it was described in the JEFCA Compendium of Food Additive Specifications: 'The leaves are extracted with hot water and the aqueous extract is passed through an adsorption resin to trap and concentrate the component steviol glycosides. The resin is washed with a solvent alcohol to release the glycosides and the product is recrystallized from methanol or aqueous ethanol. Ion exchange resins may be used in the purification process. The final product may be spray-dried.'

Stevia consumer products come in sachets, tablets, liquids, and spoon-for-spoon granules. As with other high-intensity sweeteners, the ingredients list for stevia will include bulking and anticaking agents so you can pour it into a cup of coffee or measure it into your cooking and baking. In fact, when you buy stevia, you are often buying a lot of erythritol; in some brands over 99 percent of the product is erythritol. For this reason, some products are low calorie, not zero calorie, so it is important to check the ingredients list.

So, is it better for you? “It does have benefits over sugars,” says dietitian Dr Alan Barclay. “It is a good option for people who want to cut back on calories (kilojoules) and for those who need to avoid blood glucose spikes. But adding stevia to soft drinks to replace all or some of the sugars does not provide a licence to anyone to drink large quantities of these beverages. It’s no panacea. It is a better option, but water is the best choice if you want a cool drink. And claims that stevia is a key ingredient in the fight against obesity are overblown.”

Nicole's Taste of Health

Berry, berry good. 
I’ve got strawberries growing in pots and they’re coming on beautifully, however I did lose a few to Mr Two who took a while to understand you have to wait until they’re red to pick them; he didn’t seem to mind eating them green but they don’t ripen after picking.



He loves strawberries, and most kids do. They’re beautiful to look at too. They are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside, with each fruit carrying an average of two hundred. Visiting a berry farm to pick your own is a great family outing. Eating a fresh strawberry at its best is a delight. Go in the morning while the fruit is still cool. I’m growing them with black plastic over the top of the soil – I just opened up old plastic shopping bag – to keep the fruit clean and the soil moist, like they do on commercial strawberry farms.

Strawberry ‘runners’ are planted by hand in winter and produce fruit in spring, although greenhouse strawberries are available all year round. Strawberries are fragile and picked and packed by hand making them a fairly labour-intensive commercial crop.

Choose plump, red, shiny berries without white bits to ensure maximum freshness, sweetness and flavour. Avoid packs with squashed berries and juice in the bottom that indicates old or overripe fruit. Strawberries are best stored in the fridge, spread out in a single layer to avoid damage, but taste their best at room temperature so take them out for a while before eating. Wash gently in cool water (do not soak) before hulling and eating and allow to air-dry or pat gently with paper towel.

Strawberries are fabulous eaten as a snack but they also lend themselves to different serving ideas: strawberries and ice cream or cream is a classic simple dessert, and the antipodean specialty pavlova begs for strawberries on top.

• Strawberry shortcake is the stuff of fairy tales, and strawberries add beautiful colour to a fruit salad. 
• A strawberry smoothie just screams “healthy”, as a chocolate coated strawberry says “a treat with benefits”. 
• For something different, marinate halved strawberries in balsamic vinegar and a little icing sugar and serve with finely shredded fresh basil. It sounds odd but do try it on toast with a dollop of ricotta, as a filling for crepes or jaffles, in a parfait, or in an ice cream sundae. 

They are best eaten on the day you buy them but if your strawberries last long enough to go mushy, cook them up with a sprinkle of sugar to make your own sauce (when pureed and strained this is called a coulis) you can then chill and serve over natural yoghurt, ice cream, wholegrain breakfast cereal or wholegrain English muffins with ricotta. Strawberries can also be frozen for up to a year (and commercially frozen berries are good value for enjoying them out of season). They can be frozen whole in a single layer with stem to preserve their shape, or after cooking.

