In the GI News Kitchen

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



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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

 

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

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

Here's how you can cut back on the food bills and enjoy fresh-tasting, easily prepared, seasonal, satisfying and delicious low or moderate GI meals that don’t compromise on quality and flavour one little bit with our Money Saving Meals including this Brown rice, chicken and vegetable soup with chipotle chili and lime reproduced with permission from Catherine Saxelby’s new book, Ancient Grains: whole-food recipes for the modern table (Arbon AUD $34.99)

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

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

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

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



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

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

GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coles Simply Gluten Free: 

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

The GI Symbol, making healthy low GI choices easy choices



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

We Are What We Ate

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

GI Update with Prof Jennie Brand-Miller

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller answers your questions. 



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

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

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

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

Australia
Fiona Atkinson
Research Manager, Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service (SUGiRS)
Human Nutrition Unit, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences
Sydney University
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone + 61 2 9351 6018
Fax: + 61 2 9351 6022
Email sugirs@mmb.usyd.edu.au
Web www.glycemicindex.com

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GI News—June 2013

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

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

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Food for Thought

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

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

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



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