GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Eat foods, not nutrients
In his NYT piece Unhappy Meals Michael Pollan documents the ‘shift from eating food to eating nutrients’ and argues that relying solely on information regarding individual nutrients has led people and policy makers to repeatedly make poor decisions relating to food and nutrition over the last forty years.

The ‘low fat’ story is a good example of this nutritionism at work. Research from the 1960s and 1970s linking high fat (especially saturated fat) diets with cardiovascular disease, led to widespread government health recommendations to cut back on fat intakes – a mantra quickly enshrined in dietary guidelines the world over to beat heart disease and the battle of the bulge. The food industry responded by developing a vast array of reduced and low fat alternatives (often substituting refined carbohydrates for the fat). People responded too, cutting back on full fat products and tucking into the ‘diet’ and ‘lite’ alternatives with gusto. And although heart health statistics improved, the scales told a different story. People just kept on getting fatter. Why? Well as Arne Astrup points out in Saturated fat and heart disease – the latest evidence in this issue, what you replace fat with really does matter.

The huge success of Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution with his message that excessive carbohydrate consumption (not fats saturated or otherwise) was the bad guy behind the US obesity epidemic shone the spotlight back on carbohydrates in general. Post Atkins Revolution, one carbohydrate in particular – fructose - has been singled out as the cause of the US obesity epidemic, especially in the form of high fructose corn syrups used in increasing amounts by the US food industry from the late 1970s. The parallel increase in rates of overweight and obesity with the increasing use of HFCS has led some researchers to believe that fructose is in fact a major cause of the obesity epidemic. Yet rates of overweight and obesity have increased around the globe, even in countries like Australia (we are right up there in the fattest nations league) where high fructose corn syrups are not generally used.

At the University of Sydney's Human Nutrition Unit, we decided to explore further the links between increased consumption of sugars (including fructose) and the global obesity epidemic. In our paper published in April in Nutrients we investigate trends in sugars consumption in Australia, UK and the US between 1980–2003 to see whether it was likely that increased consumption was the cause of the obesity epidemic in these nations.

In Australia, the UK and US, per capita consumption of refined sucrose (table sugar) decreased by 23%, 10% and 20% respectively from 1980–2003. However, when all sources of nutritive sweeteners, including HFCS, were considered, per capita consumption decreased in Australia (16%) and the UK (5%), but increased in the US (23%). During this period, the prevalence of obesity has increased three-fold in Australians and at least doubled in the UK. So while excessive consumption of fructose in the form of HFCS may be a contributing factor to the US obesity epidemic, it seems unlikely that it is a major cause elsewhere.

It appears that in Australia at least, people took the message to eat less sugar very seriously. Australians are very good at adopting public health messages with one of the lowest rates of cigarette smoking in the world due to decades of the Quit campaign, and the Slip, Slop, Slap campaign to reduce sun exposure has been so successful that rates of vitamin D deficiency are skyrocketing.

Maybe the real problem is focusing on individual nutrients in foods to find a key culprit to blame for of the obesity epidemic. And while we obsessively count the grams of fat or sugar we consume, we inadvertently consume more food and drink overall. Also, we often overlook the fact that most of us are less physically active than we were a few decades ago.

Of course, foods and traditional diets are far more than just nutrients. Food is one of life’s great pleasures to be enjoyed with family and friends. For each of us it is part of our cultural heritage and for many integral to religious beliefs. If we want to deal with the current obesity epidemic without totally destroying our enjoyment of food, life and the environment, let’s encourage people to enjoy whole foods and beneficial dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet (and here I mean both what was eaten and how mealtimes were enjoyed), rather than blaming specific nutrients.

For more information email Dr Alan W Barclay here: alan@gisymbol.com



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@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions



Isn’t the insulin response more important than the GI value? Wouldn’t it be better to have an insulin index of foods?
The insulin demand exerted by foods is indeed important for long-term health, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that we need an insulin index of foods instead of a glycemic index. When they have been tested together, the glycemic index is extremely good at predicting a food’s insulin index. (In other words, a low GI food usually has a low insulin index value and a high GI food usually has a high insulin index value.) There are some instances, however, in which a food has a low GI but a high insulin index value. This applies to dairy foods and to some highly palatable, energy-dense ‘indulgence foods.’ Some foods (such as meat, fish, and eggs) that contain no carbohydrate, just protein and fat (and have a GI of essentially zero), still stimulate significant increases in blood insulin.

We don’t currently know how to interpret this type of response for long-term health. It may be a good outcome, because the increase in insulin has contributed to the low level of glycemia. On the other hand, it may be less than ideal, because the increased demand for insulin contributes to beta-cell ‘exhaustion’ and the development of type 2 diabetes. Until studies are carried out to answer these types of questions, the glycemic index remains a proven dietary tool for predicting the effects of food on health.

A recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition comparing GI and insulinemic index (II) values of carbohydrate-rich foods in healthy people, hyperinsulinemic people and people with type 2 diabetes reports that the GI values are similar regardless of the severity of glycemia or degree of insulin sensitivity, showing that GI is a property of foods and affirming its clinical usefulness in a broad population. Prof Tom Wolever concludes: ‘However, the II values of carbohydrate foods were inversely associated with insulin sensitivity and positively related to the severity of glycemia and hepatic insulin extraction, suggesting that II is not solely a property of foods but also depends on the metabolic status of the subjects.’

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

See The New Glucose Revolution on YouTube

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GI News—April 2011

• GL outperforms carb content in predicting BGLs and insulin levels
• The scoop on the FODMAP diet for IBS
• Kellogg's join the GI Symbol program
• Why traffic light labels miss the wood for the trees
• Do you need to eat every few hours to lose weight?
  

Food labels are in the news. The focus is giving shoppers clear and simple icons on the front of the pack to help make healthier choices easier. In the US, thanks to First Lady Michelle Obama’s urging, a voluntary ‘Nutrition Keys’ system covering calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugars is being introduced. Here in Australia, a government panel appointed to conduct an independent review of food labelling recommends switching to a traffic light system highlighting fat, salt and sugars. We believe that if governments are serious about dealing with obesity and type 2 diabetes, any changes must move beyond the current front-of-pack focus on sugars and include the glycemic impact of the product’s available carbohydrates (sugars and starch).

Good eating, good health and good reading.

Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD

Food for Thought

Why count the foods you love
In business there’s a saying: ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure.’ Dietitian Dr Penny Small has come up with a really simple way to help us apply this golden rule and measure and manage our total food intake and energy expenditure. ‘By keeping track of the food you eat even for a few days, you learn where the big energy-in amounts come from and you get a sense of what’s working well and what’s not,’ she says.



