In the GI News Kitchen

Family Baking, Anneka Manning, author of The Low GI Family Cookbook (Hachette) and founder of Sydney’s BakeClub, shares her delicious ‘better-for-you’ recipes for snacks, desserts and treats the whole family will love. Anneka creates accessible recipes that really work. Through both her writing and cooking school, she teaches home cooks to bake in practical and approachable yet inspiring ways that assure success in the kitchen. Her ultimate goal is to bring real baking into your home. She wants to connect you with the magic of baking and, through this, help you nurture and connect with the people around you, especially those you love.



Banana bread. 
This recipe is a favourite in our house and I love it as much as the kids do. It includes many ingredients such as pure floral honey, bananas, buttermilk and oat bran, that are perfect for ‘better-for-you’ baking. They will help lower the GI and ensure that the kids are not only getting something delicious but also something that will give them sustained energy for their busy days. Makes 20 pieces.

Melted unsalted butter, to grease
100g (3½oz) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup single-origin floral honey
2 eggs
2 large very ripe bananas (about 400g/14oz)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1¼ cups wholemeal spelt flour
½ cup unprocessed oat bran
1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon



Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a 21 x 11cm/8 x 3in (base measurement) loaf pan with melted butter and line the base and the two long sides with a piece of non-stick baking paper.
Combine the butter and honey in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters until well combined and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until well combined.
Peel and mash the bananas and stir into the mixture with the buttermilk using a spatula or large metal spoon to combine well.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon together into a mixing bowl and return any husks to the bowl. Add the oat bran and stir to combine. Add to the banana mixture and use a large metal spoon or spatula fold in until just combined.
Spoon into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in the pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
Store the banana bread in an airtight container in a cool place (but not in the refrigerator) for up to 3 days.
To freeze, wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and then seal in a freezer bag or airtight container before freezing. Alternatively, pack slices in an airtight container and interleave with freezer wrap or non-stick baking paper). Thaw the slices at room temperature or toast straight from the freezer.

Per slice
500 kJ/ 120 calories; 2 g protein; 5 g fat (includes 3 g saturated fat); 16 g available carbs; 2 g fibre

Anneka's BakeTip: If you would like to replace the sugar (such as granulated white, caster or brown) with honey in a baking recipe, simply use the same amount in weight. However, also remember to reduce the amount of liquid ingredients (such as milk or water) in the recipe by 1 tablespoon for every ½ cup sugar to account for both the higher moisture level in the honey as well as its intense sweetness.

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.



Applesauce oat bran muffins with pinoli. 
Most of the time when I visit my home in northern Italy, I voraciously ask family, friends and even produce vendors for ideas and recipes they recommend for various ingredients. Sometimes, though, I become the source of such information for them. Breakfast foods would be a case in point. Italians are not the best breakfast people. Travel and the internet have led some inquisitive people to try something new. I do my part too. I’ve offered these muffins to my fast-paced relatives and friends as a perfect antidote to their beloved brioche or biscotti breakfast. I added pinoli for an Italian twist but any nut will work well.

1lb (440g) oat bran
 ½ cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup honey
2 cups nonfat milk
2 eggs
½ cup egg substitute or 2/3 cup egg whites (about 3 extra egg whites)
¼ cup canola oil
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
½ cup pine nuts (pinoli)

 

Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F). Spray 24 medium (1/2 cup) muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper cups.
Combine the oat bran, brown sugar and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to the large bowl and mix well.
Fill the muffin cups three-quarters full. Bake 17–20 minutes or until the muffin tops are browned. Cool before serving. These muffins freeze well.

Per serve 
720kJ/170 calories; 5g protein; 7g fat (includes 0.5g saturated fat); 24g available carbs; 3g fibre

Here's how you can 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 our Money Saving Meals including this Brown rice, chicken and vegetable soup with chipotle chili and lime reproduced with permission from Catherine Saxelby’s new book, Ancient Grains: whole-food recipes for the modern table (Arbon AUD $34.99)

Brown rice, chicken and vegetable soup with chipotle chili and lime.
Don’t leave out the fresh lime – it is an important flavor booster for this gluten-free soup. For those who like it hot and spicy, serve extra chipotle chili in a side bowl. Serves 4.

Chicken stock
4 chicken drumsticks (skin removed)
4 chicken wings
8 cups water
1 large white onion, quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1 teaspoon flaked salt
8 black peppercorns

Soup
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
½ cup medium grain brown rice
7 oz/200 g zucchini (courgette) diced
1 fresh corncob, kernels removed flaked
salt to taste

To serve
4 chipotle chilies from a can
1 small, firm, ripe avocado, chopped
fresh cilantro (coriander) sprigs
lime quarters



To make the chicken stock, place the chicken pieces, water, onion, garlic, salt, and peppercorns into a large, heavy-based saucepan. Cover and bring to the boil over medium–high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer with the lid slightly ajar for 30 minutes.Remove the lid, and cook the chicken stock for a further 30 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by half. Remove the chicken pieces from the stock, and set the liquid aside to cool slightly. Discard the cooked wings, and then remove the skin from the drumsticks. Pull the flesh into fine shreds; place the shredded chicken on a plate, cover, and store it in the refrigerator until it is required. Strain the stock into a container. If required, top up the stock with water to about 4 cups. Wipe the saucepan out with a kitchen paper towel.
To make the soup, heat the sunflower oil in the saucepan over medium heat, and add the onion, garlic, carrot, and rice. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring the whole time. Add the chicken stock, and then bring the soup to the boil. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer with the lid slightly ajar for 50 minutes or until the rice is tender. Increase the heat to medium, and add the zucchini and corn kernels. Bring the soup to the boil, and then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt if you wish.
To serve, place the chipotle chilies onto a plate, and cut each chili in half. Divide the soup evenly between four serving bowls, and top each with some shredded chicken, chipotle chili, avocado, and cilantro (coriander). It is best to mix the chipotle chili through the soup. Serve the soup immediately, along with lime quarters to squeeze over the liquid.

Per serve 
2375 kJ/ 570 calories; 43 g protein; 27 g fat (includes 6 g saturated fat); 32 g available carbs; 7 g fibre

We Are What We Ate

The clockwork body – why when we eat matters. 
‘Body clocks are ancient mechanisms that regulate fundamental biological systems important to health, such as insulin secretion, the time we go to bed, the time we get up and the time we get hungry,’ says Dr Joe Bass, associate professor of medicine at Feinberg School of Medicine and of neurobiology and physiology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.



The body’s primary circadian clock resides deep in the brain, in the suprachiasmatic nuclei, but local biological clocks also are found in tissues throughout the body, including the pancreas, lungs, liver, heart and skeletal muscles. The clocks operate on a 24-hour, circadian (Latin for about a day) cycle that governs functions such as sleeping and waking, rest and activity, fluid balance, body temperature, cardiac output, oxygen consumption, metabolism and endocrine gland secretion.

How the circadian clock may affect the development of diabetes: A study by Bass and colleagues published in Nature in 2010 showed that insulin-secreting islet cells in the pancreas, called beta-cells, have their own dedicated clock. The clock governs the rhythmic behavior of proteins and genes involved in insulin secretion, with oscillations over a 24-hour cycle. ‘This is the first evidence of how the circadian clock may affect the development of diabetes’ said Bass. ‘The biological programs in animals for harvesting energy -- much like the photosynthesis of plants -- are under control of the clock. Our findings will help us figure out the causes of glucose abnormalities, but we still have a lot to learn.’

How the circadian clock may affect weight gain: Dr Steven Shea, director for the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology at Oregon Health and Science University and colleagues at Harvard report in a study published in Obesity that the body’s internal clock, the circadian system, increases hunger and cravings for sweet, starchy and salty foods in the evenings. While the urge to consume more in the evening may have helped our ancestors store energy to survive longer in times of food scarcity, in the current environment of high-calorie food, those late night snacks may result in significant weight gain.

