GI News—January 2011

Catherine Saxelby checks out cooking with the new low GI Carisma potatoes

Should you avoid carbs after 5pm to lose weight? Nicole senior investigates

Why eating well is not just about weight control – Dr Joanna McMillan Price

3 low GI fish recipes to try

Is honey better than sugar from the perspective of blood glucose?



Until recently most people had few problems deciding what to eat. There wasn’t much choice so they simply ate what was available locally – and put in front of them. Today we are bombarded with so many messages about what we should or shouldn’t eat, it’s no wonder we are confused. In this issue we feature an extract from nutritionist Dr Joanna McMillan Price’s award-winning book Inner Health, Outer Beauty on how what we eat and drink affects the way we look and feel and ultimately how healthy we are. She makes the point that yes, plenty of other factors are involved like genes and environment, but since we don’t have too much control over those, she suggests we exercise it where we can – on our food choices.



Good eating, good health and good reading.



Editor: Philippa Sandall

Web management and design: Alan Barclay, PhD

Food for Thought

‘Just tell me what to eat’





Dr Joanna McMillan Price



‘The most common request I receive from women, ‘writes Dr Joanna, ‘is just tell me what to eat. If we want to look and feel our best, we have to consider what we put in our mouths. The right combination of food and drink can give you radiant skin, glossy, healthy hair, strong nails, clear eyes (not to mention good vision) and great teeth and gums.



Despite the intense scientific and public arguments over which diet is best – high protein, low fat, low GI, low carb, low kilojoule or whatever – it seems to me one message resounds above all. We can only do our best when we go back to basics and eat real food that has been minimally processed. This is the food our bodies have evolved to eat and not the kind manufacturers have devised.



Nonetheless, we lead busy lives. We don’t have time most days to spend long hours preparing and cooking food. Certain modern preservation, storing and food distribution techniques are convenient, safe and often necessary, and can help us achieve a healthier diet. Growing your own veggies organically in the backyard is commendable if you can do it, but the fact is most of us can’t. What we can do instead is use selected frozen, canned, marinated and dried produce, as well as local seasonal fresh produce, in order to eat as well as possible.



We also now have to bear in mind more recent problems that affect agriculture and contribute to the rising cost of food such as climate change, oil price hikes and other factors. While a diet high in animal food and low in grains may be the one on which we evolved (and therefore may physiologically be best for us), we can no longer eat that way when compelling practical, ethical and environmental considerations are taken into account. The simple truth is we cannot feed the world without grains.’



Inner Health Outer Beauty is available from leading bookstores in Australia or you can order a copy HERE.

News Briefs

The Diogenes children’s study

In December GI News we reported the findings of the Diogenes Study, which was set up to investigate whether people who have undergone recent major weight loss could maintain that lower weight. The researchers reported that: ‘A modest increase in protein content and a modest reduction in the glycemic index led to an improvement in study completion and maintenance of weight loss.’





Professor Arne Astrup



To recap, the research team led by Professor Arne Astrup at the University of Copenhagen randomly assigned 773 adults who had previous lost an average of 11kg to one of five diets for a 26-week intervention period. These were not calorie controlled diets – those taking part could eat as much food as they liked from their assigned diet group. Participants were on average 41 years old and were all parents. Their children, although not part of the trial, were assigned to the same diets. All five diets were designed to have a moderate fat content (25–30% of total energy). The diets were:

• Group 1: Low protein (13% energy consumed), low GI
• Group 2: Low protein, high GI
• Group 3: High protein (25% energy consumed), low GI
• Group 4: High protein, high GI
• Group 5: Control diet which followed current dietary guidelines without special instructions regarding GI or protein levels

The results of the children’s study have been published in Pediatrics. In the families, there were 827 children who only participated in the second part of the program, the diet intervention stage. Thus, they were never required to go on a diet or count calories – they simply followed the same ab libitum diet as their parents. Approximately 45% of the children in these families were overweight. The results of the children’s study were remarkable: in the group of children who maintained a high-protein (21.4% of calories), lower-GI (56.9) diet the prevalence of overweight dropped spontaneously from approximately 46% to 39% – a decrease of approximately 15%.



Paddock2Plate

Paddock2Plate is a new feature where we share produce stories from food and nutrition blogs that caught our eye and we think may catch yours.



#1 Australia’s home-grown chickpeas Making the most of chickpeas in your meals is a great way to reduce the overall GI of your diet. But chickpeas are not only good for us, they are good for the land as a rotational crop allowing the soil to rest and regenerate (they add nitrogen). From the 1970s, Australia’s annual chickpea crop has grown from virtually nothing to more than half a million tonnes. Award-winning food writer Carli Ratcliff explores this success story on the SBS Hunter-Gatherer blog and gives recipes for spinach-and-chickpea curry, chickpea salad and chickpea patties with mint raita. Check it out HERE.



#2 Cooking with Carisma Check out the results of a detailed taste test comparing the new general purpose low GI Carisma (GI 55) with the popular high GI Sebago (GI 87) on Catherine Saxelby’s Foodwatch website. Dietitian Josephine Mollica did the cooking and rates Carisma better than Sebago for boiling, mashing and dry baking but when it came to roasting, she found that although the Carisma was the more flavoursome, it didn’t crisp as well on the outside. Of course, when it comes to glycemic impact, the Carisma wins hands down. Read the review HERE – and keep those potato portions moderate!



#3 Bee Story Much of the food we put on our tables depends on pollination by honey and bumble bees which makes their decline a major concern. In the UK, bee colonies have doubled in six months due to amateur beekeepers harvesting honey. Martin Smith, president of the British Beekeepers’ Association, discusses whether it is the beginning of the end of the bee crisis HERE.







‘It’s very easy for all of us to do our bit for honeybees, bumblebees and other pollinating insects by growing the sort of plants and flowers they love – either in our gardens or in pots on windowsills or balconies. To have bees visit your garden is a cause for real celebration.’ – Kate Humble, Springwatch.



Professor Jennie Brand-Miller talks about her latest edition of the Low GI Diet Handbook ... and how it all began and truly became a Glucose Revolution





Professor Jennie Brand-Miller



‘In 1995, I joined forces with Dr Stephen Colagiuri and Kaye Foster-Powell to write The GI Factor, the first book for the general public about the glycemic index of foods. Research on the glycemic index, or what became known as the GI, clearly showed that different carbohydrate foods had dramatically different effects on blood glucose levels. We believed that it was high time someone brought this story out to the general public. We knew from our own work that understanding the GI of foods made an enormous difference to the diet and lifestyle of people with diabetes. For some it meant, in our experience, a new lease of life.



In the early 1980s I was studying the nutritional composition of Aboriginal bush foods such as acacia seeds and cheeky yam. These foods are unique today because they are uncultivated foods, unlike wheat or potato. Food samples were sent from all over Australia to my laboratory at the University of Sydney for analysis and I took the opportunity to check the metabolic responses they created, that is, how they actually affected blood sugar levels in the body. The results were telling. Aboriginal bush foods produced only half the blood sugar responses of starchy Western staples like bread and potatoes. So, the question had to be asked: had these traditional foods somehow protected Aborigines from developing diabetes in times past? The answer was yes.



The GI of more than 2000 foods has now been tested worldwide, both singly and in combination with mixed meals. Long-term studies on its potential to improve diabetes control have also been carried out. We now know that consuming low GI foods is associated with a lower risk of both type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.