The following edited extract from The Food Lover’s Diet (Allen & Unwin) is reprinted with permission.

‘As a dietitian I have learnt that if we take a holistic approach to what we eat, we can manage food and our weight without depriving ourselves of the things we love. It’s about learning to love food and live life in a new way – a way that’s good for your body and good for your soul.’

Seven things I wish my mother had told me:

• For a healthy weight, kilojoules (calories) in and kilojoules out is what matters.
• Fat has double the kilojoules of protein or carbohydrate. Water has none. So foods high in fat tend to have more kilojoules and foods high in water tend to have less. This means that energy is the ultimate policeman of fat and sugar content.
• Food is to be enjoyed – all food – there’s no single food that one needs to feel guilty about eating. What matters is how much you eat and how often. There are many ways to achieve balance, and how you do it is your own choice.
• Life skills like time management and personal development have a part to play in all aspects of our lives including our health. Good planning and making good choices help you buy and eat food in a way that enables you to manage your weight.
• Less is more. Small mouthfuls of food eaten slowly taste the best and give the greatest pleasure.
• Food is one to way to cope with the ups and downs of life, but it’s not the best way. Seeking out good emotional management techniques that don’t include food is a better option.
• A bad habit is just a behavior or way of acting that has become routine or ingrained. Learning a new behavior is like learning any new skill. Every time you practise it, it becomes more familiar.

To achieve a happy weight – a balance between eating wisely and not going without, and between self acceptance and an eating pattern you can maintain, not just for a week, but for a lifetime, you need to discover new ways of supporting yourself. Here are a few tricks to help you on your healthy weight journey.

Trick 1: It’s about making small changes.
Trick 2: It’s how much you eat that matters. Portion size and moderation matter.
Trick 3: It’s how often you eat. You can eat the foods you like (including that square of chocolate) because it’s how much and how often you eat them that matters.
Trick 4: Swap this for that. Substituting better choices for the foods you eat most often, such as choosing lean meats and low-fat milks, and yoghurts will help you achieve your weight and shape goals. And making clever swaps with your everyday foods can leave a little room for the treats you love.



Dr Penny Small (BSc. MNutrDiet. GCertPop Health. PhD. APD) is Head of Corporate Nutrition Nestlé Oceania. The book was created by Penny and her team of dietitians with Nestlé donating 50% of royalties to Royal Far West, a charity providing a range of essential health care services to meet the needs of country children and their families in NSW, Australia.

News Briefs

GI Labs Service Mark



GI Labs in Toronto has introduced the ‘GI Labs Service Mark’ for use by GI Labs clients. The mark identifies products that have been in clinical nutrition trials at GI Labs, clearly demonstrating that such products have been independently tested. To find out more about the service mark and its applications contact:
Atarah Grysman
Manager, Sales and Marketing
Email: agrysman@gilabs.com

Nutrition Keys – US front-of-pack labelling
US food and beverage manufacturers and retailers at the urging of First Lady Michelle Obama have joined forces to develop and implement a voluntary ‘Nutrition Keys’ front-of-pack labelling system. The four basic icons were chosen as they represent key nutrients most of us need to limit in our diets –calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugars (but they haven’t separated added sugars from natural ones). The saturated fat and sodium icons include %DV.




It’s a step in a helpful direction. What’s a bit mystifying to us here at GI News is that with the very real concern about diabetes numbers in the US, the key numbers missing on this front-of-pack system are the key numbers people with diabetes actually need to know if they are going to make healthy food choices to manage their BGLs and reduce the risk of complications – total available carbohydrate (sugars and starch) plus the GI value for carb-rich foods like breads and breakfast cereals.

A new study published in Nutrition Reviews concludes that ‘The combined collective data from long-term epidemiologic studies and randomized trials using metabolic indicators of glucose metabolism as endpoints provide strong evidence that optimizing dietary carbohydrates (i.e. choosing the low GI ones) will reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, age-related macular degeneration, and, probably, cataract.’

So if anyone knows Michelle Obama, can you ask her to do a bit more urging …

Traffic light labelling
The panel conducting an independent review of food labelling has presented its Labelling Logic report to the Australian parliament. It has come up with 61 recommendations, four (numbers 51–54) relate to traffic light labels for food packaging and menus in chain food service outlets.



Here at GI News we understand why many consumers find the idea of ‘traffic lights’ on the front of packaged food so appealing. They stand out. They are easy to read. A real no-brainer. Buy Green not Red. Or be an Amber gambler …

However, there’s a very big question on whether they actually work better than the current %DI front-of-pack labelling scheme (already on some 2000 foods), which is essentially the same as the new US 'Nutrition Keys'. The first Australian study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health to measure how consumers respond to the traffic light labels found traffic lights make no difference to decisions on purchasing food. Research from the UK has also shown that they are no better understood than GDAs (like Australia’s %DI or the US %DV).

There’s no labelling silver bullet that’s going to solve obesity and other related health problems and save governments billions in health care costs. And it certainly is unlikely to be traffic light labelling because although it gives us some important information about fat, sugar and salt, it doesn’t give us some key stuff (that’s already on %DI labels) that can make a real difference.

• We all need to know about energy – calories/kilojoules
• People with diabetes or at risk of diabetes want to know total available carbs – sugars and starch.

We all want life and the daily choices we make in the supermarket to be simple. But, that’s not going to happen – certainly not in the supermarket. Life isn’t simple, nor is the best nutrition science. Things change. New discoveries are made and sometimes they tell us that yesterday’s villain may not be quite such a bad guy after all. The low fat story is a good example of this. We now know it’s not how much fat you eat, it’s the type of fat that counts. ‘It’s fair to say many people are scared of fat these days and try to avoid it,’ says dietitian Nicole Senior.

‘However, failure to eat the right kinds of fat is a primary reason why our national average cholesterol level has not improved in over 25 years. This is due in no small part to well-intentioned but misleading public health education aimed to reduce the risk of heart disease. Health authorities didn’t think regular folks would understand the difference between saturated fat and unsaturated fat, so they went for the simple message to ‘eat less fat’. As a consequence, food industry went into overdrive in the quest to drive down fat levels, and low fat claims became the most sought by shoppers in the supermarket. Rather than being a good thing for our growing waistlines, eating low fat foods didn’t make any difference and we just grew fatter. Some healthy fat is good, but we’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. While dietary guidelines around the world have now changed their emphasis towards reducing saturated fat and not total fat, the damage has been done.