‘Of course, there are many factors that affect weight gain, principally diet and exercise, but the time of eating also has an effect. We found with this study that the internal circadian system also likely plays a role in today’s obesity epidemic because it intensifies hunger at night,” said a senior author on the study. “People who eat a lot in the evening, especially high-calorie foods and beverages, are more likely to be overweight or obese.’

Indeed, eating a lot in the evening can be counterproductive since the human body handles nutrients differently depending on the time of day. For example, glucose tolerance may be impaired in the evening. Additionally, consuming more calories in the evening predisposes people to more energy storage; we simply don’t expend as much energy after an evening meal in comparison to morning meals.

Furthermore, artificial light enables people to stay up later than they probably should and often people don’t get enough sleep. ‘If you stay up later, during a time when you’re hungrier for high-calorie foods, you’re more likely to eat during that time,’ Shea said. ‘You then store energy and get less sleep, both of which contribute to weight gain. If weight loss is a goal, it’s probably better to eat your larger, higher-calorie meals earlier in the day,’ said Shea. “Knowing how your body operates will help you make better choices. Going to bed earlier, getting enough sleep and choosing lower-calorie foods rather than higher-calorie foods in the evening can all help with weight loss.’

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay
Low GI, gluten-free foods. 
Coeliac disease is becoming increasingly common, affecting around 1 in 100 people in Australia and the UK, and 1 in 133 Americans.

People with coeliac disease’ own immune system reacts abnormally to the protein gluten found in wheat, rye, and barley (and often a contaminant in oats, depending on where you live), causing damage to their small intestine. The tiny, finger-like projections known as villi which line the small intestine become inflamed and flattened – a condition known as villous atrophy. As a consequence, the surface area of the intestine available for the absorption of nutrients is reduced which can lead to various gastrointestinal and malabsorptive symptoms like diarrhoea and/or constipation, large, bulky foul stools, unwanted weight loss or poor growth in children, flatulence, abdominal bloating, distension or pain, and anaemia. Long-term complications can be very serious and include infertility, miscarriage, depression and dental enamel defects. There is also an increased risk of developing certain forms of cancer such as lymphoma of the small bowel.

If you have a family history of coeliac disease, some or even all of these symptoms, it’s important that you don’t simply self-diagnose coeliac disease and commence a gluten free diet. A diagnosis of coeliac disease can only be made by demonstrating the typical villous atrophy of coeliac disease in a small bowel biopsy. This involves a gastroscopy procedure in which several tiny samples of the small bowel are taken and examined under a microscope. Importantly, you must still be eating gluten regularly before the procedure is performed or you may get a false negative result.

For reasons that we do not yet completely understand, people with type 1 diabetes are at much greater risk (up to 10 times) of developing coeliac disease than people who do not have type 1 diabetes. Both coeliac disease and type 1 diabetes are autoimmune diseases that are ‘triggered’ in genetically susceptible people by as yet unknown environmental factors. Coeliac disease can make management of blood glucose levels even harder than usual in people with type 1 diabetes, with increased risk of both hyper and hypoglycaemia. People with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes are thought to have the same level of risk as the rest of the population.

A gluten free diet is currently the only known treatment for coeliac disease and unfortunately it is for life because people with coeliac disease remain sensitive to gluten throughout their life – the condition can never be cured as such. By removing the cause of the disease, a gluten free diet allows the small bowel lining to heal and symptoms to resolve. As long as the gluten free diet is adhered to as strictly as possible, problems arising from coeliac disease should not return.

In the not-too-distant past, having to consume a gluten free diet used to be a culinary disaster. Thankfully, food industry has stepped up to the proverbial plate and there is now just about a gluten free alternative for most of your favourite foods. Many gluten-free core foods like milk, yoghurt, some starchy vegetables, legumes and most fruits also have a low GI. However, many gluten free grain alternatives aren’t low GI, so finding gluten free breads, pasta, breakfast cereals, etc. can still be a challenge. For more information, check out the Low GI Diet for Gluten-free Cooking (ANZ edition; Hachette Australia) or Low GI Gluten-free Eating Made Easy (US/Canada edition; Da Capo).

The GI Foundation has been working with Coles to develop their home-brand range of low GI gluten free foods with real flavour. First on the shelves are five pasta and quinoa products that all carry the GI Symbol.

Coles Simply Gluten Free: 

• Spaghetti: GI46
• Spirals: GI46
• Penne: GI46
• 2 Quinoa Cups: GI53 
• 2 Mexican Style Quinoa and Brown Rice Cups: GI49.

The GI Symbol, making healthy low GI choices easy choices



For more information about the GI Symbol Program
Dr Alan W Barclay, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Glycemic Index Foundation (Ltd)
Phone: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Mob: +61 (0)416 111 046
Fax: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Email: alan.barclay@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions. 



Can you explain the difference between glycemic index, glycemic load and glycemic response? 
Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure of the quality of carbohydrate. It compares carbohydrates, gram for gram, in one food versus another. Different carbohydrate foods can behave quite differently in your body. Some break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream; others break down gradually as you digest them and slowly trickle glucose into the blood stream. The glycemic index or GI, a relative ranking on a scale of 0 to 100, is how we describe this difference. After testing hundreds of carbohydrate foods around the world, scientists have found that foods with a low GI will have less effect on your blood glucose than foods with a high GI. High GI foods tend to cause spikes in your glucose levels whereas low GI foods tend to cause gentle rises. To make a fair comparison, all foods are compared with a reference food and tested following an internationally standardised method.

Glycemic Load (GL) is a measure of both the quality and quantity of carbohydrate. How high your blood glucose actually rises and how long it remains high when you eat a meal containing carbohydrate depends on both its GI and the amount of carbohydrate in the meal. Researchers at Harvard University came up with a term to describe this: glycemic load. It is calculated by multiplying the GI of a food by the available carbohydrate content (carbohydrate minus fibre) in the serving (expressed in grams), divided by 100. GL = GI/100 x available carbs per serving. GL per 1000 kJ has been shown to be the single best predictor of actual glycemic responses to single foods and mixed meals.

Glycemic response or glycemic impact describes the change or pattern of change in blood glucose after consuming a food or meal. Glucose responses can be fast or slow, short or prolonged, high or low. The glycemic response varies from person to person, depending on their 'glucose tolerance'. A person with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance will have a higher glycemic response to any food than a lean, young, healthy individual. Nonetheless, in a single individual, we can reliably predict that a low GI/GL meal will produce a lower glycemic response than a high GI/GL meal.

GI testing by an accredited laboratory
North America
Dr Alexandra Jenkins
Glycemic Index Laboratories
20 Victoria Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario M5C 298 Canada
Phone +1 416 861 0506
Email info@gilabs.com
Web www.gilabs.com

Australia
Fiona Atkinson
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 www.glycemicindex.com

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GI News—June 2013

• Bread: 'ingenious technology for improving the flavour, digestibility and nutritional value of grass' - Michael Pollan; 
• Paleolithic bread: looks like we have had our nose to the grindstone for about 30,000 years;
• Why white veggies are so good;  
• Prof Jennie Brand-Miller: why we don't estimate the GI of our recipes;  
• Nicole Senior: baby's first foods.    

