![[COLLAGE]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2010/mar2010/collage.jpg)
Prime your metabolism to burn fat with a low GI breakfast
Breakfast jump-starts your metabolism, helps you concentrate better (no hunger pangs to distract you) and generally gets the day off to a good start. Forget the excuses. It's easy to whip up.
There actually aren’t fixed rules about when to have breakfast. We all have different needs, backgrounds, lifestyles and morning rush hour timetables. Just do it, whether you sit down with the family, grab something as you head out the door, have breakfast in a café, canteen or at your desk, or make your mid-morning break your ‘breakfast’.
Yes, it’s that flexible, it’s just the first eating occasion of the day. However, research shows that eating breakfast first thing in the morning helps stabilise blood glucose levels, which control appetite and energy. The longer you wait, the more insulin resistant you may become. This means that whatever you eat next will require an elevated insulin response, making life harder for your beta cells and probably resulting in an elevated blood glucose reading.
What you eat for breakfast is what really matters. A healthy low GI breakfast can sustain you until lunchtime, prime your metabolism to burn fat and reduce your day-long insulin levels more effectively than any other single dietary change. It’s easy to put together. It just needs some:
More fat loss bang for your exercise buck with a low GI breakfast
‘If you are trying to shed fat, you may consider eating low GI foods before you exercise,’ suggests Dr Emma Stevenson. Her study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that a low GI breakfast before exercising could help with weight loss because it increases fat oxidation both at rest and during subsequent exercise. ‘A low GI breakfast also had an impact on appetite, with the women feeling fuller for longer after they’d eaten these types of foods,’ said Dr Stevenson.
Eight healthy women ate either a high GI breakfast or a low GI one in test sessions several days apart (each breakfast contained the same number of calories and same proportion of those calories from carbs, fat and protein). Three hours later they did 60 minutes on a treadmill before lunch.
Blood glucose was higher – as expected – after the high GI breakfast than the low GI one, and had returned to normal levels by the time the women began exercising. But plasma free fatty acids (FFA) – which indicate the amount of fat being used as an energy source – began to rise two hours after the low GI breakfast. Exercise led to a rapid increase in FFAs in both groups – but concentrations were higher in the low GI group. After lunch the concentration of FFAs was the same in both groups, but overall fat oxidation was higher in the low GI group than the high GI group.
Eggs for breakfast help weight loss
A study published in the International Journal of Obesity shows that eating two eggs for breakfast, as part of a reduced-calorie diet, helped overweight adults lose more weight and feel more energetic than those who ate a bagel breakfast of equal calories. This study supports previous research, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition which showed that people who ate eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied and ate fewer calories at the following meal. ‘People have a hard time adhering to diets and our research shows that choosing eggs for breakfast can dramatically improve the success of a weight loss plan,’ said lead researcher Nikhil Dhurandhar, PhD. ‘Apparently, the increased satiety and energy due to eggs helps people better comply with a reduced-calorie diet.’
Is an egg a day OK? It depends ...
‘Eggs are very nutritious. They are a good protein source,’ says dietitian Glenn Cardwell. They also contain omega-3 fats, as well as 11 different vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The common belief that eggs cause high cholesterol is untrue. ‘This idea was made on the assumption that cholesterol in food became cholesterol in your blood, which we now know to be incorrect. Most health authorities agree that an egg a day will do no harm – provided it’s not soaking in bacon fat,’ says Glenn www.glenncardwell.com
‘However, people with diabetes or those at risk should not consume an egg a day,’ says Dr Alan Barclay. ‘There is evidence that daily egg consumption will significantly increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and common diabetic complications in people with existing diabetes,’ he said.
Staying up to date with breakfast research
On the Breakfast Research Institute (funded by Quaker and Tropicana) website you can check out published studies relevant to breakfast science. (Links to PubMed abstracts are provided where available.) The News section includes reviews of recently published studies summarizing research objectives, design/methods, results, strengths and limitations. There’s also a commentary on the study.
For example, here’s what they say about the recent Association of Breakfast Skipping with Visceral Fat and Insulin Indices in Overweight Latino Youth study published in Obesity.
[Summary] ‘Breakfast skipping [in overweight Latino adolescents] was related to increased visceral fat independent of age, gender, total fat, total lean tissue, and total energy intake." Even occasional breakfast consumption appeared to result in lower visceral adiposity.’