It should be said there is a place for low fat foods – in the dairy aisle. Because dairy foods are a major source of saturated fat, lower fat versions of these nutrient-rich foods are a change for the better and recommended for everyone, including children from 2 years of age. Lower fat dairy foods such as milk and yoghurt are also satisfying and low GI, making them a heart and waistline friendly food.

The traffic light system aims to make something very complex into something very simple, and we lose a lot in the translation.

• What about highly nutritious foods rich in good fats from nuts, avocado, seeds and olive oil. Will these attract a big fat red spot despite their obvious health benefits?
• What about puffed up, high GI, alternatively sweetened refined cereal products. Will these get the green light when they are a nutritionally poor choice?

Reducing the complexity of food down into three adverse nutrients is missing the wood for the trees, and without solid evidence that it will make any difference to public health or your health.’

Eat to beat constipation with low GI prunes
Grandma was right. A daily dose of prunes (dried plums) will do it. The findings of a randomised, crossover clinical trial published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics found prunes more effective than psyllium in 40 volunteers with chronic constipation. Fifty grams of prunes, providing a daily fibre dose of 6g, outperformed an equal fibre dose from psyllium for constipation relief over three weeks according to the study’s findings.

‘The fibre in prunes helps but there’s something else as well,’ says dietitian Catherine Saxelby. ‘Prunes have long had a reputation as a gentle laxative and digestive aid. Nutritionists believe it’s due to a combination of the fibre plus two unusual prune components – high levels of sorbitol (a natural sweetener found also in pears and apples) and polyphenols such as chlorogenic and neochlorogenic acid. All three have an ability to stimulate intestinal movement.

A serve of 5 or 6 unpitted prunes (around 50 g or nearly 2 oz) makes a quick healthy nibble. They have virtually no fat and 22 g carbohydrate and a low GI of 40 so they’ll help you manage your blood glucose levels. You also get a healthy dose of beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body, plus a number of minerals notably potassium and boron, plus a little iron. Prunes score high for antioxidants too – at least equal to that of well known antioxidant-rich blueberries.’

Get the Scoop with Emma Stirling

The Low FODMAP diet – the scoop on advances in treating irritable bowel syndrome


Emma Stirling APD

It wasn’t that long ago that sufferers of a regular ‘upset tummy’ or ‘grinding guts’ were told simply to learn to live with it or ‘stress, less’. Today however, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a recognised condition with some highly technical diagnostic and therapeutic approaches including the Low FODMAP diet.

It’s estimated that as many as one in seven adults have IBS with common symptoms including abdominal bloating, wind, abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits such as diarrhoea, constipation or a combination of both. Symptoms of IBS can be caused by physical problems like altered gastric motility or the muscle contractions that occur in your gut. However, there are now clearly identified dietary triggers in many, but not all people with IBS.

Food culprits Dietary triggers that may induce symptoms of IBS can include naturally occuring food chemicals (eg. salicylates, amines, glutamates), gluten, caffeine, excess fat and excess alcohol. Attention has recently been drawn to new scientific research showing that poorly absorbed, small, carbohydrate molecules (sugars) in foods can also be a major cause of symptoms. These are given the technical term of FODMAPs, which stands for Fermentable Oligo-saccharides, Di-saccharides, Mono-saccharides And Polyols. So you can see why an acronym was needed.



FODMAPS can trigger a number of unwanted symptoms in people with IBS. Firstly they can increase the amount of water in the bowel and lead to diarrhoea. They also can be poorly absorbed in the small intestine and then fermented by bacteria in the large bowel, which releases gas. These gases can build up in people with IBS and cause bloating, abdominal pain, wind and changes to bowel habits.

Testing times The good news is that with all this new dietary research, comes a whole new set of diagnostic tests including breath testing. Like a glucose tolerance test, you swallow a measured amount of sugars. But instead of blood samples, you breathe into a breathalyser like bag after an assigned time. The gases produced from malabsorption of FODMAPS are absorbed across the intestine, carried through the bloodstream to the lungs and can be measured in exhaled breath. You can read more about breath testing here.

Where to find FODMAPS:

• Excess fructose – fruits, honey, juices
• Lactose – milk and milk products
• Sugar polyols – such as sorbitol and mannitol
• Fructans – found in foods like wheat, rye, onions and garlic
• Galacto-oligosaccharides – found in foods like legumes

Wait just a minute though. Before you go skipping off to cut down on fruit or dairy, you need to see an expert. And if you are on the FODMAP diet it’s even more important to make sure the starchy foods you eat are low GI ones like grainy breads, muesli and low GI starchy veg like carrots, butternut pumpkin (winter squash), parsnips and Carisma potatoes.

Where to get help? It’s important to talk to your doctor if you experience gastrointestinal symptoms and not self-diagnose. There are many other gastrointestinal conditions and diseases including coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease and bowel cancer that need proper investigation.

It’s essential to see an Accredited Practising or Registered Dietitian in order to correctly follow the low FODMAP diet and still achieve nutrition balance for well-being, especially if you have other considerations like type 2 diabetes. In Australia, many dietitians work with a handy booklet developed by the expert team, at Monash University. The Low FODMAP Diet – reducing poorly absorbed sugars to control gastrointestinal symptoms is available to order using this form. And we’ve got a low FODMAP recipe from the book this month, suitable for all to enjoy, even if you swear you’re not irritable.

Emma Stirling is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and health writer with over ten years experience writing for major publications. She is editor of The Scoop on Nutrition – a blog by expert dietitians. Check it out for hot news bites.

In the GI News Kitchen

Frittata
This tasty frittata made just with eggs (no milk) is packed with vegetables to help you get those five serves a day if you are on a low FODMAP diet. Reproduced from The Low FODMAP Diet with permission. Serves 6.

1 carrot, peeled and cut into ½cm (1/4in) rounds
1 red capsicum, sliced into strips
1 small eggplant, sliced ½cm (1/4in) thick
1 zucchini cut into 1cm (½in) slices
6 cherry tomatoes cut in halves
½ cup grated parmesan
8 whole eggs, whisked
½ tsp polyunsaturated margarine
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
4 leaves basil, shredded

Preheat oven to 160°C/320°F. Steam or blanch the carrots. Pan-fry the capsicum, eggplant and zucchini in a small non–stick pan. Whisk eggs in a bowl, add all vegetables and parmesan and seasoning to taste.
Place ½ tsp of margarine in an oven-safe pan and heat over low heat. When margarine is melted, add egg mixture. Sprinkle with parsley and basil over low heat until bubbles form on the top. Place in pre-heated oven on middle shelf and cook until set (20 minutes). Allow to cool a little before turning out onto chopping board. Slice and serve.