Our studies with animal models show that the GI of foods influences the rate at which animals gain body fat and develop abnormalities in insulin secretion. We have also tested the applications of GI for sporting performance and appetite control. It is now obvious, not only to us but to many expert committees and health authorities around the world, that the GI of foods has enormous implications for everybody. It is indeed a ‘Glucose Revolution’ in that it has changed forever the way we think about carbohydrates.



When our book was first published in 1996, we received a great deal of feedback from readers and health professionals. And still, hardly a day goes by without an email or letter from someone wanting to say thank you and to find out more. Now retitled the Low GI Diet Handbook (Hachette Australia), it brings together all the information that we have put together over the years to give you the most up-to-date and key dietary messages in one package. It will show you how the GI carbohydrate story fits in with all the other messages about fat, protein, exercise and the many ways you can approach having a healthy diet that suits you and your family’s lifestyle, no matter how busy you are. Most importantly the Low GI Diet Handbook focuses on individual needs, likes and dislikes and can be adapted to your particular eating habits and food preferences. Our Low GI Diet Handbook is not about one way of eating a healthy diet – it is about giving you the information to make eating a healthy diet much, much easier.







There’s not just one way of eating a healthy diet. What we now know about these different nutritional factors gives us a great deal of flexibility, which is extremely important and helpful in choosing food and food combinations that suit the likes and dislikes of you and your family.’

• Also available: Low GI Diet 12-week Weight-Loss Plan (Hachette Australia).
• Both titles can be purchased from good bookshops or online booksellers in Australia and New Zealand – e.book editions available soon.

Get the Scoop on Nutrition with Emma Stirling

The scoop on a healthy kitchen # 1





Emma Stirling APD



If you’ve made resolutions around healthy eating and home cooking for 2011, give yourself a big pat on the back. But before you can take charge of new health goals, you really need to get your house in order. Well, more importantly, your kitchen and its setup for good nutrition. Let’s kick off 2011 with the scoop on a healthy kitchen and a look at our top equipment picks.



In a spin: A multicoloured, vibrant salad is one of the best ways to boost your health and help meet your vegetable serves each day. But nothing spoils a salad more than unwashed, gritty rocket or spinach or soggy leaves that are not spun dry. So invest in a salad spinner and aim for at least five different veggies in your salads. You can also toss in some low GI chickpeas or three bean mix for a fibre boost.



Back to basics: It's not a long list, but good knives, heat resistant silicon spatulas, wooden spoons, separate cutting boards for meat and produce, a colander, a heavy based saucepan or Dutch oven and non-stick fry pan are on my list of essentials.



The added touch: A long hand held fine grater, called a microplane, allows you to artfully but quickly add a little parmesan to the top of pasta, lime zest or fresh ginger to fruit salad or fresh, whole cinnamon or nutmeg to Bircher muesli. Remember it’s that little touch of spice or garnish, that turns healthy fare nice and boosts the flavour without added fat, salt or sugar. And don’t discount the old box grater. Hand grating, instead of using a food processor, is a great way to burn off kilojoules and give your arms a workout as you cook.



Measure up: It’s so easy to measure and weigh ingredients and check portion sizes when you have stainless steel measuring spoons, a set of cups, glass jugs for liquids and digital scales.



Under pressure: Pressure cookers also help cut down cooking time, trap in flavours and retain nutrients. They are perfect for speeding up cooking time of those healthy low GI chickpeas and other legumes.



Take it slowly: Electric slow cookers allow you to prep a curry or bolognaise sauce and leave it on low, slow heat all day (while you’re away) without the risk of burning or bubbling over. Slow cooking is also one of the best ways to tenderise cheaper cuts of meat.



With a twist: you can use a coffee grinder for spices, a cast iron grill pan for pressing toasted sandwiches, a fruit dehydrator for drying fresh herbs, and a wok for dry roasting nuts and seeds.



On hand: You don’t need to spend the price of a small car on the top of the range food processor, especially if you’re just getting going. Many people find an inexpensive hand held blender just the ticket to healthy fare. You can keep it ready on your bench top to immerse directly into soups, whip up a smoothie or use the mini chopper for a quick and healthy dip, salsa or marinade.



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

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.

Crumbed cod with vinaigrette topping

My grandfather owned a fish store and so fish was often on the menu when we ate at Grandma’s. If she was cooking just for us kids she wouldn’t fuss too much, but who knew? We all loved this recipe and always cleaned our plates! Grandma served this with veggies like steamed cauliflower florets or sautéed zucchini as we had already had pasta in some form beforehand. If you don’t have pasta first, I suggest serving it with veggies or a salad and perhaps baked orange-fleshed sweet potato wedges. If cod is not available, use another firm, white-fleshed fish such as scrod or halibut. Ask your fishmonger for suggestions. Serves 2



2 x 150g (5oz) fresh cod fillets, rinsed and patted dry

2 tbsp egg substitute (or 1 small egg, whisked)

¼ cup seasoned breadcrumbs (made from a low GI bread of course)

vegetable spray

1 tbsp sherry vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely minced

freshly ground sea salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 large sprigs flat parsley, finely chopped

Preheat the broiler/grill. Coat the bottom of a shallow baking dish with vegetable oil spray.

Place the egg substitute and the breadcrumbs in separate bowls. Dip the fish into the egg first and then the breadcrumbs, coating both sides well. Lay the fillets flat in the baking dish, bottom side up and cook about 15cm (6in) from the heat for 2½–3 minutes. Turn and cook a further 2½ minutes or until flesh flakes and they are done.

Meanwhile, prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together the vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the parsley over the fish, drizzle with vinaigrette and serve immediately with vegetables or salad.



Per serving (fish and vinaigrette only)

Energy: 600kJ/143 cals; Protein 20g; Fat 4g (includes less than 1g saturated fat and 40mg cholesterol); Available carbs 8g; 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.



Asian fish & cucumber salad

This Vietnamese-style salad from our book, Money Saving Meals, is made with basa fillets – a freshwater Vietnamese catfish with a mild flesh (and not too many bones) that remains moist during cooking. It was also very cheap. If you want to use a local fish, tell the fishmonger what you are making and ask for some economical suggestions. Serves 4.



½ teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1½ tablespoons peanut oil

400g (14oz) fish fillets (such as basa), cut into chunks

125g (4oz) vermicelli noodles

3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce or 100 g mixed lettuce leaves

2 Lebanese cucumbers, halved lengthwise, sliced thinly

1 carrot, coarsely grated

2 tablespoons chopped dill

4 green onions, sliced

1/3 cup roasted peanuts, chopped



Dressing

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons peanut oil



Whisk the turmeric, fish sauce and 2 teaspoons of the oil together in a medium-sized bowl. Add the fish and set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.

Prepare the vermicelli noodles. Pop them into a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water and leave them to soften. Drain, run them under cold water, drain again, then snip in half (or small pieces) with kitchen scissors.

Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Put the lettuce, cucumber slices and carrot into a large serving bowl with the noodles and drizzle over the dressing.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium–high heat and stir-fry the fish for about 3–4 minutes, stirring often, until just cooked. Add the dill and green onion, stir to combine. Fold the fish mixture gently through the salad so that the fish is coated with the dressing and top with the roasted peanuts for added crunch.