[Commentary] ‘This is a well-designed and well-executed study on a minority population examining the relationship of breakfast consumption to changes in visceral adiposity. The study adds support to the importance of breakfast in a high risk (adolescent) minority population. It also breaks new ground in a useful area of study, setting up further exploration into breakfast and visceral adiposity in differing populations. The authors also plan future longitudinal studies of the factors examined in this study and studies examining the potential influence of eating patterns and breakfast composition on specific adiposity and insulin dynamics measures in this population. The importance of visceral adiposity and the relationship to chronic disease has already been established, making this a study of great interest in breakfast research literature.’
Blood glucose and cancer risk
People with elevated blood glucose levels have a greater cancer risk than those with glucose levels in the normal range according to the findings of a prospective cohort study published in PLoS Medicine. For every mmol/L increment of glucose, the incident of cancer was 11% greater among women, and 5% among men. The association was more significant in certain forms of cancer, such as in the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, and urinary bladder.
Dr Tanja Stocks
The study, which was headed by Dr Tanja Stocks and colleagues from the University of Umeå, included about 275,000 men and 275 women from Sweden, Norway and Austria. Their blood glucose levels were measured at the beginning of the study and their risk of cancer during the follow up (typically about 10 years later). ‘We still do not know for certain if the effect of high blood glucose directly causes cancer, or whether other factors are behind the association. We believe that a lifestyle that is beneficial for blood glucose control also reduces the risk of cancer,’ says Tanja Stocks.
Because this study made the headlines, it was reviewed by the NHS Choices ‘Behind the Headlines’ team. ‘Overall,’ they say ‘this research provides some evidence that high blood glucose is associated with an increased risk of some types of cancer. However, it did not directly test or suggest that high blood glucose causes these cancers. Although the research did find an association between high blood glucose levels and cancer risk, there are many other lifestyle, medical and genetic factors that may contribute to a person’s likelihood of developing cancer, few of which were considered in this analysis.’ Read more.
New website for type 2: www.theodb.com.au
The ODB is a brand new website for people with type 2 diabetes. It covers all the new drugs and treatments. The man behind it – Jim Montgomery – is a low GI diet success story. He swears his 11 years of an HbA1C of around 5.5-6.0 is due to exercise and Jennie Brand-Miller's Low GI Diet. His belief shows in the weekly updates of the ODB [the Original Diabetes Blog] where there is always a story about the low GI diet. In its first issues, Jim is engaged in an interesting trial of the world’s first, blue-toothed glucometer automatically reporting back to a specially prepared, personal website on Telstra’s BigPond. Check it out HERE.
Renovate your breakfast with grains, cereals and porridges
Sue Radd
Dietitian Sue Radd’s The Breakfast Book highlights the vital role breakfast plays in our health and wellbeing, and offers deliciously original porridge and muesli recipes from around the world made with unprocessed or minimally processed grains – Baked brown rice porridge with fruits, Buckwheat porridge (a traditional Slovenian recipe), Cinnamon spiced quinoa with dried fruits, African mielimeel porridge, Fig and almond couscous porridge, Warm barley and cherry pudding, Millet with macadamia and currants and Fragrant wheat with figs, prunes and peaches.
‘Natural unprocessed or minimally processed grains are under-utilised as a breakfast food,’ says Sue, ‘because few people know how to cook them. In fact you can buy most grains – rye, triticale, barley, wheat, rye and amaranth – rolled, just like traditional rolled oats. I simply use a variety of rolled grains to make a base for my toasted muesli and then add nuts and seeds and dried fruit.
Another grain I love to use is polenta. I grew up eating polenta for breakfast, not Weet-Bix or corn flakes. Polenta is very common in certain parts of Europe. The smooth, porridge like consistency makes it suitable for the entire family. The bright yellow colour is due to carotenoids present in corn. I find the easiest way to enjoy polenta is with milk, but of course you can also serve it on a dinner plate with garlic-scented sauerkraut, natural yoghurt and cottage cheese!
I also like to make the most of whole wheat kernels, though you probably have to go to a health food shop to buy them. Your entire kitchen will become fragrant with warm earthy aromas when you cook wheat. My favourite dish is a porridge based on the traditional Croatian recipe for ‘zito’, commonly eaten for breakfast or as a snack during the day. You can use other whole grains such as spelt or triticale for this, too. I like this dish kept simple, but if you prefer, add a dollop of yoghurt to serve. This is real comfort food as well as being highly portable – just pop it into a plastic container with a lid to go. You can also make it the night before – it keeps well in the fridge for up to a week. It is super-rich in dietary fibre. Tip, the wheat only takes about 20 minutes to cook if you use a pressure cooker.’