Strawberries are rich in vitamin C, with one cup providing 180% of the recommended daily intake. They are also high in the B-vitamin folate needed for a healthy heart and healthy pregnancy. Like other berries, strawberries are low natural sugars, low in kilojoules, low GI and packed with beneficial flavonoid antioxidants. They are also a source of fibre for digestive health and potassium for better blood pressure.

Just the other day Mr Two mistook a red heart shape in a book for a strawberry, which I thought was very appropriate considering how much we both love strawberries. The only down side is waiting for them to ripen on the vine, but all good things come to those who wait.

Buon appetito!


Nicole Senior is an Accredited Nutritionist, author and consultant who strives to make healthy food taste terrific. You can follow her on Twitter or Facebook or checkout her website

In the GI News Kitchen

Family Baking.
Anneka Manning, founder of Sydney’s BakeClub, shares her delicious ‘better-for-you’ recipes for snacks, desserts and treats the whole family will love. Through both her writing and cooking school, Anneka teaches home cooks to bake in practical and approachable yet inspiring ways that assure success in the kitchen.

 
 
Strawberry, maple and pistachio parfait. 
A delicious combination of nuts, seeds and oats layered with sweet fresh strawberries and thick Greek-style yoghurt, it is hard to go past this parfait at breakfast time.

• Preparation time: 15 minutes 
• Baking time: 12–15 minutes 
• Serves: 8 

800g natural Greek-style yoghurt
625g (2½ punnets) ripe strawberries, hulled and quartered

Maple and pistachio granola
½ cup traditional rolled oats (oatmeal)
½ cup unsalted pistachio kernels, coarsely chopped
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup pure maple syrup or pure floral honey
1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence or extract



To make the Maple and pistachio granola, preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F (150°C/300°F fan-forced). Line a large oven tray with non-stick baking paper.
Combine the oats, pistachios, coconut, sunflower seeds, pepitas and cinnamon in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Combine the maple syrup and vanilla, pour over the oat mixture and toss to combine evenly.
Spread on the lined tray and bake in preheated oven for 12–15 minutes, tossing twice during baking, until golden. Set aside to cool to room temperature (see Baker’s Tip).
To assemble the parfait, layer the yoghurt, granola and strawberries in glasses or dishes, finishing with a little sprinkling of granola. Serve immediately.

Baker’s tip 
Keep a jar of this granola in an airtight jar or container in the pantry, so you can whip up the parfait anytime you please. The granola will keep at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Per serve 
1430 kJ/ 340 calories; 14 g protein; 21 g fat (includes 7 g saturated fat; saturated:unsaturated fat ratio 0.33); 21 g available carbs (includes 14 g sugars and 7 g starch); 6 g fibre; sodium:potassium ratio 0.13

What’s for dinner? A taste of Diane Temple's Money Saving Meals. 
Red beef and pumpkin curry. 
Diane Temple says: “I usually make this with light coconut milk, but by using light and creamy coconut flavoured evaporated milk you boost the protein and cut the saturated fat right back.” Serves 4.

1 tbsp peanut oil 350g (12oz) rump steak, thinly sliced
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 tbsp red curry paste (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
375ml (14oz) can light coconut milk or light and creamy coconut flavoured evaporated milk
500g (1lb2 oz) pumpkin, peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks
120g (4oz) green beans, trimmed, sliced in half
1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp table sugar
1½ cups low GI brown rice or brown basmati rice (cooked)
chopped peanuts or chopped coriander or both (optional)



Heat the wok or large frying pan over high heat, add the oil and when hot (not before), stir-fry the beef in two batches for 1–2 minutes until brown. Set the beef aside in a heatproof bowl.
Stir-fry the onion for 2 minutes then add the curry paste and garlic and stir to combine. Pour in the coconut milk, stirring until the curry paste has dissolved and bring just to the boil. Add the pumpkin chunks, cover (with a lid or foil), reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10–12 minutes until the pumpkin is just tender (but not mushy) ... Meanwhile, cook the rice following the packet directions.
Add the green beans and the cooked beef to the wok, and simmer for 2 minutes until everything is piping hot and the beans are tender-crisp. Add the fish sauce and sugar, a teaspoon of each at a time, to achieve a flavour balance you like.
Spoon the rice onto four serving plates and top with the curried beef and a scattering of chopped peanuts or coriander for extra crunch and colour if you wish.