Per serving

Energy:2000kJ/340 cals; Protein 29g; Fat 25g (includes 4g saturated fat and 59mg cholesterol); Available carbs 32g; Fibre 5g



Diabetic Living

This month’s Diabetic Living magazine (for ANZ) comes with a free booklet (Your Low GI Healthy Eating Guide) stuck to the cover that was generous sponsored by Abbott Diabetes Care. As we were putting together this issue of GI News, we spoke to Diabetic Living editor Erica Goatly about the booklet: ‘We’re already getting very positive reader feedback about how it is motivating them to get their eating back on track and it has only been on the newsstands a few days,’ she said. The following low GI recipe is reproduced with permission from January/February Diabetic Living magazine (photography by Louise Lister). If you haven’t used puy or French-style lentils before, you can buy them in supermarkets, health shops and delis. McKenzies brand French-style lentils are widely available in supermarkets in Australia and not pricy at all (your GI News editor buys them in her local IGA at Bondi Beach.)



Ocean trout with lentils

1 tsp olive oil

1 red onion cut into thin slivers

1 garlic clove, crushed

½ cup (100g) Puy or French-style lentils, rinsed and drained

¾ cup water (180ml)

½ cup (125ml) salt reduced chicken stock

Freshly ground black pepper

200g (7oz) skinless, boneless ocean trout fillet cut into 2 portions

1 bunch asparagus, woody ends trimmed

Olive oil cooking spray

2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ tsp grated lemon zest

Flat leaf parsley leaves, to serve

160g sugar snap peas or mangetout, steamed, to serve







Heat oil in a medium saucepan on medium. Add garlic and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 6–7 minutes until onion softens slightly. Add lentils, water and stock. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, covered, for 20–25 minutes or until lentils are just tender. Remove pan from heat. Set aside, covered, for 5 minutes. Season with pepper.

Meanwhile, preheat the barbecue grill or chargrill pan to medium-high. Spray each side of the fillets and asparagus with cooking spray. Add asparagus to barbecue grill or chargrill pan. Cook, turning occasionally, for 3–4 minutes or until just tender. Transfer to a plate. Add trout to barbecue grill or chargrill pan. Cook on each side for 2½ minutes for medium, or until cooked to your liking.

Divide lentil mixture between plates. Top with trout. Sprinkle the lemon juice, lemon zest and parsley over. Accompany with asparagus and sugar snap peas.



Per serving

Energy: 1513kJ/360 cals; Protein 38g; Fat 9g (includes 1.6g saturated fat and 55mg cholesterol); Available carbs 28g; Fibre 11g

Busting Food Myths with Nicole Senior

Myth: You have to avoid carbs after 5pm to lose weight.





Nicole Senior



Fact: The time of day you eat carbs makes no difference to your weight – it’s the total amount you eat over the day that counts.

Avoiding carbs after five is popular advice, often given by people in the fitness industry to assist their clients lose weight. There’s even a diet book of the same name. While proponents may mean well, such advice simply adds to the mythology around weight loss. Following this advice might even work in the short term, but this only compounds the misunderstanding about why.



Similar to the previous myth ‘eating at night makes you fat’ (GI News November 2007) , the timing of carb intake is physiologically irrelevant; it’s the amount and type you eat that matters. There’s not a single study on the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) database about carbohydrate timing and weight loss (however, there’s plenty on carb timing and athletic performance if you’re interested).



Like other diets that restrict a particular nutrient or food group, the advice to avoid carbs after 5pm is simply a kilojoule/calorie reduction strategy dressed up as something catchier. When you think of a typical evening meal of chicken, noodles and vegetables, it’s not hard to see how skipping noodles creates a kilojoule deficit. If you can do it, great – it is possible to eat enough grain foods (preferably wholegrain and low GI) at other times during the day.



However a common experience of evening carb avoiders is they are still hungry after dinner and that’s when TV snacking can wreak havoc. Biscuits, chocolate and sweets are common evening saboteurs and they all contain carbohydrates. (And a side note, many people don’t understand that sugar is a carbohydrate too, which results in starchy foods getting a bad rap and sugar sailing through unsullied). Unfortunately the biscuits and chocolate also contain hefty amounts of saturated fat and kilojoules as well. This carb-craving may be physiological or psychological but it doesn’t really matter – the kilojoule damage is done.



The ‘no carbs after 5pm’ rule – and its variants 4pm and 6pm – is part of a dieting mentality we know is inherently unsustainable, although to be fair it is a much more moderate ‘low-carb’ diet. By deliberately depriving ourselves of commonly eaten, enjoyable foods we repeatedly build up psychological pressure that eventually results in overeating blow-outs: the classic dieting merry-go-round.



A far more balanced approach to lose weight is to eat smaller portions of carb-rich core foods like bread, pasta, rice, noodles and the like, and choose lower GI versions combined with plenty of vegetables and satisfying amounts of lean meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian alternatives. In nutrition circles, this is what we call a ‘balanced meal’. Unfortunately for many, the ‘moderation’ message is boring and unappealing.



This situation is not helped by the diet industries who also know the moderation message doesn’t sell and come up with all manner of trumped-up benefits and half-baked theories as to why their diet will actually work when all they are doing is selling creative ways to eat fewer kilojoules.



To lose weight we must reconcile the facts we must eat less and exercise more, and all the while ensure we eat quality foods to meet our nutritional needs. Blacklisting particular nutrients like carbs or fats is not helpful to this end. Prioritising nutrient rich foods from all the food groups in suitable amounts according to our energy needs is the answer.



Nicole Senior MSc (Nut&Diet) BSc (Nut) is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist. You can find good advice and great recipes using nutrient rich foods in Nicole’s books Eat to Beat Cholesterol and Heart Food available HERE.

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay



A healthy low GI diet is achievable

There’s pretty compelling evidence from population health studies and clinical trials around the world that as part of an overall healthy, balanced diet, we should aim for an average dietary GI of around 45 for longterm health and wellbeing. It’s not as hard as it sounds when you take the ‘this for that’ option, that is you simply substitute healthy low GI carbs for high GI ones when shopping, cooking and eating out:







While this is in principle relatively simple, finding those healthy low GI alternatives has not always been that easy. This is why one of the primary objectives of the Glycemic Index Foundation has been to work with food industry in Australia and around the world to develop healthy low GI alternatives for popular everyday foods thus making healthy low GI choices, easy choices for everybody.



Our first step was to identify the top five sources of glycemic carbohydrate in the Australian diet (and the pattern is very similar in North America). They are: Breads, Breakfast cereals, Potatoes, Sugars and sugar-based products and Rice and pasta. Giving people healthy low GI alternatives for these foods will make it relatively easy for anyone to achieve an average dietary GI of 45 (this is a good 10 points below the ‘low’ GI diets achieved in the European Diogenes study and the UK’s RISCK study).



Breads: Healthy low GI breads are now relatively common in Australia, with popular brands like Burgen found on most supermarket shelves. New additions include popular tortillas like Mission Foods White Corn Tortillas (GI = 52) which can be used as wraps or in Mexican cooking.



Breakfast cereals: This category is harder. Currently when people ask us about low GI breakfast cereals we tend to suggest traditional porridge oats or natural mueslis such as Morning Sun mueslis (GI=49). The reason healthy low GI ready-to-eat breakfast cereals are harder to find on the supermarket shelves is partly because modern processing techniques (rolling and flaking) make their starch rapidly digested and absorbed. Don’t be disheartened, the challenge is not insurmountable. We are currently talking to a major breakfast cereal company (as we did with the potato growers) with the aim of working with them to help them lower the GI of all of their popular ready-to-eat cereals.



Potatoes: The Carisma potato is the first success story of an ongoing collaboration between the GI Foundation, University of Sydney and the Australian potato industry. Large scale production of this low GI (55) general purpose potato is the first step to providing shoppers with a full range of low GI potatoes that they can use for specific purposes such as potato salads, mashing, roasting, baking, etc.