Per serving
Energy: 630 kJ/ 150 cals; Protein 12 g; Fat 9.5 g (includes 3.5 g saturated fat and 260 mg cholesterol); Available carbs 3 g; Fibre 2 g

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.

Grandma’s stuffed artichokes
Artichokes, especially from Sicily, start appearing in green grocer markets all over Italy by early spring. Their hearty green leaves and full bodied shapes invite shoppers to bring them home for the day’s lunch or dinner menu. They can be fried, boiled, cut up into a pasta sauce or added to a fritatta. My Sicilian grandmother always lightly stuffed them. Artichoke stuffing could include cold cuts, fresh or aged cheese, anchovies and eggs. My grandmother’s recipe was very plain and simple – and scrumptious. Here it is. Servings: 4 (as side dish)

NOTE: There is little stuffing in this recipe because it is prepared as a side vegetable dish. If used as an entree, use multiples of the stuffing ingredients and oil.

1 lemon
2 jumbo artichokes (about 450g/1lb each)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
4 tsp pecorino romano cheese
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 large sprigs fresh parsley, finely chopped (1 tbs)
2 large sprigs fresh mint, finely chopped (1 tbs)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil



Squeeze juice from the lemon into a large bowl of water. Set aside.
Prepare the artichokes as follows. Cut off the stalks very close to the base so that they can easily stand upright. Discard outer tough leaves near the base. Using a serrated knife, remove the top 1/3 of each artichoke and discard. Turn the artichokes upside down and apply some pressure to open up the leaves, especially at the center. Remove the entire choke from the center. (A serrated grapefruit teaspoon works wonders here.) Place artichokes in acidulated water and set aside.
Add the next five ingredients (breadcrumbs through mint) to a small bowl and mix thoroughly.
Using a small teaspoon (demitasse, if you have one), gently stuff the layers of leaves with the stuffing, making sure to divide it equally between the two artichokes.
Place the artichokes in a small pan (for these two jumbos, I used a bread loaf pan), drizzle the oil over the tops, loosely cover with aluminum, and simmer for 50–60 minutes. Cooking time will depend on the size. Serve hot or lukewarm.

Per serving
Energy:630 kJ/ 150 cals; Protein 4g; Fat 9g (includes 1g saturated fat and less than 1mg cholesterol); Available carbohydrate 10g; Fibre 5g

Cut back on the food bills and enjoy fresh-tasting, easily prepared, seasonal, satisfying and delicious low or moderate GI meals that don’t compromise on quality and flavour one little bit with Money Saving Meals author Diane Temple. For more recipes check out the Money Saving Meals website.

Beef and prune (dried plum) tagine
If you are going to the effort of cooking a casserole, make enough for two meals. Enjoy half and freeze the rest. Serve with couscous or rice. Second time around, freshen it up with more parsley and perhaps serve with something different. Overseas readers, remember, the Australian tablespoon = 4 teaspoons. Makes 8 servings

2 tbs olive oil
2 large-ish onions, chopped
900g (2lb) trimmed gravy beef, chopped into 3–4cm (1–1½in) cubes
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbs ground cumin
1 tbs ground coriander
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon chilli flakes, or more to taste
400g (14oz) can diced tomatoes
2 cups chicken stock
450 g (1lb) sweet potato, peeled, chopped into 2 cm chunks
3/4 cup pitted prunes (dried plums), halved
150g (5oz) green beans, trimmed, sliced into 3
400g (14oz) can chick peas, drained and rinsed
80g (3oz) baby spinach leaves
3 tbs chopped parsley

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan and cook onion for about 4–5 minutes over a medium-low heat until softening. Add remaining oil and brown the beef on high, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, add the garlic and all the spices and stir for a few seconds to coat the meat.
Add tomatoes and stock, stir, then bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 1½ hours. Add sweet potato and prunes and simmer for another 30 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Add chick peas and beans, cover and cook for another 5 minutes. Add spinach and parsley and stir until spinach has just wilted..

Per serve
Energy: 1660kJ/ 395cals; Protein 29g; Fat 18g (includes 4g saturated fat and 38mg cholesterol); Available carbs 28 g; Fibre 8g

Busting Food Myths with Nicole Senior

Myth: You need to eat every few hours to lose weight


Nicole Senior

Fact: To lose weight you need to eat less over the day and constant snacking may impede your efforts
I’ve read many websites, books and diet programs that say you must eat every few hours or the body will go into ‘starvation mode’ which slows the metabolism and encourages weight regain. This is incorrect. I’m all for eating regular balanced meals, but insisting everyone snack every few hours is simply not necessary and may actually encourage overeating and weight gain.

When it comes to weight loss, the total amount of food you eat is what matters not how often you eat. I’m not recommending it, but you could eat one large meal a day and still lose weight if the energy contained in the meal was less than your needs. ‘Starvation mode’ is a non-scientific term but perhaps describes ketosis: the state of burning fat instead of carbohydrate (glucose). Rather than something to be avoided, this is the end goal of reducing body fat. Very Low Calorie Diets (VLCDs) invoke ketosis quickly and that’s why they work. These have been used by health professionals for very large patients when rapid weight loss is needed for health reasons. Every successful weight loss diet must have a little ‘starvation mode’ for it to work.

Your metabolism does not become permanently slowed by eating less food, or eating less often. Metabolic derangement is not why many people regain weight after dieting, but rather they slide back into old habits and fail to eat less to suit their smaller body weight. Your metabolic rate goes up and down relative to body size, lean muscle mass, energy (food) intake and exercise. It’s an unfortunate fact that once you’ve lost weight on a diet, you need to eat less than you did before; you need a new normal to maintain the loss. You can minimise this effect by exercising to maintain or increase your muscle mass because muscle is ‘hungrier’ than fat and demands more metabolic energy.

Individuals vary in their need to snack, and this can change over a lifetime. I remember as a young adult experiencing quite debilitating hunger (I called it ‘cotton wool head’) if I didn’t eat between meals, yet now I find I don’t need to. If I feel peckish between meals the reason is often boredom or because food is there, not because I’m actually hungry. Does this sound familiar?

The practical downside of the ‘you must snack’ advice is that it’s hard to find suitable snacks. Easily available snacks are usually nutrient-poor and oversized. In this day and age our demand for convenience means it is too easy to snack unwisely.

To lose weight you need to eat less and move more. If you perform better snacking between meals, make sure they are nutritious foods and fit within your daily kilojoule budget – you may need to reduce the size of your meals to achieve this. If you don’t need to snack between meals, don’t.

If you’d like more common sense nutrition advice, check out Nicole’s website HERE.