Sue’s fragrant wheat with figs, prunes and peaches
1 cup whole wheat
1/3 cup pecans, coarsely ground
5 dried figs softened in water for 10 mins, chopped
¼ cup pitted prunes, chopped
½ cup dried peaches, chopped
1 tbsp honey
Place the wheat in a saucepan with 5 cups water and cook, covered for about 1 hour or until tender. Drain the wheat through a sieve and place in a large mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Mix well until combined. Serve while the wheat is still warm or enjoy later when cooled. Makes 5 serves.
Per serving
Energy: 1022 kJ/ 243 cals; Protein 8 g; Fat 7 g; Carbohydrate 46g; Fibre 9g
You can buy Sue's Breakfast Book HERE
American dietitian and author of Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Johanna Burani, shares favourite recipes with a low or moderate GI from her Italian kitchen. For more information, check out Johanna's website. The photographs are by Sergio Burani. His food, travel and wine photography website is photosbysergio.com.
![[JOHANNA]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2008/sept08/joanna175.jpg)
Fruit compote with Grand Marnier
Italians eat fruit for dessert. Fresh fruit must be just that – fresh. As the winter season draws to an end, before the spring berries and early fruits like apricots and cherries appear, cooks take their not-so-fresh-anymore apples and pears and slowly stew them, often adding spices and liqueur. Here’s how I do it.
Makes 9 half-cup (approx) servings
3 large cooking apples (Cortland, Jonathan, Macintosh)
2 ripe pears (Bosc)
1½ tbsp Grand Marnier liqueur
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
Tabbouli
Also known as cracked wheat, burghul (GI 48) is made from whole wheat grains that have been hulled and steamed before grinding to crack the grain. The wheat grain remains virtually intact—it is simply cracked – and the wheat germ and bran are retained, which preserves nutrients and lowers the GI. Use it as a breakfast cereal, in tabbouli, or add it to pilafs, vegetable burgers, stuffing, stews, salads and soups.
When I was shopping for burghul in my local Middle Eastern food store, the owner leaned over the counter and said. ‘Don’t use too much, just a small handful if you are making tabbouli.’ She then proceeded to share her recipe with me where the burghul is softened by the juices of the cucumber and tomato. She also told me to use curly parsley not flat-leaf for a better texture, which is great because that’s what so many people have growing in their garden. Serves 6–8
3 tightly packed cups (about 3 bunches) parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 cup mint leaves, chopped
3 medium green onions (shallots/spring onions), white and light green parts sliced
3 large red ripe roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp burghul
1 large Lebanese cucumber, quartered lengthwise then finely sliced
Juice 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
Place the chopped parsley, mint and green onions in a large bowl and spread the chopped tomatoes over the top in a thickish layer. Sprinkle over the burghul. Top with the finely chopped the cucumber. Drizzle over the lemon juice and oil. Cover and chill until ready to serve, then toss to mix all the ingredients together.
Per serving (analysis based on serving 8)
Energy: 292kJ/ 70 cals; Protein 1. g; Fat 5 g; Carbs 4g Fibre 3g
Myth: Gluten-free foods are better for you.![[NICOLE]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2007/dec2007/nicole125.jpg)
Nicole Senior
Fact: Only people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance are better off eating gluten-free foods – and some gluten-free foods aren’t so healthy.
The range of gluten-free food products has exploded in recent years and now widely available in supermarkets. While this is great news for sufferers of coeliac disease and gluten intolerance, the numbers just don’t add up. Since coeliac disease affects only 1% of the population, either there has been an explosion of gluten intolerance or there are lots of people buying these products who don’t have a diagnosable problem with gluten. It appears that ‘gluten-free’ has become the latest health fad.
Where does this idea come from that gluten is somehow bad for us? Dietitians commonly point the finger at naturopaths and other alternative health practitioners who recommend exclusion of wheat and gluten almost as a matter of course. Then the word-of-mouth message starts to spread. A growing number of consumers believe gluten-free foods are healthier and start to buy gluten-free foods by choice. More products become available to meet demand, the diet becomes easier to follow, more people buy them because they’re there, and the trend takes hold.
It doesn’t make sense that wheat (the most common source of gluten in the diet) would be somehow harmful. Wheat has been cultivated since 9000BC, is grown worldwide, and is the world’s third largest produced grain crop used to make a huge range of staple foods including leavened bread, flat breads, pasta and noodles.