Sugar: Logicane, the first low GI (50) cane sugar was launched in Australia in 2009, and is helping to lower the GI of popular sugary foods that are popular contributors to our daily glycemic load.



Rice & pasta: There are an increasing number of low GI rices being produced and tested including Moolgiri (GI54) and Saffola Arise (GI54). And despite popular perception, regular pasta made from hard durum wheat has a low GI. For example, the GI of Vetta’s range is 49. Like potato, keep those portions moderate to reap the glycemic rewards of these popular, inexpensive starchy staples.



What next? The GI Foundation looks forward to working collaboratively with food industry in 2011, to continue to make healthy low GI choices easy choices. And by the ‘food industry’ we mean food manufacturers around the world. If you are a GI News reader in the UK or US, you may say: “we don’t have the healthy low GI choices you do.” We have to say we have knocked on doors around the world to encourage food manufacturers to a) have their products GI tested and b) join the Symbol program to make is easier for shoppers to identify those low GI foods. To date we haven’t had much success internationally – they say there’s not enough demand. We need you to show them they are wrong. What should you do? Create DEMAND. Contact the customer service department of the manufacturers of your favourite breads and breakfast cereals for starters and ask them about the GI of their products.







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







From the perspective of blood glucose, is honey better than sugar?

Up until recently, we would have said honey is not different from table sugar. After all, honey doesn’t contribute much in the way of micronutrients, and we thought it had a similar effect on blood glucose as table sugar.



In fact, while most commercial varieties have the same or greater effect than table sugar, recent evidence suggests that some forms of honey have only a minor effect on blood glucose. These are the pure floral honeys – (in Australia) red gum, yellow box, ironbark and others – that have been produced by allowing bees access only to some types of gum trees (eucalypts). It’s possible that all pure floral honeys have only modest glycemic effects, but it is too early to say as there hasn’t been sufficient testing around the world. Romanian locust honey appears to have the lowest effect of all the honeys.



Why would one honey be different from another? Well, most commercial honeys are made from a mixture of honeys derived from different hives and different floral sources. To maintain a consistent flavour, some of the more pungent characteristics are removed. We suspect that the components that are removed are physiologically active and work to slow down absorption. For example, Australian floral honeys might contain alpha-glucosidase inhibitors that bees have extracted from the eucalypt flowers. We know that these potent inhibitors exist in many plants and, indeed, some diabetic medications (e.g. Acarbose) are based on pure forms of these inhibitors.



In addition, a recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that five German honeys have a low GI. The researchers found that the ‘glycaemic index and insulinaemic index correlated significantly with the fructose content of honey varieties’.



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

Making the Most of GI News

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, Diane Temple, Emma Stirling 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:

• charge others for access to the work
• include all or part of the work in advertising or a product for sale, or
• modify the work.

To obtain such permission, please contact gifeedback@gmail.com



This permission does not extend to material contributed and owned by other parties. We strongly recommend that you refer to the copyright statements at their respective websites and seek their permission before making use of any such material, whether images or text. Please contact GI News if you are in doubt as to the ownership of any material.



Disclaimer

GI News endeavours to check the veracity of news stories cited in this free e-newsletter by referring to the primary source, but cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies in the articles so published. GI News provides links to other World Wide Web sites as a convenience to users, but cannot be held responsible for the content or availability of these sites.



© ® & ™ The University of Sydney, Australia

GI News—December 2010

• Maintain weight loss with a low GI diet and a little more protein
• Read all about Australia’s first low GI potato (GI55)
• Water and health, Prof. Barry Popkin shares some thoughts
• Sugar-sweetened drinks and diabetes risk
• Is HFCS worse than sugar? Nicole Senior checks out the evidence
• 9 new GI values from Fiona Atkinson at SUGiRS

With the festive season upon us, we wish you all the best for the holidays and the new year with an issue that includes three tasty recipes from the GI News Kitchen (Johanna’s Canoli Cream Dip, Diane’s Homemade Hommus and Miguel’s Garlic Prawns) along with simple tips from Emma Stirling on celebrating in style without regret (well, not too many regrets). We will be doing just that with our families and friends. We love the comment from distinguished professor of public health and professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, Dr. Lewis Kuller, who said ‘…Eating is a social pleasure and not a therapeutic challenge.’

Good eating, good health and good reading.

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

Food for Thought

Water is unique

‘Most beverages can support hydration, but water is unique in its capacity to do this without adding sugars or many other compounds to the diet,’ write Prof. Barry Popkin and Melissa Daniels in a recent systematic review looking at the impact of water on energy intake and weight. They point out that in the average diet the proportion of water has diminished as people have shifted to other beverages containing one or many of the following – sugar, caffeine, natural and artificial flavourings, non-nutritive sweeteners and carbonation. For more on water, hydration, health and weight, check out the following articles by Prof Barry Popkin published in Nutrition Reviews:

• Water Hydration and Health with Kirsten E. D’Anci and Irwin H Rosenberg
• Impact of Water Intake on Energy Intake and Weight Status: A Systematic Review with Melissa C Daniels

Barry Popkin



Meantime, here’s an extract from Barry Popkin’s book, The World Is Fat, on why water is so good and why bottled water is OK. Barry is Professor of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina.



‘Water is the basis of life for all mammals. Aside from breast milk, water was all we drank for hundreds of thousands of years. Before we developed agriculture, water was rarely contaminated. Beginning with agriculture and throughout subsequent urbanisation, feces (animal and human) and other contaminants began to create health problems related to water consumption. Pathogens periodically led to outbreaks of cholera and dysentery; more recently, toxic chemicals have caused problems.







When I lived in India, I knew I would become sick if I drank the water – and I did, often. When I could I’d drink a Coca-cola, which was omnipresent and easy to find on any street corner. This is why Mexicans drink so many canned and bottled beverages – they are safe. You don’t get the bacteria in Coke, Pepsi or any other bottled beverage that you do in unsafe water; bottled water is also popular in such a setting and has been the savior in countries where public sources of water are contaminated. Elsewhere, the rise of designer bottled waters has been a steady and healthful trend.



We all have an intuitive understanding of why we drink. We need a certain amount of water daily to survive. Blood is mostly water, and our muscles, lungs and brain all contain a lot of water. Our bodies need water to transport nutrients to our organs, to transport oxygen to our cells, to remove waste and to protect our organs. We’ll die if we go more than four or five days without water.



A former student of mine is dedicated to studying water and its effects on human health. Research we’ve done together on water and dieting in women shows that increased water intake is linked with reduced energy intake, weight, risk of diabetes and cardiovascular problems. I’m also involved in three random controlled trials involving children and adults: we want to know if the link between water and health is robust. My sense is that we’ll not only show that water is important for replacing caloric beverages, but that there are additional health benefits to water as well.



Drinking water, whether it comes from a faucet or bottle, is an easy step we can all take toward better health. Bottled water should not be pitted against tap water, however. This is a false choice. We should talk about the essential need we all have to consume more water. And of course we should push for the complete recycling of bottles and other containers.’

News Briefs

Sugar-sweetened drinks and diabetes risk

Consuming soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages regularly is associated with a greater risk of metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes according to a meta-analysis of 11 published studies (300,000 participants) by Harvard School of Public Health researchers published in Diabetes Care.