GI News 
Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD
Contact email (for questions or permission to reproduce stories from this newsletter): info@gisymbol.com for technical problems or faults please contact smb.ginewstech@sydney.edu.au

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Food for Thought

Staff of life.  
Did you know that the Middle English word ‘companion’ (from Old French compaignon), literally means ‘one who breaks bread with another’, based on Latin com- ‘together with’ + panis ‘bread’. It is a gentle reminder in these ‘nutritionist’ times that no food is more basic, more essential and more universal, and has been for thousands of years. Common to the diets of both rich and poor, bread is one of our oldest processed foods. Loaves and rolls have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, and excavated from ovens in Pompeii. From the 16th-century English peasants’ bread made with pea flour and rye to the pure white bread of the French court, from the crusty sourdough loaf made by artisan bakers to the doughy ‘sliced white’ found in every supermarket, there is a bread for every time and place. And you can read all about it in William Rubel’s Bread, A global history (Reaktion books). It’s a fascinating tale.

We don’t know who made the first breads, or when or where. We do know that our ancestors were pounding and grinding thousands of years before the invention of agriculture. The starch grains from various wild plants that Anna Revedin and colleagues found on the surfaces of grinding stones across Europe go about 30,000 years (PNAS). While over in Israel, Dolores Piperno and colleagues not only discovered barley grains in a 23,000-year-old grindstone (Nature), but also an oven-like hearth suggesting that the locals had baked a ‘dough’ from grain flour on the site they were excavating. It makes sense. Our Paleolithic forebears had to do something to the tough, plant foods they foraged, because they didn’t have the teeth or stomach for dealing with raw grains or rhizomes. They innovated. They transformed the indigestible into something digestible through grinding and cooking. It seems they baked a sort of flat bread.

Michael Pollan isn’t giving up bread. He loves it (well, good quality bread) and bakes it. And he devotes a whole, page-turning chapter to it in his new book – Cooked, A natural history of transformation. In talking about his book, he reminds us just what an amazing advance the invention of bread is – an ‘ingenious technology for improving the flavour, digestibility and nutritional value of grass’ (well, grass seeds). Bread became a staple food because ‘the cooking process unlocks the nutrients in that seed,’ says Pollan. ‘And seeds have everything you need to live, but it all must be unlocked. And a slow fermentation and cooking at a high temperature unlocks all that. The loaf of bread itself becomes a pressure cooker ... And so you’re steaming the starches, which breaks them down. It’s just the most beautiful technology.’ For those inspired to bake his sourdough, stone-ground, whole-wheat bread, he includes the recipe.



These women in DR Congo are learning to make bread to trade. From Share, The cookbook that celebrates our common humanity. Photo pages 140–141 © Lee Stone.

What’s New?

The white stuff is the right stuff, too. 
That rainbow of green, red and orange veggies tends to take prime position for top nutrient sources, but white vegetables (e.g. potatoes, cauliflower, turnips, onions, parsnips, mushrooms and kohlrabi) are nutrient powerhouses that have a place at the table too according to the authors of the Advances in Nutrition supplement White Vegetables: A Forgotten Source of Nutrients. The authors review current and emerging science about some of the key health benefits we can gain from tucking into white veggies, including increasing our intake of fibre, potassium and magnesium – nutrients many of us don't get enough of.

‘It’s recommended that the variety of fruits and vegetables consumed daily should include dark green and orange vegetables, but no such recommendation exists for white vegetables, even though they are rich in fiber, potassium and magnesium,’ says the supplement’s editor Prof. Connie Weaver from Purdue University, an expert in mineral bioavailability, calcium metabolism and bone health. ‘Western diets have led to a decrease in potassium with fewer fruits and vegetables, and at the same time, there’s been an increase in sodium consumption because people eat more processed foods. While potatoes are one of the highest sources of dietary potassium, when processed, they are often higher in salt. While potassium improves blood flow, too much salt increases blood pressure, making the vascular system work harder. The relationship between potassium and sodium is interesting because how the two work together may influence risk of cardiovascular disease. The human body needs both, but today's problem is sodium consumption is up and potassium is down. Because potassium-to-sodium intake ratios are more strongly related to cardiovascular disease risk than either nutrient alone, more research is needed to understand this relationship.’
 – The Advances in Nutrition supplement is the outcome of a June 2012 Purdue University roundtable on white vegetable nutrition which was supported by an unrestricted grant by the Alliance for Potato Research and Education.

Dr Alan Barclay comments: There’s no need to say ‘no’ to potatoes just because most varieties have a high GI. They are fat free (when you don’t fry them), nutrient rich and filling. But look for the lower GI varieties, keep portions moderate or serve them in a way to reduce their glycemic impact – such as potato salad with a vinaigrette dressing. Because we saw the evidence mounting that it is the potato variety itself that makes the real difference to its GI (not the cooking method) we sat down with chef and potato expert Graham Liney, Australian potato growers and the Dutch potato breeding company Agrico back very early in 2007, to bring Carisma, Australia’s first low GI potato to the table. It’s a versatile, general purpose potato that’s full of flavour with a creamy taste and ‘melt in the mouth’ texture and a GI of 55.The good news is that Carisma potatoes are now been grown all over Australia, and they are just going in to the ground in North America and Europe, so they will be commercially available in those regions in the near future. As for the other white veggies mentioned in the supplement, parsnips have a low GI (52), while veggies like cauliflower, turnips, onions and mushrooms contain so little carbohydrate (they are mostly water!) we can’t actually test their GI.

 

Scientific review of Robert Lustig’s Fat Chance.  
‘Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease is the product of one individual’s point of view – a perspective that is not supported by the vast majority of scientific research on nutrition and metabolism, writes Prof Mark Kern, from San Diego State University. Kern highlights ‘the critical need for the increased communication of weight management strategies that are science-based and realistic. As we’ve witnessed in the past several decades, blaming one particular food or ingredient for the obesity and chronic disease rates in America is unsubstantiated; restriction and avoidance of particular foods (especially those that are most enjoyed by many consumers) is not a sustainable healthy eating strategy.’ You can download the review HERE.

What’s new on the bookshelf? 
Share ‘Food builds our physical resilience, brings us joy, and strengthens our bonds with friends and family. It maintains our connection to the seasons, and generates employment, wealth, and economic stability. What we choose to eat and how we choose to prepare it reflect our ancestral traditions and cultural heritage as well as our abundant creativity’ writes Meryl Streep in this uplifting, charity cookbook. There’s a wide range of wholefood and traditional recipes to try (many low GI) including Beans with cassava and Stuffed bitter gourds (melons) from Rwanda.



Edited by Alison Oakervee and with a foreword by Meryl Streep, Share is published by Kyle Books (RRP AUD$39.95). Royalties will support WfWI's farming and food training initiatives in the countries in which WfWI operates – Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, DR Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Sudan. 

Nicole's Taste of Health

Baby cakes.
What we feed babies is important for their growth and development but we are finding out it is also important for the development of their future food habits. The food we offer is priming their tastebuds for later life.

This idea was sensationally brought to the world’s attention when the results of study in rats showed feeding high sugar, high fat food during pregnancy resulted in offspring that craved the same kind of food. The news media stories trumpeted the disaster of human babies born craving the same junk food their pregnant mothers ate. While this is scientifically a big stretch, it does underline the idea that babies learn to eat what their mother’s eat even before they are born. Baby’s first taste sensations are from the amniotic fluid surrounding them in the womb and this is influenced by the mother’s diet. They next experience flavours passed on via breast milk, which again is determined by the food mum is eating (bottle fed babies miss this stage). This is why Indian babies eat curries, Japanese babies eat fish and Italian babies eat garlic in their first foods – they’ve tasted it before and are more accepting of it. The next step in a baby’s flavour journey is the introduction of solid foods at around 6 months.



Many parents say commercial baby food tastes awful and bland, but it is a mistake to judge baby food with an adult palate. Their taste-buds are pristine and highly sensitive; not yet beaten down by over-seasoned, flavour-enhanced and sickly sweet fare.