Imagine not being able to eat regular bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, biscuits, crisp bread, cakes, thickened sauces and even beer? Wheat and other gluten-containing grains are almost ubiquitous in our Western-style food culture. The gluten-free diet has a high degree of difficulty, so why would you follow it unless you absolutely had to? In additition, a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition has shown reduced numbers of friendly gut bacteria and reduced immune function in people following a gluten-free diet.
However the real issue is the gluten-free products themselves. Many are highly processed and based on high GI ingredients such as rice and potato and some have lots of added saturated fat and sugar to enhance palatability, especially in the sweet biscuit, bar and cake category. Few products are based on wholegrain versions of gluten-free grains, even though they are healthier.
For those of you with symptoms of coeliac disease such as abdominal pain, diarrhoea, lethargy and iron deficiency, don’t self diagnose and put yourself on a gluten free diet. See your doctor first for a definitive diagnosis through blood test and intestinal biopsy (following a gluten free diet before diagnosis of coeliac disease can actually prevent a correct diagnosis being made).
If your symptoms are not due to coeliac disease, but you suspect food is somehow the cause, see a registered dietitian (an APD in Australia) with experience in food intolerance to identify the real dietary culprits and create a personalised diet for you to manage your symptoms.
If you’d like quality information on heart health and great recipes check out Nicole's website HERE.
‘When should I exercise? I have read that you will burn more fat if you exercise before breakfast.’
Glenn Cardwell
‘The biggest factor for burning body fat is whether you do the activity in the first place. It may be interesting to speculate whether you burn more fat in certain circumstances, but the best I can give you is a general guide.
![[ALAN]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2009/april2009/alan125.jpg)
Dr Alan Barclay
Finding healthy low GI breakfast cereals
Despite all the noise about sugar there’s more to making healthy choices in the breakfast aisle than going for the one with the least amount of sugar on the nutrition info panel. Good choices will:
GI Q&A with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller
'I am curious why high-fibre cereals like Bran Flakes that look so healthy, and everyone assumes are healthy, actually have a high GI?'
Bran Flakes and Raisin Bran are fibre-rich breakfast cereals designed to keep you ‘healthy on the inside’ as they say. But they are high GI and digested in a flash because the production process makes the starch very accessible. It’s the same with most ready-to-eat breakfast cereals you’ll find in the supermarket
Why do these cereals have high GI values? Grinding, milling, flaking, popping and puffing grains radically changes ‘nature’s architecture’ and makes it easier for water to be absorbed and digestive enzymes to attack the food. This is why many foods (including bread) made from fine flours tend to have a high GI value. The larger the particle size, the lower the GI value.
One of the most significant alterations to our food supply came with the introduction, in the mid-19th century, of steel-roller mills. Not only did they make it easier to remove the fibre from cereal grains, but also the particle size of the flour became smaller than ever before. Prior to the 19th century, stone grinding produced quite coarse flours that resulted in slower rates of digestion and absorption.
When starch is consumed in ‘nature’s packaging’ – whole intact grains that have been softened just by soaking and cooking – the food will often have a low GI. For example, cooked pearl barley’s GI value is 25. But not ALWAYS. For example, some barleys have more naturally-occurring viscous beta-glucans (a form of fibre) that creates greater viscosity in the small intestine and physically slows down the digestive processes. It’s hard to know which varieties of barley are low GI unless they have been previously tested. Brown rice often has a surprisingly high GI too. This is because the insoluble fibre around brown rice is not viscous and it’s micro-thin. It’s easy for enzymes to attack the starch in rice because the milling operation has resulted in thousands of minute channels that allow water to hydrate the grain and gelatinise the starch during cooking. Greater gelatinisation of starch means higher GI.
Prof Barry Popkin on the evolution of cornflakes
‘Dr John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943) was a Seventh-day Adventist who opened a well-known hospital called the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Actually, it was more like a health resort than a hospital. At Battle Creek, for example, Kellogg taught about food preparation, had his clients engage in breathing exercises and marching to promote digestion, and he gave his guests daily enemas and had them consume yogurt afterward … John Kellogg’s first great discovery was cornflakes, the result of experimentation in the 1890s. The sanitarium kitchen’s cooked wheat was exposed to air for a day or more. Then, when running it through rollers, separate flakes were discharged and cereal flakes were born. The breakfast staple became an instant hit at the sanitarium and beyond, as guests would write after their visits to request supplies of their food.