‘Many previous studies have examined the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of diabetes, and most have found positive associations but our study, which is a pooled analysis of the available studies, provides an overall picture of the magnitude of risk and the consistency of the evidence,’ said lead author Vasanti Malik.



Sugar-sweetened beverages are made up of energy-containing sweeteners such as sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, or fruit juice concentrates, all of which, the authors noted, have essentially similar metabolic effects. The consumption of such beverages, which include soft drinks, fruit drinks, iced tea, and energy and vitamin water drinks, has risen globally.



The findings showed that drinking one to two sugary drinks per day increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 26% and the risk of metabolic syndrome by 20% compared with those who consumed less than one sugary drink per month.



While a number of factors are at work in the development of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, sugar-sweetened beverages represent one easily modifiable risk factor that if reduced will likely make an important impact, say the researchers. ‘People should limit how much sugar-sweetened beverages they drink and replace them with healthy alternatives, such as water, to reduce risk of diabetes as well as obesity, gout, tooth decay, and cardiovascular disease,’ said Malik.



The researchers added that although sugar-sweetened beverages increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes, in part due to their contribution towards weight gain, there may be other mechanisms involved. Such mechanisms may include the high levels of easily absorbed added sugars in drinks contributing to a high dietary glycemic load, which is known to induce glucose intolerance and insulin resistance.



It’s here. Finally. The low GI potato.

Four years ago we started the hunt for a low GI potato. We sat down with chef and potato expert Graham Liney, owner of restaurant/guest house Willow Vale Mill, near Goulburn and we have been working closely with him ever since along with Australian potato growers and the Dutch potato breeding company Agrico, to bring Carisma, Australia’s first low GI potato to your table. It’s versatile and full of flavour with a creamy taste, and ‘melt in the mouth’ texture. And it has a GI of 55 cooked the way we describe below.



Carisma is currently only grown in Australia (sorry rest of world) in the Riverland in South Australia, the Lockyer Valley in Queensland and in various regions in Western Australia. You can read all about it here. It’s exclusive to Coles supermarkets and is on sale throughout Australia, with the exception of Tasmania (for the moment).







Cooking with Carisma Here’s our quick and easy ‘no-peel’ cooking method that will allow you to enjoy Carisma potatoes the low GI way. Wash the potatoes and cut into 1 cm thick slices or chop into 1cm dice leaving the skin on and cook them your preferred way until firm but cooked through (al dente). When we tested their GI, we boiled them, placing them into hot (not boiling) water, then bringing the water to the boil and cooking them for about 4 minutes until al dente. But it’s fine to steam or microwave them if you prefer.



Because Carisma are a versatile, general purpose potato, you can use them to make potato bake, home-baked wedges, roast potatoes, jacket potatoes, mashed potatoes or in your favourite potato recipes. Just be aware that the GI value may not be quite as low. And of course keep an eye on portion size if you are watching your BGLs. As Alan Barclay said in GI News back in July, a serve providing 15g carbs is one medium potato (around 125g).



Here are Nicole Senior’s tips for serving spuds: ‘One of the things I love about the potato, apart from the gorgeous taste and texture, is how simple they are to prepare. I simply wash, cut and microwave on high until tender, and lightly dress with some extra virgin olive oil, dried rosemary and black pepper. Use whatever healthy oils, herbs and spices you like for an instant accompaniment to lean meat, chicken or fish and steamed greens. And a good tip: always cook more than you need because cooled and reheated potato contains a beneficial kind of dietary fibre called resistant starch that keeps your bowel healthy. That’s what I call potato magic.’



Low GI Diet author wins Australian Food Media Award





Dr Joanna McMillan Price



Dr Joanna McMillan Price, one of the regular contributors to GI News over the years, has won the Australian Food Media Award ‘Best Health or Specific Diet Book’ for her recently published Inner Health Outer Beauty. The biennial awards held in October are a flagship event of the Australian Association of Food Professionals. ‘I wrote this book,’ said Joanna talking to GI News, ‘to try and inspire busy women to find ways that work for them to supercharge their health and look their glowing best. ’



‘I really appreciate the importance and pleasure of good food in my life – a lesson I learned from my Mum. I want to share this message and encourage women to stop thinking about nutrition and to think about the food. We women are so controlled in so many areas of our lives (or at least we try to be) that we allow our obsession with nutrition and weight to skew our view of what a healthy meal is. To me, the lines between fat-rich, carb-rich and protein-rich are not immutable. I think that the most important factor on your plate is the middle line, ensuring you fill half your plate with veggies and/or fruit. The remaining half can be more flexible depending on what you are having, your likes and dislikes, where you are and what you’ll have (or have already eaten) for other meals during the day. For example, if you have just finished a pretty tough cardio workout, you’ll probably want a few extra carbs to restock your body’s stores. Or you may feel better on a higher protein diet with fewer grain foods. Or perhaps you had a largish steak when you were out for lunch and feel like a lighter vegetarian supper. All these options are fine.’



Inner Health Outer Beauty is available from leading bookstores in Australia or you can order a copy HERE.

Get the Scoop on Nutrition with Emma Stirling

The scoop on bubbly and beyond for silly season survival





Emma Stirling APD



Want the scoop on how can you let your hair down and sneak in a few more celebrations? Here are a few tried and true tips from party people who don’t want to pile on the pounds.



Bubbles of trouble The ‘spirit’ of Christmas can be a real trap so try to moderate your alcohol intake. Go for the increasing range of lower calorie bubbly, beer and now wine brands. Remember that low carb beers do not automatically equal lower kilojoule and light beers are often the better choice. Space your alcohol with diet soft drinks or sparkling water and include low-joule or no-joule mixers like soda water. And go easy on the pre-mixes and cocktails. Even mocktails and those labeled ‘skinny’, can be high in calories thanks to that cream and fruit juice.

• # Scoop 1: Stretch one standard champagne into two by adding a dash of pureed peach with a splash of soda.

Party plan If the invites are stacking up like presents under the tree, aim to eat a healthy dinner or bowl of salad before you party. Or go for smaller portions, lighter snacks and lunches on the day of a big night out, to compensate for the extra calories in canapés. It only takes a few high-fat pastry items and deep-fried morsels to tip the balance towards weight gain. Stick to lighter options like freshly shucked oysters, vegetable crudités with hummus dip, rice paper rolls with Asian dressing, sushi and fresh asparagus with a citrus vinaigrette.

• # Scoop 2: Focus on the dancing and mingling, well away from the waiters, and if it’s a local party, clock up some additional activity and stroll home.

Bountiful buffets Family and neighborhood get-togethers too often turn into eat feasts because everyone likes to chip in and bring a dessert, creamy dip or signature dish. So there is usually way too much food, not to mention a fridge groaning with leftovers the next day or longer. It’s a good idea to try and co-ordinate the menu by delegating or negotiating particular items with your guests be it family, neighbours or friends. Limit the choices and go for gourmet goodies with emphasis on quality over quantity. You may like to treat your guests to seafood with beautiful salmon or tuna fillets or cater for one choice steak per person. You don’t need the whole mixed grill. Finish off with a huge platter of fresh fruit with just a sprinkle and twinkle of Christmas candy or chocolate.

• # Scoop3: Stock up on takeaway tubs and share the leftovers around

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

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.

Canoli cream dip

This is a healthful twist to the much-loved Sicilian dessert that surfaces on southern Italian holiday tables especially at this time of year. It will be part of my Christmas menu this year. For a truly exquisite treat for your palate look for the freshest ricotta and the best quality dark chocolate you can find. And definitely opt for the orange flower water if you can find it. This may be found in gourmet or specialty food shops. Makes 10 (approx. ¼ cup) servings.