Babies don’t need the kind of intensity of flavour we grown-ups eat in highly processed food. The salt and sugar/starch levels in most prepared, packaged and restaurant foods are way too high for us and bordering on toxic for babies. The baby food industry has stepped up to the plate with many now offering ‘clean’ labelled products with no added anything, and with improved texture grading to allow older babies to progress from puree to mashed to lumpy as is recommended. As good as quality commercial baby foods are, in my experience they miss out on the full flavour spectrum of home prepared foods which still hold a pivotal place in an infant’s diet. Home prepared foods are also ‘real’ flavours: I tasted one brand of banana custard for babies with ‘natural banana flavour’ that did not taste like any banana I’ve ever eaten. It’s still worth the effort to prepare vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, meat and fish you don’t find in a jar (or pouch, as is increasingly the trend).

You can also offer lower GI grains such as quinoa, barley and polenta and low GI legumes such as lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans in a suitable texture according to baby’s stage. And you can add herbs and spices as well, such as: cinnamon to apple; nutmeg to banana or cardamom to custard; basil to pasta or dill to fish. To offer variety and make baby meal planning easier, the good old ice-cube method works well: freeze individual portions of cooked meats, fish, vegetables, grains and legumes in an ice cube tray and simply take them out as needed, choosing a balanced meal of protein (meat, fish or legumes), grain/starchy vegetables and a green and red/orange vegetable (just like a adult).

As a baby reaches a year old they should be progressing to ‘family foods’. They need finger foods they can hold and feed themselves and one of the easiest is a finger of bread but most bread is very salty – it pays to hunt down a lower-salt brand. Babies are naturally curious about what we eat too – nothing is so enticing than food which is headed for our mouth – but increasingly the morsels we share are passing on bad habits rather than modelling healthy preferences. New life is cause for joy but perhaps a baby can also be the catalyst for a healthy change in family foods as well.



Nicole Senior is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist, author, speaker, consultant, and commentator with an interest in how we can learn to love good food that's good for us.

In the GI News Kitchen

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.



Strawberry yoghurt dessert. 
Here is a simple, healthful dessert with an Italian twist. Serves 4.

15 fresh, washed, hulled strawberries
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Grand Marnier liqueur
2 cups fat-free plain yoghurt
¼ cup mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla



Cut strawberries horizontally into 4 slices. Place in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
Combine the sugar and Grand Marnier in a small cup. Pour over the strawberries. Allow to macerate at least 30 minutes. In the meantime …
Mix the yoghurt, mascarpone and vanilla in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Pour into 4 dessert dishes. When ready, pour the strawberry mixture equally over the 4 yogurt servings. Serve cold.

Per serve 
649kJ/155 calories; 6g protein; 6g fat (includes 4g saturated fat); 15g available carbs; less than 1g fibre

Here's how you can 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 our Money Saving Meals including BakeClub Anneka Manning's Tomato and red lentil soup with toast fingers. Yum.

Tomato and red lentil soup with toast fingers.  
Anneka Manning’s simple and tasty soup from The Low GI Family Cookbook (Hachette Australia) is a great way to get in an extra serve or two of vegetables along with a scoop of nutritional power pack lentils. Dress it up with a dollop of plain yoghurt and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Serves 4

1 brown onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ cup water
2 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp paprika (optional)
400g (14oz) can no-added-salt diced tomatoes
1 tbsp no-added-salt tomato paste
½ cup split red lentils
3 cups salt-reduced vegetable stock
2 tsp sugar, or to taste freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Toast fingers
4 slices multigrain low GI bread
2 tsp olive or canola oil margarine



Combine the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and water in a large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes or until the onion is soft. Stir in the cumin and paprika (if using) and cook, uncovered, for 1–2 minutes or until the water has evaporated.
Add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, lentils and stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover partially, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Meanwhile, to make the toast fingers ...
Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF) and line an oven tray with non-stick baking paper. Spread both sides of the bread slices with the margarine and cut each into 3 fingers. Place the bread on the lined oven tray. Just as the lentils are becoming tender, bake the bread for 10 minutes or until lightly golden and crisp. Turn off oven and leave it there to keep warm.
Transfer half the soup mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Return the soup to the pan and simmer gently until heated through or reduced to desired consistency. Taste before seasoning with a little sugar and pepper if you wish. Serve with the warm toast fingers for dipping. Yum.

Per serve 
440kJ/105calories; 5g protein; 2.5g fat (includes 0.4g saturated fat); 14g available carbs; 4g fibre

Anneka’s tips • If you make the soup a day or two ahead, keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until simmering and heated through. • Freeze leftovers in serving portions in airtight containers for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.

We Are What We Ate

Looks like we have had our nose to the grindstone for at least 30,000 years.
Grinding starchy grains, tubers and rhizomes, possibly into flour, was a widespread practice across Europe 30,000 years ago according to Anna Revedin and colleagues’ findings in PNAS. The grinding stones they discovered at sites in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic contained the remains of starch from various wild plants, including cattail rhizomes, cattail leaves, moonworts, the ternate grapefern, lady’s mantle, burdock, lettuce roots, rye, burr chervil root, parts of edible grasses, edible seeds and more. As well as analysing the stones for traces of wear and residue by microscope, they did a bit of Paleolithic recipe testing. Anna Revedin explains.

‘We collected typha (cattail) rhizomes at the beginning of October, when the roots are starch-rich to survive the winter. We peeled the rhizomes before grinding them, and we found this process was easier if they are still moist. Then we dried them in sun before using two fragments of sandstone of similar size and shape to those at the Bilancino site to produce flour. We found that you first need to use the ‘active tool’ like a pestle to open up the fibres, and then like a grinder to extract the flour which was a fine, white-beige powder with a slightly sweet aroma. We then mixed the flour with water to make dough, which we baked over a fire similar to Bilancino hearth B (Upper Palaeolithic). After cooking it for about 20 minutes on a sandstone pebble that was well heated on embers, we had an edible flat bread which we ate and offered to our colleagues. It was quite good to eat, although without any salt or oil to flavour the dough it wasn’t very tasty.’

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Give us this day our daily bread. 
Taken literally, this line from the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4) reminds us that bread has been a staple food for humankind for millenia. And still today it is consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner time, and often for snacks in many parts of the world. Taste, value for money and convenience are no doubt primary reasons for its ongoing popularity. It is also nutritious and depending on the type, a good source of protein, B vitamins, minerals like potassium and magnesium and dietary fibre (if not highly processed). The carbohydrate content of a typical slice of bread ranges from 11–19 grams with an average of 15 grams – which is a typical diabetic exchange.

What about the GI? Being high in carbs, the GI really matters a lot if you need to manage your BGLs. Values range from a low 39 for dense wholegrain breads to a high 91 for some varieties of Middle Eastern flatbreads. Typical white and brown breads from the supermarket or corner store are generally high GI, while authentic sourdough breads made from white flour are typically low. Low GI breads with the GI symbol available in Australia include:

• Bürgen® Soy-Lin bread 52; Pumpkin Seeds bread GI51; Rye bread GI53; Fruit & Muesli bread GI53; Wholemeal & Seeds bread GI39; Wholegrain & Oats bread GI51. 
• Tip Top 9 Grain Original GI53; 9 Grain™ Pumpkin Seed GI53; 9 Grain Wholemeal GI53; 9 Grain™ Mini Loaf Original GI53; 9 Grain™ 9 Seed GI53. 
• Mission Foods White Corn Tortilla GI52.