Somewhere along the line this dream changed. The realities of selling cereal globally transformed Kellogg’s into a company that produced a large array of products with refined carbohydrates, added sugars and fats. The original cereals were made only with whole wheat and contained a small number of calories and plenty of fiber. But that was then – at less than 100 calories per serving – and this, at 120–400 calories per serving, is now. The virtuous company that made truly healthy products is a dim memory. Even so, Kellogg’s Post, and other ready-to-eat cereals are a lot healthier than most breakfast alternatives such as bacon, sausages and fried eggs.’
– The World is Fat
And a tip from Michael Pollan …
‘Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.’
– Food Rules, An eater’s manual
New GI values from North America: low GI juice beverages
Sweetened with organic blue agave nectar, the new Lo-Gly juice beverages provide 140 calories (588 kJ) per 1 cup (8 fl oz/240ml) serving. Each flavour is certified kosher and the beverages were GI tested in North America at Glycemic Index Laboratories in Toronto. They are available in the US and Canada.
![[FIONA]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2009/may2009/fiona125.jpg)
Subscribe - it's free!
To subscribe to GI News, simply click on the SUBSCRIBE link in the top right-hand column. Help us be sure our email newsletter isn’t filtered as spam. Add "gifeedback@gmail.com" to your address book to ‘whitelist’ us with your filter, helping future issues of GI News get to your inbox.
Your questions answered
If you have posted a question in GI News, be assured that the GI Group will answer this as soon as possible. We welcome your views about our articles and other reader’s suggestions. Please POST your comments and questions on the site.
Want to search past issues of GI News?
Want to search the GI News Archive for a particular topic, food or recipe? Make the most of our search feature with Google. Simply enter the term in the space provided and press SEARCH.
Want to print a copy of this GI News edition?
Download and print the PDF.
Copyright
This website and all information, data, documents, pages and images it contains is copyright under the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth of Australia) (as amended) and the copyright laws of all member countries of the Berne Union and the Universal Copyright Convention.
Copyright in the website and in material prepared by GI News is owned by GI News, Human Nutrition Unit, University of Sydney. Copyright in quotations, images from published works and photo libraries, and materials contributed by third parties including our regular contributors Alan Barclay, Jennie Brand-Miller, Johanna Burani, Kate Hemphill, Joanna McMillan Price and Nicole Senior is owned by the respective authors or agencies, as credited.
GI News encourages the availability, dissemination and exchange of public information. You may include a link to GI News on your website. You may also copy, distribute, display, download and otherwise freely deal only with material owned by GI News, on the condition that you include the copyright notice “© GI News, Human Nutrition Unit, University of Sydney” on all uses and prominently credit the source as being GI News.
You must, however, obtain permission from GI News if you wish to do the following:
![[COLLAGE]](http://www.glycemicindex.com/blog/2010/feb2010/collagefeb10.jpg)
Better breads for blood glucose
However you slice it, bread is truly a staple food. It’s not particularly fattening (a typical slice has around 300 kJ/70 cals) so long as you watch what you spread on it, and it’s an affordable convenience food. However, most breads on supermarket shelves – and that includes most English style muffins and bagels, baguettes, rolls, burger buns, Turkish (pide) bread and pocket (pita or Lebanese) breads – are made from quickly digested highly refined flours (white or wholemeal) that can send your blood glucose soaring. If you make the ‘this for that’ switch to a low GI bread for your sandwiches and toast, you will be well on your way to reducing the overall GI of your diet, managing the blood glucose roller coaster and trickling those smart slow carbs into your engine for sustained energy.
How do you know which ones are low GI? Well, you can look for the GI Symbol if you live in Australia or New Zealand or check out The Shopper's Guide to GI Values 2010. Otherwise, here’s what we suggest. Look for:
Bread: This for that #1
The simple change from regular white bread to a low GI bread could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes according to Australian researchers from the Cancer Council of Victoria. The study published in Diabetes Care looked at the diets and health records of more than 36,000 men and women in Australia for four years and found white bread was the food most strongly related to diabetes incidence—participants who ate the most white bread (more than 17 slices per week) had the highest risk of type 2 diabetes.
A small Swedish cross-over study of seven women with impaired glucose tolerance and a history of gestational diabetes published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlights the immediate value of making the ‘this for that’ switch. For the study, the women were given either a low GI bread that was specially baked and was rich in fibre or a high GI, low fibre bread during consecutive 3-week periods separated by a 3-week washout period. The results were unanimous. All the women reduced their post-meal insulin responses after eating low GI, high fibre bread compared with eating the high GI, low fibre bread.