15 oz (2 cups) part skim ricotta

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

¼ cup non-fat milk

1 teaspoon orange flower water or vanilla extract

2 oz (1/4 cup) toasted pistachio nuts, chopped

1 oz dark chocolate, chopped



Combine in a blender the first four ingredients (ricotta through vanilla) and process for 50–60 seconds until very smooth.

Fold in the nuts and chocolate.

Serve immediately as a dip with freshly sliced apples or pears or biscotti or refrigerate in a covered container.



Variations

• Candied citron and orange may replace the nuts and chocolate.
• Instead of dipping sliced fruit into the cannoli cream, ripe pears may be halved vertically and cored; placing a mound of the cream on top.

Per serving

Energy: 575kJ/ 137 cals; Protein 6g; Fat 8g (includes 3g saturated fat and 18mg cholesterol); Available carbs 10g; 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.

Homemade hommus

Dips and crackers are an easy thing to serve when people drop in – or to take along to a neighbourhood party as your contribution. People seem very impressed when you say you made it yourself and double impressed when you tell them you cooked the chickpeas from scratch. Being somewhat lazy, I usually use canned chickpeas, but when I was making hommus with the children as part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program at Bondi Public School we used dried chickpeas of course. I can’t believe how nice they were especially with a bay leaf and garlic thrown into the water whilst cooking. There are other benefits too – you can prepare more and freeze them for the next batch of dip for the next party.



1½ cups home-cooked chickpeas or 400g (14oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 clove garlic, chopped roughly

3 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons light flavoured olive oil

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

Freshly ground black pepper and salt (if you wish), to season

Crudités, to serve (or pita crisps as shown below)







Place 1½ cups cooked chickpeas or the drained can of chickpeas, lemon juice and garlic into the bowl of a food processor. Whiz until very finely chopped, (stop the processor occasionally and scrape down the sides), add oil and process again until creamy.

Spoon into a serving dish and mix in cumin and season with freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt if using.



To cook chickpeas, cover them with water and leave to soak overnight in a bowl. Drain and put in a medium saucepan with 1 clove garlic peeled and smashed garlic, 1 bay leaf and 3 peppercorns (count the peppercorns so you remember to take them all out!). Cover with water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 35 minutes or until they are tender (check the water levels and top-up if necessary). Drain and leave to cool.

Per serving (30g or 1 oz)

Energy:260kJ/62 cals; Protein 1g; Fat 5g (includes less than 1g saturated fat and zero cholesterol); Available carbs 3g; Fibre 1g



Throw another prawn on the barbie

We chose Miguel Maestre's recipe for ‘Garlic Prawns’ for our December issue as Australians love to celebrate summer and the festive season with regular trips to the fish market so we can happily ‘throw another prawn (shrimp) on the barbie’. Miguel is owner/chef of El Toro Loco, a lively tapas bar right on Sydney Harbour at Manly and has charmed viewers as host of Miguel’s Tropical Kitchen on LifestyleFood and in Channel 10’s Boys’ Weekend, where he hits the road with friends for adventure, good times and great food. He now brings the same energy and passion to his first book, Miguel’s Tapas (New Holland), with a mixture of his own recipes and signature Spanish tapas. He tells us the secret of success with Garlic Prawns is to use the freshest possible prawns, extra virgin olive oil and to keep it simple. Serves 1



2–3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (about 50ml)

4 large raw king prawns (shrimps), peeled and deveined (tails intact)

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

½ bunch parsley, leaves finely chopped

lemon wedges and a slice of sourdough (or your favourite low GI) bread

• Heat the oil in a small cast iron or clay dish. Add prawns and cook for about 3 minutes until just cooked (they turn orange when cooked through). Stir in the garlic and parsley.
• Eat the prawns while still sizzling with a good squeeze of lemon juice. Dip the bread in the oil which has been beautifully infused with the flavours of prawns, garlic and parsley.

Per serving (without bread)



Well this is a recipe that ‘What if it’s all been a big fat lie?’ and Good Calories, Bad Calories author Gary Taubes would love. Virtually no carbs, and heaps of fat. Don’t have a panic attack. The fat is pretty much all coming from the extra virgin oil but as you can see it does add up to lots of calories. If you don’t feel comfortable tucking into this recipe as is, you have options: try making it with less oil, don’t dip the bread in the oil or share the prawns.



Energy: 2036kJ/486 cals; Protein 17g; Fat 46g (includes 6g saturated fat and 119mg cholesterol); Available carbs 1g; Fibre 2g

Busting Food Myths with Nicole Senior

Myth: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is worse for your health than sucrose (table or cane sugar).





Nicole Senior



Fact: HFCS is just another sugar with the same health effects as sucrose. We should be limiting all added sugars to achieve a healthy diet.

In the nutrition world there is always a ‘bad’ food of the moment and right now it is high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS. A preliminary WWW search reveals a litany of dire health consequences from scare-mongering sites including an increased risk of weight gain, diabetes and liver damage. Is there just cause to worry?



HFCS made from American corn is the most commonly used sugar in processed food and drinks in the USA, whereas in Australia it is sucrose or cane sugar (from sugar cane). We use Australian grown cane sugar in our sugar jars at home too, but in the USA beet sugar (from sugar-beets) is the more common household form of sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide, meaning it is composed of equal amounts of two monosaccharide (single sugars) stuck together: glucose and fructose. HFCS is made by adding enzymes to corn-starch to convert the starch into its composite monosaccharide sugars glucose and fructose. Honey is also composed of a combination of glucose and fructose monosaccharides. The term HFCS is a misnomer because it doesn’t actually contain high fructose levels. The name comes from the fact that pure corn syrup contains no fructose at all, but treatment with enzymes allows varying proportions of fructose to be obtained. The most common HFCS are 55% and 42% fructose (the remainder being glucose). Sucrose is digested to 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Incidentally, 100% pure fructose has been available for years as an alternative sweetener under various brand names.



What is the GI? Glucose has the highest GI of all the sugars and fructose has the lowest, and this is the reason sucrose (a blend of glucose and fructose) has a moderate GI. Although the GI of HFCS is not available, Professor Jennie Brand Miller from GI News says there is no reason to expect it to be any different to sucrose.



Why is it used? HFCS is widely used because US agricultural policy favours corn farmers and makes imported sugar more expensive. Food manufacturers like it because it is economical, it is liquid and easy to mix, and adds good texture and sweetness to a wide range of foods.



Is it harmful? Digestion of HFCS, cane sugar, beet sugar and honey all yield similar amounts of glucose and fructose during digestion. There is no reason to expect HFCS to have unique effects on health for this reason. Like all simple sugars, these are absorbed by the small intestine: glucose can be used for energy throughout the body whereas fructose is transported to the liver for conversion to metabolic energy. Many of the studies with adverse findings are from pure fructose feeding in animals, and cannot be separated from overfeeding with any sugar, or overfeeding in general. It seems over-eating and getting fat is bad for our metabolic health but it is not due to a specific effect of HFCS.

• A recent review published in Nutrition Metabolism concludes that “moderate fructose consumption of no more than 50g/day or around 10% of energy has no deleterious effect on lipid and glucose control and of no more than 100g/day does not influence body weight. No fully relevant data account for a direct link between moderate dietary fructose intake and health risk markers”.
• The American Medical Association calls for more research but says it is unlikely that HFCS contributes to obesity anymore than sucrose.
• The Huffington Post quoted Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest saying sugar and high fructose corn syrup are nutritionally the same, and there's no evidence that the sweetener is any worse for the body than sugar.
• Even Michael Pollan in his book Food Rules says “high fructose corn syrup is no worse for you than sugar” but then says to avoid it anyway because foods made with it are highly processed.