Isn’t wholegrain bread low GI? No, not all wholegrain breads are low GI. This is because the definition of wholegrain now means "the intact grain or the dehulled, ground, milled, cracked or flaked grain where the constituents – endosperm, germ and bran – are present in such proportions that represent the typical ratio of those fractions occurring in the whole cereal, and includes wholemeal". In other words, wholegrain products can be made from flour that has been milled very finely down to white flour, then had the endosperm, germ and bran added back in, so that it contains the same proportions as in the original grain. However, the starch in the finely milled white flour is typically very rapidly digested and absorbed, so many wholegrain breads in fact have a medium-to-high GI. Varieties that have a high proportion of kibbled grains and whole seeds – around 20% of the total ingredients – are generally the lower GI varieties.

I can’t eat bread because ... You hear people say this a lot these days. But in fact, not that many people really do need to avoid bread for their health. It is more often a matter of choice.

• People with coeliac disease must avoid breads that contain gluten because their immune system reacts to it, leading to damage to the small intestine, malabsorption of essential nutrients, and associated symptoms like wind, bloating and  diarrhoea.
• People with wheat intolerance, which is not the same as coeliac disease because it is not an auto-immune condition, need to limit their intake of wheat (and sometimes other gluten-containing grains) to avoid gastro-intestinal symptoms like wind, bloating and diarrhoea. 

Because the symptoms can be very similar it is important that you don’t self-diagnose. See your doctor.

Luckily for those with diagnosed coeliac disease or wheat intolerance, an ever increasing range of gluten free breads are becoming available in local supermarkets, and a few of these are even low GI.


Image and recipe kindly provided by Burgen www.burgen.com.au.

Herbed-crusted fish: Burgen low GI breads are popular and widely available here in Australia. For those living elsewhere, use a low GI dense grainy bread.  Serves 4

4 slices Bürgen® Wholegrains & Oats bread
mixed bunch flat-leaf parsley and chives, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest 2 tbsp olive oil
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 fish fillets (dory or bream)
lemon wedges, to serve

Pre-heat oven to 200°C (400F). Combine bread, parsley and chives in a food processor and process until you have fine breadcrumbs. Add lemon zest, olive oil and pepper to taste. Place fish fillets onto a lightly-greased oven tray and evenly coat the fish with the bread crumb mixture and bake for 10-15 minutes or until fish is cooked through and crust is golden brown. Serve with lemon wedges.

Per serve: 1025kJ/245 calories; 25g protein; 9g fat (includes 1g saturated fat); 14g available carbs; 2g fibre
 
The GI Symbol, making healthy low GI choices easy choices



For more information about the GI Symbol Program
Dr Alan W Barclay, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Glycemic Index Foundation (Ltd)
Phone: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Mob: +61 (0)416 111 046
Fax: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Email: alan.barclay@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions. 



‘How about giving us the GL of your recipes? Calories, fat, etc are all very interesting, but you’re supposed to be the “Glycemic Index Newsletter” and I find it frustrating that I have to go searching and calculating the GL of your recipes.’
Most of us have great faith in numbers, especially ones that are boldly printed in black and white on labels and in books. And with the current trend to count each and every gram of carbohydrate (or every calorie/kilojoule) in a food or beverage, it is easy to understand why you like many other people feel that you should be adding up the GI values of your meals. Relax. You absolutely don’t need calculators, pen and paper to eat the low GI way.

GL or glycemic load: First of all, there's no need to calculate the GL unless you’re a researcher doing studies based on high and low GI diets. If you can verify that the main carbohydrate source in your recipe is low GI (e.g. it’s a legume), then the GL will automatically be relatively low. To calculate the glycemic load (GL), you need to know both the available carbohydrate content (easy) as well as the GI (not always easy). Then you use the equation: GL = grams of carbohydrate per serving x GI divided by 100. If there's only one carbohydrate source e.g. spaghetti, then it's a simple task. But if you've got a mix of carbohydrate sources or you start with a flour, then it gets a bit tricky.

GI or glycemic index: Unlike grams of carbohydrate and other nutrient or calorie (kilojoule) counts, the GI is a measure of quality – not quantity. A useful analogy is that of mixing paints – the final colour will reflect the dominant colour used, not simply the sum of its parts. It’s true that researchers sometimes calculate what is called the average dietary GI, or to be more precise, the weighted average GI – where the weighting is a percentage value representing the proportion of total carbohydrate contributed by each individual food and beverage. But this is for studies to be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. For everyday use, this is simply not necessary as we know from what’s called ‘dietary modelling’ that simply replacing most of the high GI carbs you eat with medium or low GI ones will lower the GI of the average person’s diet sufficiently to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes and will also help them achieve and maintain a healthier weight. In addition, numerous studies have shown that people with diabetes can improve their glycated hemoglobin (a measure of their average blood glucose level over a 3–4 month period) simply by lowering the GI of their diet. In these studies, the people did not have to calculate their daily GI values – it was not necessary: they just used the substitution model (look how easy it is):



Don't sweat the small stuff: Just like grams of carbohydrate and other nutrients and calories/kilojoules, GI values aren’t 100% accurate – for all of the same reasons: foods are grown in different soils, under different weather conditions, and consequently, all have a slightly different nutrient composition. We suggest you simply swap the high GI carbs you eat at most meals for low or moderate GI counterparts because this will help you will achieve a low (or lower) GI diet overall. And don’t forget about the total calories/kilojoules, type of fat and sodium content of your meals – GI is only one part of healthy eating.

Latest GI values - belVita biscuits 
A year ago we reported on the GI values of three flavours of belVita, a European-style breakfast biscuit intended to be consumed as part of a balanced breakfast with a portion of fruit and a serving of low-fat dairy. Kraft Foods Australia has now added two more flavours to the range:
• belVita Breakfast Cranberry – GI40, 34g carbs, 835kJ
• belVita Breakfast Honey & Nut with choc chips – GI46, 34g carbs, 975kJ  

GI testing by an accredited laboratory
North America
Dr Alexandra Jenkins
Glycemic Index Laboratories
20 Victoria Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario M5C 298 Canada
Phone +1 416 861 0506
Email info@gilabs.com
Web www.gilabs.com

Australia
Fiona Atkinson
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 www.glycemicindex.com

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GI News—May 2013

• Why some of us can digest milk - and others can't;  
• Milk and yoghurt: nutritious, inexpensive and low GI foods for the whole family; 
• As our waistlines have expanded, so have those of our pets; 
• Cuba: how an economic downturn led to a health upturn;  
• Low carb diets don't help women with gestational diabetes; 
• The scoop on potassium; 
• Four recipes to try.  

GI News 
Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD
Contact email (for questions or permission to reproduce stories from this newsletter): info@gisymbol.com for technical problems or faults please contact smb.ginewstech@sydney.edu.au

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Food for Thought

Even our pets are fat … 
I took a sneak peak at our much loved and seriously plump puss some years ago when I read ‘even our pets are fat’ in the first chapter of Prof Jennie Brand-Miller’s original manuscript for The Low GI Diet. Today our much loved Silkie is a rather streamlined 6kg. We fed him less and played with him more – he particularly likes pelting a ping pong ball back at you. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t speedy. And we had to harden our hearts to much pathetic yowling in front of cupboard and fridge doors. But now he really does seem to ‘eat to appetite’. Mostly ...



Worldwide, as our waistlines have expanded, so have those of our pet animals (and animals in zoos). In the US, the sixth annual National Pet Obesity Awareness Day Survey conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) in 2012 found 52% of dogs and 58% of cats to be overweight or obese. That equals approximately 80 million US dogs and cats at increased risk for weight-related disorders such as diabetes, osteoarthritis, hypertension and many cancers. It’s generally considered that we pet owners are the problem and in the wild animals are lean. But it’s a bit more complicated than just calories in/calories out as Dr Barbara Natterson-Horowitz reports in her new book, Zoobiquity.