Per serving (with rice and made with light and creamy evaporated coconut milk)
Energy: 1826 kJ/ 436 cals; Protein 33 g; Fat 12 g (includes 4 g saturated fat; saturated:unsaturated fat ratio 0.33); Carbs 46 g; Fibre 4


Recipe courtesy Money Saving Meals published by Hachette Australia. Available from bookshops and online. Print and eBook editions now available.

Johanna's Italian Kitchen
American dietitian and author of Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Johanna Burani, shares her favourite recipes with a low or moderate GI. For more information, check out Johanna's website. The photographs are by Sergio Burani. His food, travel and wine photography website is photosbysergio.com.

 

Strawberries amandine.
Simply slice and chop and it is ready to serve. As with all fruit, serve these strawberries only in the peak of their growing season. Note this recipe uses a 15ml tablespoon.) Servings: 4 (1 cup each)

450g/1lb medium-sized fresh strawberries (about 24)
2 tbsp (30ml) Amaretto di Saronno liqueur
30g/1oz almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped (about 24)



Place the whole strawberries in a bowl with cold water and swish them around to remove surface dirt. Drain, run under faucet water, drain again and pat dry with paper towels.
Remove stems and leaves and create a small wedge at the top of each strawberry using a knife or small melon baller. (I use a demitasse spoon.)
Quarter the strawberries horizontally and place them in a mixing bowl. Add the amaretto, mix well.
Spoon an equal amount of the strawberries into 4 individual dessert cups, top with the toasted almonds and serve immediately. Per serving

Per serve
Energy 490kJ/117cals; Protein 2g; Fat 4g (includes 0g saturated fat); Available carbohydrate 10g (includes sugars 6g; starch 7g); Fibre 3g; sodium:potassium ratio 0.003

Putting the Fun Back into Fitness with Emma Sandall

Walking. 
Spring is here in Sydney. It seems to bestow on us all a bright energy, just like the flowers coming into bloom. My friends and I decided that this is the year of exploring more of the city we live in: getting to know all its nooks and crannies; its beautiful coastlines and public spaces. And we’re doing this by organising regular Sunday morning walks together.


The Bondi to Bronte walk and the delights of Sculpture by the Sea

Walking – at a moderate-to-fast pace – is a type of Long Slow Distance training, that is great for your heart health. Simply put, it elevates your heart rate and keeps it there for a sustained period of time. This “time under exertion” gradually builds strength in the muscle itself, and in so doing improves your cardiovascular fitness.

Running and jogging can get the heart rate up quicker and make your body work harder, but you can do a lot of good just by going for a nice long walk (try an hour or two). You are less likely to injure yourself, or exacerbate any existing niggles. And you will have more time and focus to absorb beautiful and interesting sights as you go.

This is a great activity to enjoy with friends and family. Rather than sitting down face to face and revisiting the same conversations, or repeating patterns of behaviour – some of which are not so positive in nature – walking breaks it up by getting you out and about. I find it inspires new ideas and topics and brings greater awareness of the shared experience. And because being active naturally releases good exercise endorphins, you’ll most likely find your conversations brighter, and more “light-hearted” as well.

When you are out and about, you will cross paths with fellow walkers, a friendly community of folk by and large. Most like to exchange a word or two about the track, what they have seen, where they have been, what’s in flower, or a vista that’s just around the bend. In Sydney we are tremendously lucky with the variety of walks we have available for all seasons. City and suburban walks: parks, beaches, coastlines, bush and mountains a hop, skip and a jump from your front door. There are now terrific apps and publications to tell you about all the different walks in your area, providing information about their length, difficulty, and how to get there.