A recent study published in the journal Obesity found US sodas (soft drinks) made with HFCS were higher in fructose than expected- on average 59% and up to 65%, which is much higher than sucrose: perhaps another reason to give these drinks a miss if you are living in the USA.



While HFCS may not have the best reputation, its adverse health effects are exaggerated. We should regard HFCS as we do other added sugars and enjoy them in moderation within a healthy balanced diet.



Nicole Senior MSc (Nut&Diet) BSc (Nut) is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Nutritionist. For more information on heart-friendly eating and fabulous recipes low in saturated fat and high on flavour check out Nicole’s books Eat to beat Cholesterol and Heart Food HERE.

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay



Maintain weight loss with a low GI Diet and a little more protein

The Diogenes Study, which was set up to investigate whether people who have undergone recent major weight loss could maintain that lower weight, has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine . The researchers led by Professor Arne Astrup at the University of Copenhagen conclude that: ‘A modest increase in protein content and a modest reduction in the glycemic index led to an improvement in study completion and maintenance of weight loss.’



In this collaborative project from 8 countries in the European Union (Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Greece (Crete), Germany, Spain, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, 938 adults took part in an 8-week, low-calorie weight-loss diet to achieve a weight loss of 8% of their original starting weight (for most participants this was about 11 kg or 24 pounds.) Those successful in meeting this target were then given the opportunity to take part in the 6-month ‘preventing weight gain’ stage of the study.



The researchers then randomly assigned 773 adults to one of five diets for a 26-week intervention period. These were not calorie controlled diets – those taking part could eat as much food as they liked from their assigned diet group. Participants were on average 41 years old and were all parents. Their families, although not part of the trial, were assigned to the same diets. All five diets were designed to have a moderate fat content (25–30% of total energy). The diets were:

• Group 1: Low protein (13% energy consumed), low GI
• Group 2: Low protein, high GI
• Group 3: High protein (25% energy consumed), low GI
• Group 4: High protein, high GI
• Group 5: Control diet which followed current dietary guidelines without special instructions regarding GI levels

A total of 548 adults (71%) completed the 26-week diet trial period. Fewer people in the high-protein, low GI groups dropped out than in the low-protein, high-GI-group (26.4% and 25.6% respectively, compared to 37.4%). The researchers found that both low GI diets and high-protein diets were equally effective in preventing weight regain. But they also found that participants in Group 3 which combined both low GI and high-protein strategies continued to lose weight over the 26 weeks of the study – see graph.







Note that although described as ‘high protein’, the 25% protein in the Diogenes study is less than Atkins and Zone diets (30%) and the CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet (33%). The GI of the high GI diets achieved by the participants was around 60 (pretty typical for developed nations) and the ‘low GI’ diets around 55 (not that low, but a step in the right direction).







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







Some people tell me that watermelon sends blood glucose levels soaring, but others say that’s wrong. What’s the real deal?

The real deal is that a normal serving of watermelon won’t have much effect on blood glucose levels. Those who’ve got it wrong are taking the high GI value of watermelon in isolation. It’s important to consider the amount of available carbohydrate in a typical serving as well as the GI value. Watermelons and other melons such as rockmelon (cantaloupe) are high GI foods, but are relatively ‘dilute’ sources of carbohydrate. In fact they only have about 5% available carbohydrate, which makes their glycemic load or GL per serving very low. A low GL means minimal impact on your BGLs. Both melons in moderate servings are an excellent snack and quite thirst quenching too. Here’s how the numbers add up:

• Watermelon has a GI 78, but a wedge without skin (about 200g) contains 6g available carbs and will have a GL of 6
• Rockmelon/cantaloupe has a GI of 88, but a cup of diced pieces without skin (about 200g) contains 7g available carbs and will have a GL of 8

Katja’s weight loss success story

‘I purchased your book The G.I Factor – the Glucose Revolution Revised 2nd Edition about 4 years ago. I never read it and had it sitting on my bookshelf for all those years until about a month ago. I had tried many methods of losing weight with complicated recipes and even tried the Tony Ferguson for one month and piled it all back on with twice more. I started reading your book and it all started to make sense why my body was not responding to all those gimmicks.



I started to make a few of the dishes and really enjoy them (especially the Swiss muesli for breakfast) and have since about a month ago really started to plan my meals a great deal more. On Sunday afternoons I have a big cook where I make at least two dishes to have during the week. The meals are all simple and delicious and even my family are starting to enjoy them.



I have also purchased the The New Glucose Revolution – LifePlan and again enjoy the recipes at the back especially the Mediteranean Lasagna. Big thumbs up from my family. I saw my GP today and he is very happy with my weight loss which has now been 6 kilos. I have more energy, go to the gym at least 4–5 times per week and enjoy the variety of classes at the gym.



A lot of staff at work have also commented on my weight loss and want to know my secret. I have shown them your books and I’m hoping to inspire all of them to take up the GI way of eating. I have another 15 kilos to go but with the right tools (recipes) determination, support from my family, friends and residents and staff at work I’m sure I will get there.



I have diabetes on my mother’s side of the family and had gestational diabetes with my second son so I’m a prime candidate for diabetes. I’m a Community Speaker for Cancer Council and one of my presentations is about the risk factors of cancer and touches on obesity and promotes the waist measurement campaign. So I’m determined to be a living success story and hope to inspire lots of people around me.’



New GI values from Fiona Atkinson at SUGiRS for breakfast and snack foods

Carman’s breakfast cereals and bars

(Serving sizes here are as per product label.)

• Traditional Australian Oats (made with water) – GI60 (available carbs 28g per serve, GL17)
• Deluxe Fruit Muesli – GI51 (available carbs 19g per serve, GL10)
• Yoghurt, Apricot & Almond Bar – GI44 (available carbs 18g per serve, GL8)
• Dark Chocolate, Cranberry & Almond Bar – GI53 (available carbs 19g per serve, GL10)
• Apricot & Almond Muesli Bar – GI51 (available carbs 23g per serve, GL12)

Pauls Good to GO smoothies

• Mixed Berry – GI30 (available carbs 32g per 1 cup /250ml serve, GL10)
• Mango Passionfruit – GI25 (available carbs 32g per 1 cup/250ml serve, GL8)
• Strawberry – GI30 (available carbs 32g per 1 cup/250ml serve, GL10)
• Tropical – GI25 (available carbs 32g per 1 cup/250ml serve, GL8)

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

Making the Most of GI News

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, Diane Temple, Emma Stirling 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:

• charge others for access to the work
• include all or part of the work in advertising or a product for sale, or
• modify the work.

To obtain such permission, please contact gifeedback@gmail.com



This permission does not extend to material contributed and owned by other parties. We strongly recommend that you refer to the copyright statements at their respective websites and seek their permission before making use of any such material, whether images or text. Please contact GI News if you are in doubt as to the ownership of any material.



Disclaimer

GI News endeavours to check the veracity of news stories cited in this free e-newsletter by referring to the primary source, but cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies in the articles so published. GI News provides links to other World Wide Web sites as a convenience to users, but cannot be held responsible for the content or availability of these sites.