Evolving Health blogger David Despain has had a long-held fascination with the topic of how health in the animal world relates to the human world. He recently chatted with Dr Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and we reproduce an excerpt of that interview here with his kind permission.

David Despain: Being a nutritionist, one of my favorite chapters in your book was ‘Fat Planet’ where you tell the story of two obese Alaskan grizzlies Jim and Axhi who were treated at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo by nutritionist Jennifer Watts. Watts changed their diet and lifestyle in ways that was informed by knowledge of their natural ecology. It wasn’t a ‘perfect wild diet’ – as that’s fantasy – but there were changes like considering the environment’s cyclical periods of abundance and scarcity as well as season’s effect on their intestinal microbiomes. Previously, I’ve written about nutritionists doing similar things both with lemurs that suffer from obesity and diabetes. What would you say are the key takeaways in dietary advice that humans can learn from your examples?

Dr Barbara Natterson-Horowitz: There were so many surprises that we encountered in researching the book. One early misconception that we bumped up against was this idea that only human beings overeat. There seems to be this fantasy that animals in their natural setting have internal regulatory systems that would result in eating only to satiety and that would be it. This idea was so wrong. We now understand that, actually from an evolutionary perspective, animals that are likely to encounter periods of scarcity do [overeat] when they encounter periods of abundance ... [then] they absolutely over-consume and sometimes spectacularly over-consume. That was already the beginning of a set of really surprising findings. If there’s abundance and there's no predatory threat, they’ll just consume and consume.

The other real biggie was that … it’s pretty much been assumed until very recently that it was all about calories in, calories out. I think most physicians have had patients that say they are not losing weight, and they swear to you that they’re eating 900 calories a day – do you really think that that’s true? I think most physicians would be skeptical and think that their patients are probably not telling the truth or not aware of how much they’re eating.

So, one of the exciting and surprising aspects of researching this chapter was to learn about all of these other factors that go beyond calories in and calories out. These could very well be influencing metabolism in both individual human patients and other species as well – things like the seasonal microbiome, and circadian variation, even climate change, endocrine-modifying chemicals, and perhaps antibiotics in the environment. These are really interesting ideas to think about even in [the context of] the obesity epidemic as not being isolated to human beings, but perhaps being more species-spanning.’


 – In Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health, you'll learn all sorts of interesting facts: that dinosaurs also suffered from cancer, that fish faint, that horses suffer from sexual dysfunction, that all sorts of wild animals can at times develop eating disorders or overeat and become obese, that koalas suffer from chlamydia, that birds self-injure, and that wallabies get stoned. The term ‘zoobiquity’ was coined by UCLA cardiology Professor Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, MD, and science journalist Kathryn Bowers to describe their call for a coming together of three scientific fields: human medicine, veterinary medicine, and evolutionary biology. It's available from good bookshops and online.

What’s New?

Canada’s new diabetes guidelines recommend low GI carbs. 
The online release the Canadian Diabetes Association includes the full text of all 38 chapters and an appendix. Each chapter comes with a slide set and a brief video highlighting the key recommendations. There are also accompanying tools for health care providers and resources for patients. Here are the Key Nutrition Therapy Messages:

• People with diabetes should receive nutrition counselling by a registered dietitian. 
• Nutrition therapy can reduce glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) by 1.0% to 2.0% and, when used with other components of diabetes care, can further improve clinical and metabolic outcomes. 
• Reduced caloric intake to achieve and maintain a healthier body weight should be a treatment goal for people with diabetes who are overweight or obese. 
• The macronutrient distribution is flexible within recommended ranges and will depend on individual treatment goals and preferences. 
• Replacing high glycemic index carbohydrates with low glycemic index carbohydrates in mixed meals has a clinically significant benefit for glycemic control in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. 
• Intensive lifestyle interventions in people with type 2 diabetes can produce improvements in weight management, fitness, glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors. 
• A variety of dietary patterns and specific foods have been shown to be of benefit in people with type 2 diabetes. 
• Consistency in carbohydrate intake and in spacing and regularity in meal consumption may help control blood glucose and weight. 

The guidelines are accessible here.

Low carb diets don’t help women with gestational diabetes
Dr Kate Marsh of Northside Nutrition and Dietetics and co-author (with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller) of The Low GI Eating Plan for an Optimal Pregnancy comments on a recent study in Diabetes Care that has shown that a low carb diet in women with gestational diabetes didn’t reduce the number of women needing insulin or affect pregnancy outcomes.


Dr Kate Marsh

‘Carbohydrate foods (e.g. breads, cereals, grains, rice, pasta, legumes, starchy vegetables, fruit, milk and yoghurt) break down to glucose and directly affect blood glucose levels. For women diagnosed with gestational diabetes during their pregnancy, eating the right amount and types of carbs is therefore essential for keeping blood glucose levels in the target range. While some women may think that just cutting down on carbs is the answer, this new study has shown that a low carb diet in women with GDM didn’t reduce the number of women needing insulin. Many carbohydrate foods (e.g. wholegrains, fruit and dairy) are important in helping to meet nutritional needs during pregnancy, and very low carbohydrate intakes during pregnancy can be detrimental to a growing baby. Previous research has shown that a low GI diet (where carbohydrate intake is similar but the types of carbs are changed to lower GI options) can reduce insulin requirements in women with GDM, which in conjunction with these latest findings suggests that choosing the right carbs rather than necessarily cutting down carbs (unless intake is particularly high), is the key to managing blood glucose levels in pregnancy.’

Low carb diets? Not for the long haul.
A growing body of evidence suggests that low-carb diets and their combination with high-protein diets are effective in weight loss – they are certainly popular. In addition, they may have favourable short-term effects on risk factors of cardiovascular disease. However, it now seems there could be serious health implications if people consume a low-carb diet for a long period of time. When Hiroshi Noto and his co-authors, from the University of Japan reviewed 17 long-term studies into low carb diets published in PLOS ONE, they found that low-carb diets were in fact associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality. ‘Low-carbohydrate diets tend to result in reduced intake of fibre and fruits and increased intake of protein from animal sources, cholesterol and saturated fat. In their conclusion they write: ‘Our meta-analysis supported long-term harm and no cardiovascular protection with low-carbohydrate diets. … Our findings underscore the imminent need for large-scale trials on the complex interactions between low-carbohydrate diets and long-term outcomes.’

Cuba: how an economic downturn lead to a health upturn.
A recent study in the BMJ suggests that initiatives that encourage people to eat less and exercise more could achieve significant positive health outcomes. The findings are based on the Cuban experience in 1980–2010. During the early 1990s, Cuba suffered an economic downturn due to a tight US embargo on imports and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been supporting the country. This led to a drop in the number of calories consumed in the average Cuban diet. Due to the embargo, petrol became virtually unobtainable, and more than 1 million bicycles were distributed by the government, leading to an increase in physical activity. These factors contributed to an average weight reduction per citizen of 5.5kg over the course of the five-year economic crisis. During this time there was a significant drop in prevalence of, and deaths due to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and cancers. But once the crisis was over and people started to eat more and exercise less, these trends began to reverse. The question is how, in an affluent and free Western democracy, do you encourage people to eat less and exercise more?



Commenting on this study, Prof Walter Willet writes: ‘Physicians can help promote healthy social norms by visibly engaging in healthy behaviors. On a recent trip to Cuba, I had hoped to see Havana by borrowing one of the million bicycles that had been distributed. However, there were virtually no bikes, bike riders, or bicycle lanes to be seen; and several people told me that bicycles reminded them of earlier economic hardships. In many countries, walking and bicycle riding are regarded as lower class behaviors. Boston celebrates the example set by Paul Dudley White, probably the most famous cardiologist in America and personal physician to President Eisenhower, who rode his bicycle daily to Massachusetts General Hospital into his 80s. The city named a bike path in his honor, and it is currently expanding its bicycle parking facilities. Dr White may have saved more lives by his bike riding than by putting stethoscope to flesh.’