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Kick start your day with a healthy low GI breakfast
Breakfast does just that. As the first meal of the day, it breaks the overnight fast, jump-starts your metabolism and generally gets you going. After an overnight fast your body’s energy stores are starting to run low, so a good breakfast replenishes your vital reserves of carbohydrate, fat and protein, along with vitamins and minerals, to energise your day.

There’s a large body of research that has proven that breakfast eaters perform better than those who regularly skip breakfast. For adults, this translates into improvements in the work environment. With children and teens, it’s been well established that breakfast eaters show improved cognitive skills in the classroom compared with skippers.

Skipping breakfast on the other hand, by both children and adults, is associated with a significant increase in the risk of becoming overweight, being obese and developing type 2 diabetes.

Other breakfast benefits include appetite regulation, better blood glucose, cholesterol and free fatty acid levels, insulin sensitivity. Eating breakfast is also associated with healthier overall dietary patterns – breakfast eaters tend to have reduced intakes of fat and cholesterol, and higher dietary fibre intakes compared with skippers.

Making that healthy breakfast low GI delivers additional benefits like decreased feelings of hunger and subsequently lower kilojoule (calorie) consumption at lunch time.

8 easy, healthy low GI breakfasts
In the following list I’ve included products that carry the GI Symbol so you know that they are healthy low GI choices. I appreciate that these aren’t going to be available to all our readers around the globe. Check the GI database or The Shopper’s Guide for your local low GI options.

• Natural muesli (e.g., Morning Sun) with reduced or low fat milk (e.g., Dairy Farmers Skim)
• Wholegrain, low GI breakfast cereals (e.g., Kellogg’s Sustain or Guardian) with reduced or low fat milk and fruit
• Fruit bread (e.g., Burgen Fruit and Muesli) with a teaspoon of quality (low saturated and trans fat) margarine and a little of your favourite spread (jam/marmalade)
• Other quality wholegrain and low GI breads (e.g. Tip Top 9 Grain) with a teaspoon of margarine and your favourite spread (jam/marmalade/vegemite/peanut butter/etc…)
• Quality wholegrain and low GI bread with baked beans
• Quality wholegrain and low GI bread with margarine and a poached or non-stick pan fried egg
• Fresh, canned or dried fruit
• Plain or diet yoghurt with fruit

Kellogg's join the GI Symbol Program
We are delighted that one of the world's leading breakfast cereal producers, has joined the GI Symbol Program. The first products GI tested according to the International Standard and meeting our Program’s stringent nutrient criteria are Kellogg’s Guardian (GI=34) and Sustain (GI=55).



The GI Foundation will be working with Kellogg’s to develop a more comprehensive range of healthy low GI breakfast cereals.



Help us get the GI Symbol on more foods
To help bring more healthy low GI foods to your local supermarket:

• Buy products that carry the Certified Low GI symbol. They are delicious and healthy, and their sales support us.
• Write a thank you email to the manufacturers’ of healthy low GI foods customer care departments to help ensure that they continue to bring healthy products to market.
• Call or email manufacturers encouraging them to join the GI Symbol Program.

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@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions

Does the carbohydrate content on a food’s nutrition label have any relationship to its blood glucose-raising capacity?
Yes, but only to some extent. We can make a few generalisations. If a food has less than 5 grams of carbohydrate per serving, then it won’t have a marked effect on your blood glucose levels. If it has 10 or more grams it’s likely to have a substantial effect, depending on the food’s GI value. So all the label can tell you is whether the food is high or low in carbohydrate. If the food is high in carbohydrate, then its GI is much more relevant. A food that’s both high in carbohydrate and has a high GI could be contributing to high blood glucose readings.

Studies tell us that diets based on frequent consumption of high GI value carbohydrates will put us at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer. It’s not the amount of carbohydrate that matters, it’s the source. High carbohydrate diets from high GI sources spell trouble, especially for people with insulin resistance, which is one of the underlying causes of type 2 diabetes. That’s why we believe that any changes to front-of-pack food labelling schemes must move beyond the current focus on added sugars and include the glycemic impact of the food’s carbohydrates if our government health departments are really concerned about reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.

In our most recent paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, we showed that the glycemic load of food may be more effective than the available carbohydrate content in calibrating how much insulin patients with type 1 diabetes should take before meals. In two studies, glycemic load repeatedly outperformed carb content in predicting the increase in blood glucose and insulin levels up to two hours after eating in 10 healthy young people who consumed 121 types of single foods (study 1) and 13 mixed meals (study 2).

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

See The New Glucose Revolution on YouTube

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GI News—March 2011

• Low carb and low GI are not the same
• Low GI diets do increase satiety
• Download Pulse Canada’s gluten-free book
• Low GI porridge for brekkie – new GI values
• The scoop on nuts with Emma Stirling

The new ‘Half-Your-Plate’ approach in the 2010 American Dietary Guidelines wants to make mealtimes easier by dispensing with measuring and counting your veg and fruit serves a day. Now they suggest people simply fill half the plate with fruits and vegetables at each meal rather than worry what a serving of broccoli or carrots looks like. We’d tweak this and say ‘non-starchy veg’ as the starchy ones like potatoes and sweet potatoes belong in the low GI carb corner with pasta etc. But we think it’s a great idea to tell people to make fruit and veg the focal point of meals, it's what we have been saying for years. All you have to do now is keep it colourful (think rainbow on your plate), tuck in and enjoy.

Good eating, good health and good reading.

Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD

Food for Thought

Making a real meal deal of it
If you asked your Mum or Dad or grandparents what’s a meal or what’s for dinner, they’d probably say something like meat and three veg one of which would be potato – and here in Australia the other two might be carrots and peas/beans/broccoli. Life’s not like that any more. ‘Meal’ and ‘dinner’ are pretty meaningless terms and seem to cover anything from a choosing a variety of tapas-style sharing plates to virtually veg-free zones.

For example, a meal in a Sydney steakhouse might be a 650g Angus rib on bone served with red wine jus and your choice of chips, baked potato or mash. Salads or seasonal greens are extra. For family fare, there’s the ‘KFC Mega Meal’ which is (in Australia): ‘12 pieces of Original Chicken Recipe, 1 Maxi Popcorn Chicken or 12 Kentucky Nuggets, 2 Large Chips, 1 Large Potato & Gravy, 1 Large Coleslaw and a 1 Large Drink.’



What we are eating is clearly part of the cause for our expanding waistlines. Looking for a culprit, the food police and pollies found one: fast food chains. And a solution (closing them down not being an option): nutritional labelling so we can make more informed choices. Since February this year all major fast food chains in NSW Australia must display the kilojoule (calorie) counts of their food with the same prominence as the price to help us make better choices. The question is: will we?