© ® & ™ The University of Sydney, Australia

GI News—November 2010

• New light on dietary recommendations for heart health
• New International Standard for GI testing
• How scientists measure a food’s GI
• New GI values for agave syrups and protein drinks
• Nicole Senior investigates the story that saturated fats aren’t that bad
• The scoop on stevia with Emma Stirling

The recent publication of the International Standard for GI testing is very good news for consumers. It will play an important role in ensuring nutrition and health claims about GI made on food labels and in advertisements can be trusted, and will assist food producers and manufacturers worldwide in formulating low GI products. A food’s GI value cannot be predicted from its appearance, composition, carbohydrate content, or even the GI of related foods. The only way to know a food’s GI value is to test it in real people (not a glass dish) following a strict protocol which Dr Alan Barclay describes in GI Symbol News. If you want to know the GI value of a food you like to eat and can’t find it on the GI database (www.glycemicindex.com), contact the manufacturer and suggest they have it tested.

Good eating, good health and good reading.

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

Food for Thought

Science and the low GI concept
The number of papers with ‘GI’ in their title published in peer-reviewed scientific journals has increased exponentially over the last 10 years. In an interview with FoodIngredientsfirst Jennie talked about how science is developing around the GI concept. We reprint an extract here.


Prof Jennie Brand-Miller

‘Science has always underpinned the low GI concept,’ said Prof Jennie Brand-Miller. ‘Indeed, it is what separates the GI concept from a ‘fad’. Research is showing that high GI foods and diets with a high glycemic load are much more likely to be linked to development of diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease than the amount of carbohydrate, starch or sugar content of the diet. There is also more focus on weight control, particularly the ability to prevent weight re-gain after weight loss – the holy grail.

And while the science of GI can be complex, the consumer application isn’t. It’s really simple – you swap a high GI food for a low GI food from within food categories – a low GI bread instead of a high GI one, a low GI breakfast cereal for a high GI one. The consumer learnt that there are good fats and bad fats and to swap one for the other. The same applies to carbohydrate.’

What are the new emerging GI areas? ‘It amazes me that the GI is being linked to so many things, including inflammatory diseases (e.g. arthritis), birth defects, Alzheimer’s disease, memory and different types of cancer. There’s even research that suggests that food ‘addiction’ is related to high blood glucose spikes. I’m currently involved in research applying low GI diets to pregnancy. We want to reduce the risk that the baby will have excess fat on its body at birth. The child obesity epidemic can be traced back to increasing birth weights over the past 25 years.’

Which countries and food markets hold the most potential for low GI? ‘I think the GI is relevant to every nation on the planet. All of us are more or less susceptible to obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Our health care budgets can’t sustain the current rate of expenditure. Prevention is the only way forward – diet and exercise are the two biggest parts of the solution.’

– Reproduced with kind permission of FoodIngredientsfirst.

News Briefs

New light on dietary recommendations for good heart health
A new study (known as the RISCK trial) published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shed light on practical and achievable dietary recommendations for reducing the risk of heart disease.


Prof Susan Jebb
‘The RISCK trial is important’ says lead author Prof Susan Jebb, Head of Nutrition and Health Research at the MRC Human Nutrition Research Unit ‘because in one study, it has tested the impact of changing the amount and type of fat and carbohydrate in the diet of individual participants to test the effects on their health, using very detailed measurements. It suggests that you can achieve favourable blood lipid (fats) profiles, associated with reductions in cardiovascular disease risk, by reducing saturated fat and substituting this with monounsaturated fat and by substituting high GI carbohydrates with low GI carbohydrates.’

The trial included 548 overweight people at risk of cardiovascular disease. All followed the same ‘reference’ (weight maintenance) diet for a month and were then randomised to one of five diets for 6 months (24 weeks):

• One group continued with the reference diet.
• Two groups were provided with foods that, although relatively high in fat, had around a third of the saturated fat component replaced predominately with monounsaturated fat (carbohydrate was 45% of total energy intake for these groups).
• The remaining two groups reduced the saturated fat in their diet by replacing the energy with carbohydrate (55% total energy).

The study indeed confirmed the well established finding that reducing saturated fat intakes results in decreases in total and LDL (bad) cholesterol. However, interestingly, the researchers also found that simply following a lower GI diet led to significant further reductions in total and LDL cholesterol with the greatest improvement in blood lipids – including an increase in HDL (good) cholesterol – seen in the high monounsaturated fat/low GI group.



In the study, the researchers provided the participants with key foods and the target differences between the high GI and low GI groups was 11 and 13 GI points respectively. ‘In the event,’ says Prof Jebb ‘the dietary records suggest we achieved a smaller difference than the target – about 8. We based the low GI dietary intervention entirely on swaps – one type of bread or breakfast cereal for another as we were very keen to keep the rest of the diet unchanged as far as possible. Where we did struggle was to find low GI snacks, which fitted with our broader dietary goals for fat type as well as GI. If more suitable products were available that would have helped to achieve a bigger reduction in GI. For example, we didn't want people to go from biscuits to fruit as this would have upset the calorie intake and fat/carbohydrate intake as well as GI.’

We asked Prof Jebb to comment on the suggestion made previously in GI News (Dr Alan Barclay) that a GI of 45 or less is what we all need to be aiming for ‘since this average GI has been proven to have significant health benefits in people with existing diabetes and in reducing the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.’

‘We were no where near 45 for the diet as a whole,’ said Dr Jebb. ‘However, it is important to remember in the RISCK study what we were looking at is what could be realistically achieved at a broad community level in the UK – not for individual clinical cases. Our focus is more on supporting people in the UK community at large to make healthy changes with very practical advice.’

You can read more about the RISCK study HERE.

GI and heart disease
A study from Mexico in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism reports that both the quality and the quantity of carbohydrate consumption significantly influence blood cholesterol and triglyceride (a type of blood fat) concentrations and heart disease risk in Mexican adults who don’t have diabetes. The researchers analysed data from 5830 participants from the Health Worker Cohort Study and assessed dietary GI and GL using a validated food frequency questionnaire.



‘Our data strongly support the hypothesis that diets with a low GI and GL – which include foods like whole grains (e.g., whole grain breads, barley and wheat germ), vegetables, legumes, fruits, and nuts – are associated with a more favorable lipid profile that may be cardioprotective,’ they conclude.

New international yardstick for GI claims
Consumers around the world will benefit from the release of the new International Standard designed to measure the glycemic index (GI) of foods (ISO 26642:2010), which sets out the now internationally recognised scientific method to determine the GI of foods. It will play an important role in ensuring nutrition and health claims made on food labels can be trusted and will assist food producers formulate healthier low GI products.



Put simply, the GI ranks the glycemic potency of different carbohydrate-containing foods as they are eaten. Foods with a high GI cause a dramatic rise in blood glucose levels while foods with a low GI value have much less of an impact. Studies from major medical research institutions and research universities have found that the GI is a clinically proven tool in its application to the dietary management of diabetes, coronary health and weight control.

Dr Alan Barclay, Chief Scientific Officer at the Glycemic Index Foundation commented that: ‘Consumers looking for healthy foods need to be confident the claims made by food manufacturers on their labelling and in advertisements are accurate and reliable,’ he said. ‘Historically, not all GI claims have been reliable with some based on extrapolation or inappropriate methodology. A food’s GI value cannot be predicted from its appearance, composition, carbohydrate content, or even the GI values of related foods. The only way to know a food’s GI value is to test it, following the now international standardized methodology.’
French and English language versions of the ISO standard are available HERE.