The Low GI Eating Plan for an Optimal Pregnancy. 
The Low GI Eating Plan for an Optimal Pregnancy (The Experiment Publishing) helps a mom-to-be understand the connection between the food she eats, her blood glucose levels, and her baby’s future health. The focus is on low GI carbohydrates – vital at this time, because reducing dietary GI is one of the safest and most effective ways to ensure that baby grows at the optimal rate, without mom gaining excessive body fat and without compromising nutrition. One of the authors, Prof Jennie Brand-Miller, explains why: ‘Pregnancy is a stage in life when carbs play a starring role. This is because a Mom’s average blood glucose level throughout the day is directly correlated with her baby’s growth rate in the womb. Quite simply, glucose is the primary fuel that drives all aspects of her baby’s development. If her glucose levels are too high, then her baby will grow too fast and be born with excessive amounts of body fat. Conversely, if her glucose levels are too low, baby’s growth might be too slow.’


– Published in Australia in 2012 as The Bump to Baby Diet.

Online updates.
#1 Here's a blog that’s just the recipe for women with GDM After having gestational diabetes (GDM), Lisa Taylor created the Gestational Diabetes Recipes website with dietitian Natasha Jo Leader because she loves food. With this recipe blog, she hopes women are able to turn their diagnosis of GDM into a more positive experience that allows them to continue to enjoy delicious food and their pregnancy but be mindful of the importance of healthy eating and lifestyle for the long term for both themselves and their children. You can try Lisa’s recipes here.
#2 Having worked as an author, food editor, writer, consultant, teacher and publisher for some 23 years, Low GI Family Cookbook co-author, Anneka Manning, has now started the BakeClub. This is a cooking school where you can learn to create baked goodies online or by attending classes and workshops. Classes start in May in Sydney, Australia. First up (11 May) is a three-hour workshop on creating snacks for healthy kid’s lunch boxes (and for after school, too). In the workshop, store-bought muffins, muesli bars, biscuits and cakes will be compared with healthier, more natural home-baked versions then you learn how easy it is to fill lunch boxes with these ‘better for you’ sweet and savory alternatives, that you will feel good about and your kids (and their friends) will enjoy. You can find out more about this workshop here.


Anneka Manning

Get the Scoop

The scoop on potassium.
Last year in GI News, dietitian Emma Stirling gave us the scoop on a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that investigated links between potassium levels and incidence of diabetes. That study found that as potassium levels went up, the incidence of diabetes went down. The African Americans in the study were found to have lower average potassium levels than the Caucasians and were twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

A new study in the British Medical Journal reports that that as potassium goes up, risk of stroke goes down. The researchers examined studies involving over 128,000 healthy participants and found that those with the highest potassium intake had a 24% lower risk of stroke. They also found that high potassium reduced blood pressure in people with hypertension and had no adverse effects on people with normal blood pressure and kidney function.

‘Potassium is a great mineral to have on board,’ says Emma. ‘It acts as a complementary mineral to sodium and can help achieve a healthy blood pressure. The best bet approach is to focus on a nutrient-rich eating plan with plenty of potassium-rich foods like nuts, dried and fresh fruit, wholegrains including bran and wheatgerm, raw vegetables, lean meat and fish. By far the most well known source of potassium is the banana. The average banana (GI 52) provides around 20g carbohydrate and around 350mg of potassium (about 10% of your daily needs). Time to wake up to a smoothie?’

In the GI News Kitchen

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.



Sergio’s eggs ‘al tegamino’.
My husband, Sergio, grew up in post-World War II war-torn northern Italy. Food was not plentiful but fresh eggs were always available, though not in excess. His family, like most other families in the neighborhood, owned one or two hens that they could always rely on for an evening’s meal. Sergio ate eggs ‘al tegamino’ (in a little pan) at least once a week back then. He loves to make this recipe nowadays – for the good taste and for the good memories. Makes 1 serving.

1 teaspoon butter
2 eggs pinch salt (a pinch is about 1/8 tsp)
pinch dried thyme
pinch dried basil



Melt the butter in a small frying pan (Sergio uses a cast iron one) over a low flame.
Crack the eggs into a little pan one at a time, piercing the yolks with a fork. Sprinkle over the salt and herbs and cook the eggs slowly, uncovered, for approximately 8 minutes or to your preferred consistency. Serve immediately.

Per serve
740kJ/177 calories; 13g protein; 14g fat (includes 5g saturated fat); 1g available carbs; 0g fibre

Here's how you can 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 our Money Saving Meals including Body Playground Emma Sandall’s Quinoa salad with lentils, fennel and orange.

Quinoa salad with lentils, fennel and orange.
Serves 4

½ cup Puy lentils
1 bay leaf
1 cup quinoa
3 tbsp hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped
Bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, well washed, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
3–4 fresh dates, pitted and chopped
1 lemon, juiced
½ green capsicum, seeded and diced
½ red capsicum, seeded and diced
½ orange, thinly sliced into rounds and cut into quarters
½ fennel bulb, finely sliced
Small bunch radishes, finely sliced (about 6 radishes)
Olive oil
Small head witlof, leaves separated and roughly torn



Cook the lentils in boiling water with the bay leaf until done (about 20–25 minutes). Drain in a sieve and set aside to cool. Discard the bay leaf. Meanwhile …
Place the quinoa in a saucepan of cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 8–9 minutes. Drain in a fine sieve, rinse under cold water and set aside to dry.
Macerate the dates in small bowl with cumin and lemon juice
Combine the lentils and quinoa in a mixing bowl with the hazelnuts, parsley, capsicum, and the date mixture. Drizzle over 1–2 tablespoons of olive oil and gently combine with a fork to achieve the right taste and texture. To serve, arrange the witlof in a serving bowl and top with scoops of the grain mixture and the slices of orange, fennel and radishes.

Per serve 
1380kJ/330 calories; 15g protein; 10g fat (includes 1g saturated fat); 44g available carbs; 11g fibre

Mini bread & banana puddings. 
This is one of blogger Lisa Taylor's recipes on her gestational diabetes recipes blog. You can also find it in The Low GI Eating Plan for an Optimal Pregnancy. Lisa says you can serve these little puddings with a small dollop of reduced-fat ice-cream or reduced-fat custard if you like. However, they are simply delicious as is! Serves 4.

1 tbsp light cooking oil for greasing ramekins
2 cups skim milk
2 large eggs
2 small bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 slices low GI seed or multigrain bread, crusts removed, halved diagonally
½ cup blueberries (frozen or fresh)
Reduced-fat ice cream for serving if desired



Preheat oven to 170°C (350°F). Lightly grease 4 individual ramekins (or a baking dish) with oil. Set aside.
Whisk together milk, eggs, mashed banana, vanilla extract and cinnamon in a large bowl until combined. Soak each piece of bread in the milk mixture for a few seconds.
Place 4 of the bread triangles in baking dish or 1 in each individual ramekin, scatter with one-third of the blueberries then spread with a little of the milk mixture. Repeat layering process until all the bread triangles have been used. Pour over any remaining milk mixture and blueberries then sprinkle lightly with a little more cinnamon.
Bake for 35–40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Serve with a small dollop of ice cream if desired.

Per serve (without ice cream)
1090kJ/260calories; 13g protein; 6g fat (includes 1g saturated fat); 37g available carbs; 6g fibre

We Are What We Ate

Milk – poster child for rapid evolution in humans.  
Marlene Zuk, a professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota, describes milk – or more accurately the ability to digest it – as ‘the poster child for rapid evolution in humans.’ In Paleofantasy she explains how this ability came about, what it means at the genetic level, and what its consequences have been.