Bread: This for that #2
‘A lack of satisfying, filling foods is a hurdle for many people when trying to maintain a balanced, healthy diet,’ says Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller. ‘We found that your daily bread choice can play a role in satisfying hunger and decreasing food intake at a subsequent meal.’ Researchers in the Human Nutrition Unit at Sydney University carried out the lab-based [unpublished] study for George Weston Foods from January–March 2008.
Twenty healthy weight (BMI 18–25) volunteers aged 18–45 were randomly asked to breakfast on either two slices of Burgen Wholemeal & Seeds bread (GI 39) or two slices of standard white sandwich bread (GI 70) with margarine and jam and a glass of water and rank their feelings of fullness. They also had to list their subsequent meal’s food intake. The volunteers stated that they felt fuller for longer after the low GI bread breakfast and, on average, reduced their intake at the next meal by 500 kilojoules (120 cals) and 4 g of fat compared with the standard white bread breakfast. They also had a lower glycemic response to the low GI bread brekkie, which may have contributed to keeping hunger pangs at bay. The low GI bread was also a good source of fibre and provided some protein which may have also helped to provide the greater satiety response.
Does gluten cause your gut symptoms?
At the Nutrition Society of Australia conference in December 2009, PhD candidate Jessica Biesiekierski reported on her initial study that found for the first time, evidence that gluten itself may trigger gut symptoms such as bloating, wind and pain and also fatigue in individuals who do not have coeliac disease. To understand how and why, Jessica is currently recruiting for a follow up study. Details follow.
Jessica Biesiekierski
Volunteers are required for an Australian trial investigating gluten intolerance in people who do NOT have coeliac disease. The research team is seeking participants living in Melbourne (Australia) who:
Renovate your recipes – tips for reducing the amount and improving the quality of fat
Kaye Foster-Powell
The problem with fat is the amount we eat, sometimes without realising it. Fat provides more calories per gram (9 cals or 37 kJ) than protein or carbs (4 cals per gram each), which is why fat is a good place to start when giving your recipes a healthy makeover. It's not just the quantity you have to think about, it's the quality - the type of fat can make a big difference to your health and waistline. It's not too hard to give your favourite recipes a healthy renovation to reduce the amount or improve the quality of the fat. Here are dietitian Kaye Foster-Powell's 3 simple steps to get you started.
1. Substitute.
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.
Orecchiette and broccoli alla Franca
I’ve known Franca almost as long as I know my husband (39 years). They were high school friends and anytime we visit my husband’s hometown, Reggio Emilia (about 30 minutes west of Bologna), we always wind up at Franca’s house for dinner. Her culinary prowess is as acclaimed as her affable personality, wit and contagious laugh. Recently I asked her for a low GI recipe that I could share with readers; she wrote this up for me in less than 5 minutes! Orecchiette are 'little ears' pasta shapes, but you could use your favourite shapes for this.
Serves 4
250g (1/2 lb) head of fresh broccoli
250g (8 oz) uncooked orecchiette
1 oz. freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
1–2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Chicken and corn nuggets
The next time the clamour for takeaway starts, try these lightly pan fried nuggets with crispy low GI breadcrumbs for satisfying crunch. You can also bake them, but they take a little longer to cook. Made this way, they are a quick and budget friendly meal, tasty finger food when entertaining or ideal for lunch boxes. These work out at about 30 cents a nugget, less if you buy the mince on special. Freeze uncooked patties and cook after thawing in the fridge. I serve them with crudités (carrot, celery, tiny tomatoes, blanched snow peas) when my daughter’s friends come round for a sleepover, and there are always clean plates (yes, all the veggies are eaten too).
Makes about 30
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) chicken mince
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
125 g (4 oz) can corn kernels, drained
1 cup fresh low GI multigrain breadcrumbs
2 tablespoon chopped chives
½ cup dried multigrain breadcrumbs (see tip below)
2 tablespoons canola oil
To serve
Celery and carrot sticks
Tiny tomatoes
Blanched snowpeas (mangetout) or sugar snap peas
Crispy green beans
Tomato, barbecue or sweet chilli sauce
Myth: Sugar causes hyperactivity in children.
Nicole Senior
Fact: Food is not a big causal factor in hyperactivity, and sugar is not the culprit.
The scientific jury is in – sugar is not to blame for hyperactivity in children. There is no good evidence and no plausible mechanism, however food may still play a part– especially for a small minority of children. Sugar per se is not implicated in hyperactivity but it is found in many foods such as confectionary and soft drinks which also contain chemicals a small number of sensitive children can react to.