Nicole Senior took a look at nutritional labelling in fast food joints in the US last year and reported in GI News that: ‘New York City has a nutritional labelling program which came into full swing in 2009. While it’s too early to say it’s been a flop, initial results have been disappointing. A study by New York University compared fast food purchases in New York City (with calorie counts on menus) and neighbouring Newark (without) and found there was no difference between calorie content of what customers bought in stores with calorie counts compared to those without calorie counts. This, despite the fact that 28% of NY customers said calorie counts had influenced them to order better: a classic case of saying one thing and doing another.’

Wiser heads than ours are probably pondering the whys and wherefores of consumer behaviour. But could it be that we eat food not nutrients. And that throwing numbers at us with nutritional labelling doesn’t give our brains the sort of information they are wired to use to help us make better choices picking a meal in a restaurant, food hall or fast food chain. After all, we didn't evolve eating by numbers. No-one was counting calories when the day's kill was brought back to the cave.

So here’s a thought. Why not go back to basics and make it a rule that every time a food company, restaurant, fast food chain, recipe writer, food stylist etc. tells us that what they are offering is a ‘meal’ or a ‘dinner,’ that’s what it’s gotta be. And here’s where we can make use of those rather long-winded dietary guidelines. The 2010 American ones put it (almost) perfectly recommending Americans fill half their plates with fruits and vegetables at every meal. We’d just tweak that and say ‘non-starchy vegetables’. They go in the low GI carb corner.

News Briefs

‘Glycemic index may not affect appetite: Unilever study.’
The story was published in an online newsletter called ‘Food Navigator’ that’s widely read by the food industry and dietitians etc. We don’t know who wrote it, but it is misleading (to put it mildly) as we discovered when we asked Dr Alan Barclay to check it out. ‘First of all, the study wasn’t testing a solid food’ it was testing drinks and drinks on the whole are thought to be less satiating than solid foods,’ he said.

‘In summary,’ he says, ‘it is a poorly designed single study and it is not about GI. It is about glycemic response (not the same thing at all). There are numerous things wrong. Participants were fed between 22–24g carbohydrate for example while standard GI testing around the world (and there is an International Standard) uses 50g of available carbohydrate. In addition, they did not use glucose as a control, so the actual GI values of the test foods could not be calculated so we do not actually know if the various drinks were low, medium or high GI. Looking at the blood glucose response curves in their ‘Figure 1’ in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that differences between the GI of each test drink would be minimal, so it’s hardly surprising that they did not affect appetite.

There is level 1 evidence that low GI diets increase feelings of satiety and facilitate long term weight and body fat loss. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of GI and appetite in 2009 found that low GI meals significantly increased feelings of satiety compared with high GI meals. (Here's the reference: Wati, P. GI and satiety. MND thesis. University of Sydney). Furthermore, the Thomas et al Cochrane review found that “Overweight and obese people lost more weight on low GI diets than on high GI or other weight reduction diets and their cardiovascular risk marker profile improved as well”.’

Two words not in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans …
‘Glycemic index.’ But we still think that the new guidelines are heading in the right direction. The notable difference between the US Dietary Guidelines (pretty much the same as guidelines around the world) and previous versions is their new recommendation to limit refined grains – not quite on par with statements like ‘reduce added sugars’. To match this statement they need to say something along the lines of ‘reduce added refined starches’. You can read the guidelines HERE.

Pulse power for gluten-free diets
Pulses or legumes are an important part of the healthy low GI way of eating for everybody. They are especially important if you are on a gluten-free diet as they provide much of the fibre and nutrients found in the gluten-containing grains that you can’t eat any more. Dietitian Dr Kate Marsh recommends you put them on the menu at least twice a week – more often if you are vegetarian.

Looking for recipes? Pulse Canada has published a handy 32-page PDF booklet Pulses and the gluten-free diet put together by Shelley Case RD and Carol Fenster PhD. It covers types of pulses (legumes), health benefits, celiac disease and the gluten connection, nutrition on a gluten-free diet, buying storing and cooking pulses and a really practical section on using pulses in GF baking. There are 26 recipes – all photographed (the black bean pizza is pictured here). They haven’t estimated the recipes GI value. You can download it HERE.



The baked recipes use a variety of gluten-free flours including white and black bean flours and yellow pea flour. We asked Peter Watts who is the Director of Market Innovation at Pulse Canada about the availability of these products. ‘You can purchase a number of different pulse flours in grocery stores including pea flour, bean flour, chickpea flour,’ he said. ‘Chickpea flour and some bean flours are available in bulk. Bob’s Red Mill in the US has some nifty packaging with these products in 500 gram bags and they are quite widely available. You can also order on line – a company in Manitoba called Best Cooking Pulses just started selling pea flour and chickpea flours on Amazon. This is not to say that pulse flours are generally available – they are still usually housed in the specialty food section of grocery stores and not all stores offer them, but they are increasingly present. And consumer demand will help increase supply and distribution.’

We haven't been able to track down these flours in Australia or NZ. Let us know if you know where you can buy them.

eBook update: Nutrition for Life



It’s great to see Australian publishers finally embracing eBooks. This best seller by Catherine Saxelby (an early GI supporter) is now available as a digital download as is her Zest cookbook (with Woman’s Day Food Director Jennene Plummer.) We checked out the eBook formats for her books – Kindle and Apple are our favourites for quality and ease of use. We’d give the rest a miss frankly.

• Got Kindle? Buy Nutrition for Life and Eating for the Healthy Heart (or the US edition titled There’s More to Heart Health Than Cholesterol) from the Kindle bookshop on Amazon HERE
• Got Apple? Buy Nutrition for Life, Zest and Eating for the Healthy Heart from iBooks for the iPad or iPhone HERE

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller's GI books will be available in eBook formats soon they tell us. We’ll keep you posted.

In the GI News Kitchen

Bircher muesli with mixed nuts
Lisa Yates from Nuts for Life shares her favourite nut and oat breakfast recipe that will really keep you on the ball until lunchtime. This bircher muesli with crunch keeps in the fridge for a couple of days. There’s about 30g (1oz) nuts per serving, equivalent to the recommended small handful a day. Makes 6 serves.

