#low-gi

So I’m at a point now with my activity levels where I need to change how I’m eating. It’s not a decision I’ve made, but rather something my body is telling me through levels of satiety, energy, and occasional drops in blood sugar, part-way home on the bike, when I haven’t been listening to it.

My #1 requirement is, and possibly always will be, low-FODMAP foods. I simply cannot deal with what happens to my gut if I ignore this aspect of my body’s functioning. But now I’m finding that I NEED to eat low-GI foods. If I don’t, then I’m simply not satisfied during the day, which leads to snacking on the nearest chocolate bar and not having the blood sugar to get home.

So, I’m working on figuring out how to do this. I’m eating more brown rice, and I’ve started cooking my lunches at work (this book has been seriously awesome), more salmon and more Greek yoghurt with berries for a snack.

I’m feeling a lot less hungry throughout the day, and I’m getting better at reaching for something that’ll last me longer than a chocolate bar when my body tells me it urgently needs SOMETHING in the mid-afternoon.

I wasn't sure what to call this, so I went with a boring title, but I'm really excited about this salad I threw together. I'm planning to live on it all summer, because it is so refreshing. It's also delicious, surprisingly filling, and not too expensive if you can find the herbs for a decent price. It's also really variable and you can do anything you want with it. I'm sharing my recipe, but feel free to make substitutions until it looks/tastes nothing like mine! Anything goes!

I usually start by cooking a package of sausage (I prefer sweet Italian, and I prefer to steam it -- easy and healthy!) and putting it in the fridge to cool, and rinsing and draining a can of beans (I prefer navy or cannellini but if you wanna make it more Mediterranean-tasting, chickpeas would be awesome). This way I have enough beans and sausage for several servings, and the veggies and herbs I add in one serving at a time, to keep it fresh. This recipe is gluten-free (as long as you make sure to use gluten-free sausage), low-carb, and low-GI. Check labels on your beans and sausage for carbohydrate specifics.

Ingredients:

1 sausage, cooked and sliced/diced

1/2 cup navy/cannellini/garbanzo beans

1/2 medium cucumber, diced (I don't bother peeling it)

1 spring onion, sliced

A few leaves each of fresh cilantro and mint, finely diced together

OK, so I've gotten a lot of questions from a lot of different people on how I plan to move forward with a low-GI diet.  My favorite question is: "So you're never going to eat bread EVER AGAIN?!  You're crazy!"

No, I'm not cutting all bread out of my life forever.  Just for now.  Here's how my diet is going to progress.

In my first stage of the diet, I'm cutting out all starches and high-GI carbohydrates.  This means bread, biscuits, pancakes, cupcakes, cake, English muffins, sugar, rice, flour, potatoes, etc.  It's gone.  I'm replacing my sugar with stevia/truvia, molasses, and agave nectar.  I'm still eating carbohydrates: those found in fruits and veggies.  Carbs are good for brain function.  Why would I want to cut that out of my diet?  Also, in this stage, I'm allowing myself small, single servings of chocolate (the darker the better) so long as it's not in conjunction with starch.  So, dark chocolate-covered peanuts are great.  Dark chocolate-covered cake is not.

It is said that it takes about 4-6 weeks to stop craving something.  So, once I stop craving starches, I'm going to incorporate the low- to moderate-GI starches back into my diet as stage 2.  This includes muesli, brown rice, whole wheat, whole grains, steel-cut oats, brown sugar, etc.  Anything that's not highly processed and refined.  More than likely, if it's white (white sugar and white flour, for example), it's been processed so much to the point where all nutrients have been stripped out of it.  I don't want that in my body.  In this stage is where I'll be experimenting with different recipes for cakes, breads, muffins, and the like using whole wheat flour and sugar substitutes.  I'll also be adding back in things like whole wheat bread (as unrefined as possible), and whole wheat pastas.

Stage 3 is just maintenance.  At this point, it's all about maintaining a low-GI diet and the health I'll have gained back. 

Adult acne / Acne rosacea is an early sign of diabetes called prediabetes. The following diet will cure your p&ps and return your skin back to normal. There is nothing magical about this diet. It is simple and easy to follow. This is a Vegan diet so no animal products allowed. If you can cure your problems with meat then have fun with the colon cancer and heart disease. Don't trade one problem for another.

Do eat:

1) Legumes are the base. These are your staples. When you need a snack eat some beans.

2) Low-GI / high fiber grains. Mix these in. Eat grains that have comparable GI values as legumes.

3) Non-starchy Vegetables, eat all you want

4) Fruits. Stick with the low-GI varieties. Watermelon / pineapple are high-GI fruits.

5) Nuts are OK, but don't overdo it. Too much fat.

Do not eat:

1) Fats

2) High-GI carbs (white bread, white rice, candy, chocolates, etc).

In 1969 a poorly designed study led to the dismissal of the dietary link to acne.  In the study they used a chocolate bar as the test bar, and a non-chocolate bar as the control bar.  They couldn't find any differences in the 2 groups.  What they failed to check was that both bars were equally high in cane sugar and the control bar also had higher levels of trans-fatty acids.  They really only looked at chocolate as a causative factor, and based on these results the medical profession have for many years dismissed the fact that diet could have any role to play in skin health.

Thankfully there has been more research done in recent times around IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor) and how if affects the skin.  It was found that IGF-1 causes increases in:

skin cell production

male hormone production, and

sebum (oil) production

All of these contribute to acne.  The body normally produces an IGF binding protein (IGFBP) which binds to IGF-1 and blocks it, but when you eat a high GI diet (i.e. sugar and processed carbohydrates), the body doesn't produce as much of this IGFBP.  So there is more free IGF-1 floating around, creating acne-loving hormonal changes. 

On the plus side, if you go on a low GI diet for JUST 7 DAYS, huge changes in IGFBP and IGF-1 can be measured in the blood and significant decreases in acne lesions can typically be seen over a 12 week period.