‘The first thing you have to do to study 4,000-year-old DNA is take off your clothes,’ writes Marlene Zuk in her introduction to Paleofantasy. ‘I am standing with Oddný Ósk Sverrisdóttir in the air lock room next to the ancient-DNA laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden, preparing to see how she and her colleagues examine the bones of human beings and the animals they domesticated thousands of years ago. These scientists are looking for signs of changes in the genes that allow us to consume dairy products past the age of weaning, when all other mammals lose the ability to digest lactose, the sugar present in milk. After that time, dairy products can cause stomach upsets. But in some groups of humans, particularly those from northern Europe and parts of Africa, lactase - the enzyme that breaks down lactose - lingers throughout life, allowing them to take advantage of a previously unusable food source. Oddný and her PhD supervisor, Anders Götherström, study how and when this development occurred, and how it is related to the domestication of cows for their meat and milk. They examine minute changes in genes obtained from radiocarbon-dated bones from archaeological sites around Europe ...

To obtain the DNA, the bones are drilled and the powder from the interior is processed so that the genetic sequences inside are amplified - that is, replicated to yield a larger amount of material for easier analysis. Some bones are more likely to be fruitful than others; we heft the samples, since Oddný says that the most promising ones are heavy for their size, and glossy. Most of the samples are about 4,000 years old, but one of them is around 16,000 years old. It has already been rendered into powder, and I look at it closely, but it doesn’t seem any different from the others. One of the pieces is a flat section of skull, while others are sections of leg or arm bones, or a bit of pelvis. Oddný and I wonder briefly who all these people were, and what their lives were like. The details of their experiences, of course, are lost forever. But the signature of what they were able to eat and drink, and how their diet differed from that of their - our - ancestors, is forever recorded in their DNA.

Other than simple curiosity about our ancestors, why do we care whether an adult from 4,000 years ago could drink milk without getting a stomach ache? The answer is that these samples are revolutionizing our ideas about the speed at which our evolution has occurred, and this knowledge, in turn, has made us question the idea that we are stuck with ancient genes, and ancient bodies, in a modern environment. We can use this ancient DNA to show that we are not shackled by it.’



Adapted from Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live by Marlene Zuk. Copyright © 2013 by Marlene Zuk. With the permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Distributed in Australia by Wiley. In Paleofantasy, Marlene Zuk draws on fascinating evidence that examines everything from our ability to drink milk as adults to the texture of our ear wax to show that we’ve actually never stopped evolving. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were “meant to” fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs.

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Milk and yoghurt: nutritious and inexpensive low GI foods for the whole family. 
Dairy foods like milk and yoghurt are great sources of essential nutrients like calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, riboflavin (B2), B12, protein and low GI carbs. Generally we recommend reduced or low fat varieties for most people over the age of two as they provide considerably less calories. All plain milks (GI 20–34) and yoghurts (GI 11–19) have very low GI values, due to the fact that the carbohydrate is lactose – a low GI sugar (GI 46). On average 1 cup of milk provides 12–13 grams of carbohydrate, and 1 cup of plain yoghurt 12–15 grams. The unique amino acids found in milk proteins that help promote insulin secretion also contribute to their low GI. Although all high quality protein foods (that includes meat, fish and eggs) stimulate insulin secretion, it’s possible that the proteins in milk may promote more because they are uniquely designed to help young mammals grow and develop. Despite this, these dairy foods are not associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes – the opposite in fact is the case.

Because not everyone likes to drink or eat plain milk or yoghurt, they are often sweetened with honey, other added sugars (e.g. sucrose) or alternative sweeteners (e.g. aspartame, sucralose), fruit, chocolate (e.g. cocoa) or other flavours (e.g. vanilla) to increase their palate appeal. Although added fruit and nutritive sweeteners may increase the GI of milk (GI 29–45) and yoghurt (29–44) and the amount of carbohydrate in a serve, they remain highly nutritious, low GI foods overall. It’s also easy to ‘sweeten’ your favourite reduced or low fat plain milks and yoghurts yourself with fresh or canned fruit, low GI sweeteners like Logicane™ or wildflower honeys (e.g. yellow box), or a low GI flavouring such as Milo™. Live probiotic bacteria can be added to any type of yoghurt.

What yoghurt is that? 

• Set (or ‘pot set’) yoghurt tends to be fairly thick and not have any whey separation. It is fermented and set at controlled temperatures in individual tubs.
• Stirred yoghurt is the most popular variety on our supermarket shelves. It is bulk-fermented then pumped through a cooler, the fruit or flavouring is stirred in and it is packaged in individual containers.
• Drinking yoghurt is produced similarly to stirred yoghurt.
• Soft serve/frozen yoghurt starts out as stirred yoghurt. To maintain its smooth texture on freezing, a blend of sweeteners, stabilisers, emulsifiers (and flavours) is added. 

Frozen berry yoghurt 
Anneka Manning's frozen yoghurt from The Low GI Family Cookbook  is perfect for desserts or snacks and serves 6.

250g (9oz) fresh or frozen mixed berries
3 x 200 g (7oz) tubs low fat vanilla yoghurt
2 egg whites
2 tbsp floral honey



Place the berries and yoghurt in a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to a medium-sized bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Add the honey a tablespoon at a time, whisking well after each addition until thick and glossy. Fold into the berry yoghurt mixture until just combined. Pour the mixture into an airtight container and place in the freezer for 4 hours or until frozen. Use a metal spoon to break the frozen yoghurt into chunks. Blend again in a food processor until smooth. Return to the airtight container and refreeze for 3 hours or until frozen. Serve in scoops.

Per serve 
Energy: 540kJ/ 129cals; Protein 7g; Fat 0.3g; Carbs 22g; Fibre 1g

The GI Symbol, making healthy low GI choices easy choices



For more information about the GI Symbol Program
Dr Alan W Barclay, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Glycemic Index Foundation (Ltd)
Phone: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Mob: +61 (0)416 111 046
Fax: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Email: alan.barclay@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions. 



What’s wrong with a low carb diet? 
Recent studies show that low carb diets can produce faster rates of weight loss than conventional low fat diets. The probable mechanism is lower day-long insulin levels – allowing greater use of fat as the source of fuel – the same mechanism underlying the success of low GI diets.

Low carb diets are relatively safe and effective for weight loss in the short term, but there are potential risks in the long term (longer than six months). One major concern is the potential for high saturated fat intake and the repercussions from that intake. Even a single meal high in saturated fat can have an adverse effect on blood vessels by inhibiting vasodilation, the normal increase in the diameter of blood vessels that occurs after a meal. A short-term and long-term effect of a low carb diet includes an increase in LDL cholesterol. Compounding this, there may be a low intake of miconutrients that are protective against disease. For this reason, a vitamin and mineral supplement is an essential accompaniment to a low carb diet. Low carb diets are often high in protein (although not all high-protein diets are low in carbohydrate). In people with diabetes, higher long-term protein loads (over six months) may accelerate decline in kidney function and increase calcium loss in urine, potentially increasing the risk of osteoporosis and kidney stones.

We believe that low carb diets are unnecessarily restrictive (bread, potato, rice, grains and most fruits are restricted) and may spell trouble in the long term if saturated fat takes the place of carbohydrate. Low GI diets strike a happy medium between low fat and low carb diets – you can have your carbs, but must choose them carefully. 

GI testing by an accredited laboratory
North America
Dr Alexandra Jenkins
Glycemic Index Laboratories
20 Victoria Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario M5C 298 Canada
Phone +1 416 861 0506
Email info@gilabs.com
Web www.gilabs.com

Australia
Fiona Atkinson
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 www.glycemicindex.com

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