2 cups (180g) traditional rolled oats
1/3 cup (50g) sliced dried apricots
2 tablespoons sultanas
1½ cups (375ml) apple juice
50g (1½oz) raw pecans
50g (1½oz) raw hazelnuts
50g (1½oz) raw whole blanched almonds
50g (1½oz) raw macadamias
1 medium red apple, halved and thinly sliced
½ cup (125ml) low fat natural yoghurt
¼ cup (60ml) skim milk
2 tablespoons honey (if desired)

Place the rolled oats, apricots and sultanas in a bowl and pour over the apple juice. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Place all the nuts on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven, cool then chop roughly.
Add the nuts to the rolled oat mixture, along with the apple, yoghurt and milk. Stir until completely combined. Serve with a drizzle of honey if desired.

Per serving (with honey)
Energy: 1850kJ/ 440 cals; Protein 10g; Fat 25g (includes 2g saturated fat and 1mg cholesterol); Available carbs 45g; Fibre 7g

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.

Baked oranges with amaretti-pistachio filling
Italians only eat produce in season. In March, Sicilian oranges reign all over Italy. They are so scrumptious that they are usually eaten as dessert, just as they are. But sometimes cooks want to present them in a fancy way for a special occasion. If you enjoy the taste of a fresh orange, wait until you taste these baked ones. The combined flavours of the amaretti (an Italian airy macaroon made from apricot paste found in most large supermarkets) and pistachios really enhance the natural goodness of the humble orange. Delicious served warm with a chocolate-covered biscotti. This recipe is made using a standard (15ml) tablespoon. The Australian tablespoon is bigger (20ml), so you only need 1½ tbsp flour, orange zest, pistachios and amaretti. Serves 4 (1 filled orange cup each)

4 medium navel oranges
2 tbsp plain white flour, sifted
½ cup (125ml) non-fat milk, warmed
½ cup (125ml) fresh orange juice
4 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2 tbsp finely ground amaretti
2 tbsp pistachios, coarsely chopped
1 large egg, beaten until frothy

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
Wash and pat dry the oranges. Cut off the top ¼ of each orange. Using a grapefruit or paring knife and a teaspoon, carefully remove the pulp from inside the orange without piercing through the rind. Place the pulp in a strainer over a mixing bowl and, with a fork, squeeze out all the juice. Set the juice aside. Discard the pulp. Set the 4 orange cups aside.
In a small saucepan, add the flour and then the milk in a slow stream, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Avoid scorching by stirring constantly.
Slowly add in the next 5 ingredients (orange juice through pistachios). Continue to cook the mixture for 3 minutes stirring constantly. Set aside and allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the egg and mix well. Fill the 4 orange cups with equal amounts of the mixture, place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Per serving (without the biscotti)
Energy: 475kJ/ 113 cals; Protein 4g; Fat 3g (includes less than 1g saturated fat and 54mg cholesterol); Available carbs 16g; Fibre 1g

Cut back on the food bills and enjoy fresh-tasting, easily prepared, seasonal, satisfying and delicious low or moderate GI meals that don’t compromise on quality and flavour one little bit with Money Saving Meals author Diane Temple. For more recipes check out the Money Saving Meals website.

No nuts ‘choccy’ fruit slice
Here’s a lunch box snack the kids can take to school. It has no nuts and less added sugar than most slice recipes, but it is probably moderate GI thanks to the flour. Note that I use a 20ml Australian tablespoon in my cooking. If you have a standard 15ml one, you’ll need to use 4 tablespoons cocoa and oat bran. It’s really easy to make, and you can even let all those ‘Junior MasterChefs’ at home take over the kitchen. It sure works out much cheaper than buying a pack of muesli bars. And it makes 18 pieces.

½ cup (75g) plain flour
½ cup (80g) plain wholemeal flour
½ tsp baking powder
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 cup (75g) brown sugar
3 tbsp oat bran
½ cup (55g) sultanas
1/3 cup (45g) sweetened dried cranberries
1/3 cup (50g) chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup (65g) dark choc bits
70g (2½oz) polyunsaturated spread, melted
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla essence
¼ cup (60ml) skim milk

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF and spray and line a 26x19cm (10x8in) slice pan with baking paper.
Mix the flours, baking powder, cocoa, sugar and oat bran together in a large bowl. Add the dried fruit and choc bits and mix well.
Combine the margarine, eggs, vanilla and milk in another bowl then pour into the dry mixture and stir until it is well combined.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until firm. Leave in pan for 5 minutes then turn out on a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for lunch box snacks and after school treats.

Per serve
Energy: 535kJ/ 130 cals; Protein 2.6g; Fat 5g (includes 1.8g saturated fat and 24mg cholesterol); Available carbs 18g; Fibre 2g

Busting Food Myths with Nicole Senior

Myth: When it comes to food, fresh is always best.


Nicole Senior

Fact: Fresh food is great but our lifestyles no longer permit eating only fresh food.
‘Processed’ food can make a significant contribution toward health, convenience and enjoyment. I get a bit annoyed at those holier-than-thou health nutters who say we should avoid all ‘processed’ foods. It sounds great – indeed virtuous – but in reality it’s both impractical and undesirable for regular folk who are busy trying to keep work, home and family ticking over.

The term ‘processed’ itself is nutritionally meaningless without qualifiers like ‘highly’ or ‘overly’ or even ‘minimally’ as just about all foods we buy are processed in one way or another – just think of basics like low fat milk, grainy bread, traditional porridge oats, rice and pasta.

There’s also a good reason why food technology has made leaps and bounds; we demanded it. I’m not saying all technological advances have been used to promote health, but on balance it’s been a great leap forward for society. Processed food is the price we pay for the life we desire, and we can’t go back. To support a global population of 9 billion – mostly urbanised – people by 2050 we’re going to need more technology to help feed the world, not less.

We now spend less time on shopping and preparing food. We demanded this because women moved out of the kitchen and into the workforce. Unfortunately men (generally speaking) haven’t assumed their share of the domestic tasks – including cooking – and the food industry has picked up the slack. It now takes 30 minutes rather than 3 hours to whip up spaghetti Bolognese using dried pasta, frozen mince, a bottled sauce and some bagged salad; an incredible feat of modern food technology when you think about it. The same meal could take a day to prepare from scratch (plus the toil of preserving the previous summer’s tomato crop). While many people moan about supermarkets, they now give us everything we could want (and lots we shouldn’t want) all under the one roof. Easy.

Processing food allows us to enjoy food from around the world. Could you imagine only being able to eat fresh food from your local area? And then having to preserve what you couldn’t consume in a few days? Buying local where you can is a great thing, but the 100-mile diet is unrealistic for most people. Australia, the USA, Canada and the UK are cultural melting pots and processed foods allow migrants to enjoy the tastes of home and the rest of us to expand our culinary horizons. International trade in food supports many developing countries as well as developed ones.