Hyperactivity is now known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and covers a spectrum of difficult behaviours. It has a strong genetic basis and can be affected by a variety of physiological and environmental factors including exposure to alcohol and smoking in the womb. A small number of children are sensitive to food colours and preservatives which can result in adverse behavioural symptoms like those of ADHD. It is thought these chemicals behave more like a drug than a food on the nervous system of sensitive individuals, affecting mood, attention, concentration and impulsivity.
The idea that food colours and preservatives might influence children’s behaviour was reinforced by the Southampton study published in the prestigious Lancet medical journal. It identified six colours associated with adverse behavioural effects in children: sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), tartrazine (E102) and ponceau 4R (E124). It could not conclude a specific effect of the preservative benzoate (E211). While this study attracted worldwide media attention and calls to ban these colours in the UK, the study has since been criticised on methodological grounds casting doubt over its conclusions. The amount of colours given to the study children was very much greater than children typically eat in the UK or abroad, and the effects were weak and inconsistent. The European Food Safety Authority found insufficient grounds to change the approved status of the additives used.
Food and behaviour studies are notoriously hard to construct and control because children’s behaviour is so easily influenced by their social setting, parenting, peer influences and individual factors. Perhaps sugar is found in children’s party foods and they are simply responding to the expectation of a party? Maybe sugar is merely fuel for their childish energy? The myth about sugar and hyperactivity is so entrenched there is significant bias in parent’s observations too. In one study parents were asked to rate their kids behaviour after a sweet drink and were told it had lots of sugar when an artificial sweetener was secretly used instead- they all said the kids behaviour was worse. Another difficulty is food chemical sensitivities are difficult to diagnose- there are no blood tests. It takes the skills of a specialist dietitian and an able and committed parent to complete an elimination diet and re-challenge needed to identify food chemical intolerance in a hyperactive child.
Emerging research is examining whether lack of long chain omega-3 fats are contributing to developmental brain disorders such as ADHD. Australian researcher Dr Natalie Simm has found up to 40-50% of children in her research with ADHD symptoms associated improved with omega-3 supplementation over a 30 week period. Part of the solution toward better behaved children may be eating more fish rather than hiding the sugar bowl- and it’s good for their heart as well.
If you’d like reliable information and great recipes on Nicole’s usual favourite subject of heart health click HERE. 
Get with the strength: the upper body workout
As I said in January GI News, strength training with resistance exercise is arguably the best means we have of really changing the shape of our bodies and it keeps us looking younger by maintaining a strong posture and frame. You need an exercise band for the seated row. And remember, anything you do more than you are currently doing is a step in the right direction.
The upper body workout: Do 2 sets of 10 of each exercise with a rest in between and aim to complete the sequence 2 to 3 times a week (and not on consecutive days). Once you can do this easily add a second set with a brief rest between sets.
Standing tricep extensions – Works back of the upper arm (your ‘wing flaps’)
The back of the upper arms is a common problem area for women in particular—we tend to store body fat here and lack muscle tone. You will need a weight to provide resistance in this exercise. You can buy small hand-held weights at any good sports shop or department store. Alternatively, improvise from your kitchen cupboard: a bag of rice or an unopened can – anything around the 400 g (14 oz) mark.
Stand tall and hold the weight overhead with both hands (you can also alternate, so one at a time), with your arms straight. Make sure you are standing with good posture and eyes straight ahead, rather than looking up at the weight. Keeping your arms close to your ears, lower the weight behind your head. Keeping the upper arm still, lift the weight back to the top.
Seated row – Works back
Move to a seated position and wrap the band around your feet, holding each end in your hands. Sit up tall and with knees slightly bent use a rowing action to pull your hands in to the ribs and slowly release back to the start position.
Assisted push up – Works chest, shoulders and arms
Why do most people hate push-ups? The answer is easy—because they are hard! In fact, they are even harder if you are carrying too much body weight since you are effectively lifting your own body weight against gravity. Here is a modified version of the traditional push-up, which enables you to gain the benefits of the exercise but makes it easier for you to perform it correctly. You will need a low coffee table – alternatively, use the second or third bottom step of a set of stairs.
Start in a kneeling position with your hands wider than your shoulders on the edge of the table/stair. Move your knees back until your body is a straight diagonal line from head to knee. Slowly lower your chest towards the edge of the table/stair while keeping your back flat and without letting your bottom stick up. At the bottom of the move, your elbows should be directly above your hands – adjust your hand position as appropriate before returning slowly to the starting position.