It’s a good idea to be a little prepared for walking – although it is really not a paraphernalia-dense activity. Taking along a bottle of water, a hat, sun cream and sunglasses is a good idea. I cannot walk without my camera as every bend seems to frame a new perfect shot! And make sure your shoes are right for the terrain. Blisters are no fun at all.
 

Emma Sandall is an ex-ballerina turned fitness and health guru. She teaches and coaches dance, fitness and Pilates and writes and produces video for all things movement related. Emma runs Body Playground, a space to activate and inspire body and soul.

Perspectives with Dr Alan Barclay

Australia's Dietary Fibre Paradox. 
Bowel cancer, or colorectal cancer (CRC) to use its more scientific name, is one of the most common cancers in Australian men and women with 62 out of every 100,000 people diagnosed each year. It is also a leading cause of cancer in the USA (44 diagnosed per 100,000 people) and UK (47 per 100,000 people) and many other countries that enjoy the so-called Western diet.

Systematic reviews of observational studies around the world tell us that a high intake of dietary fibre, in particular cereal fibre and whole grains, is associated with a reduction in the risk of developing colorectal cancer. Hence the common dietary guideline: enjoy daily “Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties”.

“Australians have taken the advice to eat more fibre very seriously and consume fibre at high levels, largely as cereal fibres. This has not led to the anticipated fall in CRC rates, which remain high” say CSIRO’s Drs David Topping and Michael Conlon in the Medical Journal of Australia. They have coined the phrase the Australian Fibre Paradox to describe this unexpected outcome. Indeed, in 1983, the average Australian adult (25–64 years of age) consumed just under 22 grams of dietary fibre each day and in 2011–12, they consumed just over 23 grams each day – not a huge increase, but an increase nevertheless. And from a Western perspective, Australians are relatively high fibre consumers, with our UK and US cousins consuming on average around 14 grams and 16 grams, respectively. Despite this, Australians have higher rates of bowel cancer than people living in both the UK and US. A fibre paradox indeed.

Topping and Conlon go on to say: “Emerging evidence now shows that many of the actions of fibre are mediated through short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), principally acetate, propionate and butyrate, produced by the fermentation of its constituents by beneficial large-bowel bacteria ... Resistant starch [a kind of dietary fibre] is fermented extensively in the large bowel, producing SCFAs, which promote a normal colonocyte phenotype – possibly lowering CRC ... Levels of resistant starch in most Australian processed consumer foods are low, suggesting a general deficiency of fermentable substrate – and thus a collectively hungry microbiome. We suggest that filling this gap by increasing the availability of new fermentable fibre-rich foods to feed the colonic microbiota and raise large-bowel SCFA levels has considerable potential to improve the health of the population.”.

Or in other words decrease the risk of colorectal cancer in Australia.


Carisma potato salad with lemon-yogurt dressing

One way of increasing the resistant starch content of foods is eating foods cold after cooking them – potato, pasta and rice salads are classic examples, but even reheated starchy foods are thought to provide some additional benefits if you don’t like to eat them cold. Other good sources of resistant starches include legumes, rolled oats, barley and bananas (not over ripe). Regular GI News readers will recognise that many of the foods higher in resistant starch have a lower GI and that heating then cooling common starchy foods is one way of lowering the GI (e.g., potatoes).

What the emerging evidence is suggesting is that all dietary fibres are not the same and that simply eating more fibre in total may not provide all of the expected health benefits.

Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that.
  