Food technology and food additives reduce food waste by prolonging shelf life and preserving seasonal produce. While there are some unfortunate individuals who are sensitive to certain food additives, their benefits are still worth it for society at large (and clear labelling allows avoidance if necessary). We forget about the untold millions of lives saved due to preservatives stopping the growth of deadly bacteria. The huge consumer concern about food additives is disproportionate to the actual evidence of harm. They undergo safety testing before they are permitted in foods and there has never been a single reported death attributed to a food additive. On the other hand, eating too much salt is a contributing factor in millions of deaths globally but it doesn’t attract the same antipathy as additives because it doesn’t need a code number. We have very high standards for the food we buy but fail to recognise the role of additives in producing its desired safety, colour, texture and flavour.

I applaud taking more time to buy quality, fresh, local produce and preparing it at home with love and care because this brings a range of health, environmental and social benefits; just don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I’d rather be choosing from the wonderful diversity of fresh and healthier processed foods than wearing an apron 24/7. I think I’ll treat myself tonight with some low fat (and low GI) vanilla ice cream, raspberries (from the freezer) and dark chocolate shavings, followed by a decaf coffee. Try making those from scratch ...

Declaration of interest: Nicole provides nutrition consultancy services to food companies as well as the media, the organic food industry and health and community organisations. She has not worked for any companies that manufacture or market food additives.

For more real-world advice about eating for a healthy heart, check out Nicole’s website HERE.

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Low GI and low carb are NOT the same
There are a growing number of foods and beverages on supermarket shelves with packaging claims which are designed to encourage us to believe they will have a minimal impact on our blood glucose levels. Typical claims include ‘low carb’, ‘low glycemic’ and of course ‘low GI’. Catherine Saxelby’s Foodwatch website has just posted a report on ‘Sumo Salad Low GI Chicken Salad’ which hasn’t actually been GI tested and is in fact low in carbs. You can check it out HERE.

While these products may look like a good choice if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes, that’s not always the case. Undeniably, the immediate effect of what you eat or drink on your blood glucose levels is an important factor in deciding what to put in your shopping trolley. But it’s not the only one. There are many other aspects to good nutrition you need to consider including the amount of protein, the amount and type of fat and the amount of sodium … Here’s why these on-pack and point of sale claims may not be as healthy as they seem.

Low carb is far and away the most popular claim. When manufacturers reduce the carb content of a product they usually have to increase one of the other macronutrients – protein or fat – or alcohol in the case of low carb beers. While this may not be a problem if you like to buy a particular low carb product, it can become a problem if the bulk of what you eat and drink are low carb products. Here’s why.

• It is generally advisable for people with diabetes to avoid high protein diets (more than 25% of kilojoules/calories from protein) because of possible harmful effects on your kidney function (a common complication of diabetes).
• We don’t need to tell you that high fat diets (that’s more than 35% of kilojoules/calories from fat) tend to lead to weight gain (fat provides more than double the kilojoules/calories per gram than carbs or protein). And the problem with weight gain (apart from the obvious one) is that it can decrease your insulin sensitivity. In addition, if too much of the fat is saturated or trans fat (more than 10% of kilojoules/calories), it will have an adverse affect on cholesterol levels, leading to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. And once you’ve put it on, it’s really hard to get it off for good.

Moderate carbohydrate diets (45–60% of kilojoules/calories) on the other hand, tend to be lower in calories/kilojoules and higher in fibre than high fat or protein diets which is why they are widely recommended for people with diabetes.

Low carb or low glycemic on labels does not necessarily mean a food or drink is low GI at all. The carbs in products with packages proclaiming they are 'low carb' or 'low glycemic' can and often do have a high GI, and again, if you over-consume them it can have detrimental effects on your beta cell function, blood triglyceride and free fatty acid levels. It also affects satiety (feeling full).

To help make healthy low GI choices easier, we developed the GI Symbol Program. It was our response to the raft of false claims and it’s your guarantee that the food is an all-round healthy choice and that it also has been tested and really is low GI.



Help us get the GI Symbol on more foodsTo help bring more healthy low GI foods to your local supermarket:
1. Buy products that carry the Certified Low GI symbol. They are delicious and healthy, and their sales support us.
2. Write a thank you email to the manufacturers’ of healthy low GI foods customer care departments to help ensure that they continue to bring healthy products to market.
3. Call or email manufacturers encouraging them to join the GI Symbol Program.



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@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com

GI Update

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions

‘I like to eat a wide variety of vegetables. In fact I love having a rainbow on my plate. But some of my favourites like pumpkin seem to have moderate or even high GI values. Does that mean people with diabetes shouldn’t eat them?’

People with diabetes can happily tuck into pumpkin (GI66), beetroot (canned beetroot GI64), swede/rutabaga (GI72) as well as turnips, parsnips (GI52), carrots (GI39) and green peas (GI51). Unlike potatoes, sweet potatoes and cereal products including corn, these vegetables are low in carbohydrate so their glycemic load is low for typical servings. And like other green and salad vegetables including onions, tomatoes, capsicum/peppers and broccoli, they are packed with micronutrients. They should be considered free foods for everyone to eat to their heart’s content.

New GI values from Fiona Atkinson at SUGiRS
An all Goodness brekkie
Goodness Superfoods produce a range of low GI ready to eat brekkie cereals and porridges made with CSIRO’s modified (not GM) barley grain. We reported three Goodness Superfoods ready-to-eat cereals (45g or 1½ oz a serving) a year ago, as a reminder, here’s how they rated in the GI stakes.

• Heart 1st: GI 46 – available carbs 20g
• Digestive 1st GI 39 – available carbs 21g
• Protein 1st GI 36 – available carbs 17g

And here are the latest GI values for two types of Goodness Superfoods porridge (made according to packet instructions with water, nothing else added).

• Traditional Barley+ Oats 1st (GI47) – available carbs (for a 40g serving prepared with water) 25g carbohydrate.
• Quick Sachets Barley+ Oats 1st Apple & Honey (GI55) – available carbs (for a 35g serving prepared with water) 25g carbohydrate.

Alternatively, top your favourite foods (fruit, yoghurt, ice cream) with a spoon of two of their FibreBoost Sprinkles (GI34) to improve inner health and be regular.

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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Help us get the GI on more foods
To help bring more healthy Low GI foods to your local supermarket:
1. Buy products that carry the Certified Low GI symbol. They are delicious and healthy, and their sales support us.
2. Write a thank you email to the manufacturers’ of healthy low GI foods customer care departments to help ensure that they continue to bring healthy products to market.
3. Call or email manufacturers encouraging them to join the GI Symbol Program

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