Dr Joanna McMillan Price www.joannamcmillanprice.com is a registered nutritionist and accredited practising dietitian with a PhD from the University of Sydney. She is also a trained fitness leader and has taught group exercise classes for over 15 years. She has written and co-aauthored several books including The Low GI Diet Cookbook. For Joanna’s complete exercise program, check out a copy of The Low GI Diet available from good bookstores and online.
Dr Alan Barclay
Finding a low GI bread
For many of us, bread is the number one source of glycemic carbohydrate in our diet. This is partly because it is such a versatile product – we can eat it for breakfast with our favourite spread, use it to make sandwiches for lunch, and serve it with dinner.
Bread is naturally very high in starch (carbohydrate), and typically it has a high GI so its overall glycemic load can be relatively high. But because bread is such an important part of life, we do not recommend cutting it out – low carbohydrate diets are generally unsustainable, and arguably not ideal for long-term health. Choosing a lower GI bread is a much easier way of lowering the overall glycemic impact of your diet.
There are a number of factors that potentially affect the GI of breads including:
GI Q&A with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller
I always pick a healthy wholegrain bread like a wholemeal sandwich bread, but a friend told me it wasn't low GI which might be why I am having trouble managing my sugar. Is that true?
There are countless reasons to include more whole grains in your diet, but it’s hard to go past the fact that you are getting all the benefits of their vitamins, minerals, protein, dietary fibre and protective anti-oxidants. Studies around the world show that eating plenty of whole grains reduces the risk of certain types of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
But ‘whole grain’ and ‘low GI’ are not the same. Indeed many wholegrain breakfast cereals and breads like wholemeal (whole-wheat) bread have a high GI because they are just as finely milled as their ‘white’ counterparts and will shoot your blood glucose levels sky high. You get double the benefit if your whole grains are also low GI – that’s why we like to specify whole kernel grains because they not only have all the nutritional benefits of whole grains, they help you keep those blood glucose levels on an even keel.
There’s no international definition of ‘wholegrain’. It can mean slightly different things in different countries. For example, a few years ago, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) expanded the legal definition for packaging labels to allow more foods including wholemeal foods that contain all of the natural constituents (that may be high GI) to include ‘wholegrain’ on the label.
If you have diabetes or metabolic syndrome and low GI foods are an important part of your diet, what should you do? If there’s no GI rating on the label, follow our rule of thumb, if you can’t see the grains, then don’t assume it’s low GI. Why not follow up and encourage the manufacturers to have their products glycemic index tested?
New GI values with Fiona Atkinson: Indian whole wheat roti (flatbreads)
A new study from India published online in the British Journal of Nutrition reports that roti made from whole wheat and from atta mix have a low GI.
Subscribe - it's free!
To subscribe to GI News, simply click on the SUBSCRIBE link in the top right-hand column. Help us be sure our email newsletter isn’t filtered as spam. Add "gifeedback@gmail.com" to your address book to ‘whitelist’ us with your filter, helping future issues of GI News get to your inbox.
Your questions answered
If you have posted a question in GI News, be assured that the GI Group will answer this as soon as possible. We welcome your views about our articles and other reader’s suggestions. Please POST your comments and questions on the site.
Want to search past issues of GI News?
Want to search the GI News Archive for a particular topic, food or recipe? Make the most of our search feature with Google. Simply enter the term in the space provided and press SEARCH.
Want to print a copy of this GI News edition?
Download and print the PDF.
Copyright
This website and all information, data, documents, pages and images it contains is copyright under the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth of Australia) (as amended) and the copyright laws of all member countries of the Berne Union and the Universal Copyright Convention.
Copyright in the website and in material prepared by GI News is owned by GI News, Human Nutrition Unit, University of Sydney. Copyright in quotations, images from published works and photo libraries, and materials contributed by third parties including our regular contributors Alan Barclay, Jennie Brand-Miller, Johanna Burani, Kate Hemphill, Joanna McMillan Price and Nicole Senior is owned by the respective authors or agencies, as credited.
GI News encourages the availability, dissemination and exchange of public information. You may include a link to GI News on your website. You may also copy, distribute, display, download and otherwise freely deal only with material owned by GI News, on the condition that you include the copyright notice “© GI News, Human Nutrition Unit, University of Sydney” on all uses and prominently credit the source as being GI News.
You must, however, obtain permission from GI News if you wish to do the following:
