According to recent research looking at consumer buying habits, American consumers make their food choices based on taste, price, convenience, appearance and shelf life. Notice that none of these have anything to do with health! Justifiably so, as most people have good intentions for sticking to a weight loss plan, but often it is too difficult to understand or cumbersome to plan and organize your food choices. Because the GI diet is not a plan but more a way of life, with proper guidance on food choice and selection, you will see how easy it can be to change your way of thinking.
One of the problems with many popular diet plans is the reduction or elimination of entire food groups. The GI diet is about balance and should contain adequate amounts from all of the food groups. When combining meals, you should not only choose low GI carbohydrates but also healthy choices of protein and fat. This will not only reduce the GI of your meal but also enhance the satiety value by keeping you full for longer. It is also very important to watch your portion sizes because we all know calories count for weight loss! To help get you going, please see the following attachment adapted from the SoLo Gi® Low Glycemic Nutrition website, which contains great ideas and tips on how to switch from a high GI to a low GI diet.
Also, because one of the biggest problems with weight loss is the between-meal period, I have created a list of "convenient" low GI choices below. This should help take some of the guesswork out of making low GI choices and adopting the low GI lifestyle.
1. Trail mix with nuts and dried fruit
2. Fruit (i.e. apple, orange, peach, pear)
3. Cheese sticks
4. Low fat milk or soy milk latte (watch the sugar)
5. Smoothies (i.e. blend with low fat milk, scoop of peanut butter and fruit)
6. Low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit
7. Hummus with whole grain crackers or pita bread
Tip of the Day: When making food choices, I encourage you to think not only about the GI of the food, but also how much "nutritional" bang you are getting for your "calorie buck".
Low Glycemic Index (GI) and Low Glycemic Load (GL) foods have been proven in studies to be beneficial: dieting; weight loss; obesity; diabetes; balancing blood sugar; sustained energy; sport nutrition; mental performance; acne; eye health; macular degeneration; heart disease and forms of cancer. See also Low GI Diet, Low GI Recipes, Low GI Food, Low GI Eating.
Copyright 2008, Saul Katz
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