Alan Barclay (BSc; Grad Dip; PhD, APD, AN) is a consultant dietitian and Chief Scientific Officer at the Glycemic Index Foundation. He worked for Diabetes Australia (NSW) from 1998-2014 and is a member of the editorial boards of Diabetes Australia’s consumer magazine, Conquest, and health professional magazine, Diabetes Management Journal. He is coauthor of The Low GI Diet: Diabetes Handbook, The Low GI Diet: Managing Type 2 Diabetes, and The Ultimate Guide to Sugars and Sweeteners. Contact: alan.barclay@gisymbol.com or 0416 111 046

News from the Glycemic Index Foundation

New Total Wellbeing Diet plus low GI carbs online program. 
The Glycemic Index Foundation has joined forces with CSIRO in an enhanced version of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. We are seeking up to 5000 Australians between the ages of 18 and 74 to take part in a three-month trial of the online program, which will enable us to better understand the needs of today's digital dieters. “This new and improved Total Wellbeing Diet takes the glycemic index seriously, building on research undertaken by CSIRO and Glycemic Index Foundation (GIF). It gives you a proven diet for long-term, sustainable weight control and well-being,” says Professor Jennie Brand-Miller.


Fennel-crusted pork fillet with parsnip and baked apple from The Total Wellbeing Diet (Book 1). Photo courtesy Penguin Books

• What do you have to do? Participants will be asked to provide information on their diet choices and weight loss via an online program diary. 
• What do you get when you sign up? Participants can access more than 500 high protein recipes with low GI carbohydrate foods online and customise meals swapping this for that to suit their tastes and dietary preferences. There are also exercise programs to maximise the weight loss and wellness benefits. 
• What does it cost? This sign-up fee is A$99.00. However, this will be fully refunded to participants who complete the 12-week program and weigh in each week. 
• Who is behind it? CSIRO has licensed the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet to SP Health in collaboration with the Glycemic Index Foundation. To find out more about the trial or register, visit: www.totalwellbeingdiet.com

Q&A with Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions. 


Why don’t you use the terms simple and complex carbohydrates anymore?
Research on the glycemic index over the past 30+ years has shown us that using terms like “simple” or “complex” tells us nothing about how the carbohydrates in the foods and beverages we consume affect our blood glucose levels. And for people with diabetes who must manage their BGLs, that’s what matters.

For many years, the nature of carbohydrates was described by their chemical structure. They were either simple or complex and it was all about size. Sugars were simple and starches were complex. Why? Well sugars were small molecules and starches were big ones. From this, it was assumed that big starch carbohydrates would be slowly digested and absorbed and would therefore cause only a small and gradual rise in blood glucose levels. So they were called “complex” and this implied healthy. Smaller sugar carbohydrates were assumed to be digested and absorbed quickly, producing a rapid increase in blood glucose simply because they were small. So we called them “simple” and gave the impression that they were not so good for us.



Then along came David Jenkins and Tom Wolever’s ground-breaking research on the glycemic index. It challenged these assumptions with real science. It showed us what actually happens in our bodies with real foods in real people and blood tests (something that had never been done before). It showed us that the rise in blood glucose after meals cannot be predicted on the basis of molecule size or chemical structure. In other words, the old distinctions between starchy foods (complex carbohydrates) and sugary foods (simple carbohydrates) had no useful application when it came to blood glucose levels – and all of the health issues that relate to them. The GI is the only way you can rank the glycemic potency of the carbohydrates in different foods exactly as they are eaten.

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller (AM, PhD, FAIFST, FNSA, MAICD) is an internationally recognised authority on carbohydrates and the glycemic index with over 250 scientific publications. She holds a Personal Chair in Human Nutrition in the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise and Eating Disorders and Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. She is the coauthor of many books for the consumer on the glycemic index and health.

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GI News—October 2014

• Food addiction? Unlikely. Eating addiction is more likely;
• Dr Alan Barclay on the sodium/potassium balance; 
• Prof Jennie Brand-Miller on total carbs, net carbs and available carbs; 
• What you need to know about inulin; 
• Emma Sandall talks to Rhys Johnson about skating for fun and fitness; 
• Nicole Senior checks out broccoli and Anneka Manning and Johanna Burani make the most of this wonderful veg; 
• Ottolenghi's roasted chicken with Jerusalem artichoke and lemon.  

GI News 
Editor: Philippa Sandall
Management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD
Contact: info@gisymbol.com
Technical problems or faults: smb.ginewstech@sydney.edu.au
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