Recently I was lucky enough to join in on one of dietitian Sue Radd’s fabulous low GI cooking courses. It is great to be reminded of creative ways to cook healthy meals, as we often get stuck wheeling out the same boring old dishes in the pursuit of healthy eating (with the odd rebellious unhealthy meal thrown in there too!)
So what is a low GI diet and what can it do for our health?
The Glycaemic Index sounds complex, but is simply a scale for rating carbs based on how they impact your blood sugar. This helps us separate the better carbohydrates from the not so good ones. The carbs with a high GI cause blood glucose to rise and fall quickly and are to be avoided. Low to moderate GI foods release glucose into the bloodstream slowly for sustained energy. These are the good ones! You can check out the GI of your favourite foods here.
So aiming for a low GI diet is a great guide for helping us make dietary choices that will help us feel fuller for longer and prevent fatigue. An added bonus is that low GI eating increases your body’s sensitivity to insulin, which promotes weight loss.
Here are some of Sue’s tips for lowering the GI of your meals:
- Introduce legumes such as chickpeas, red beans and cannellini beans as the protein source of several of your main meals
- Add nuts and seeds to carby meals, such as cereal and pasta
- Switch potato for sweet potato
- Eat more eggplant – a delicious low GI and fibre rich vegie
- Use olive oil and vinegar as a salad dressing as a vinaigrette dressing lowers the GI
- An apple or nuts make a delicious low GI snack
My low GI meal of choice tonight is chili con carne with plenty of red kidney beans – delicious! I’ll even be sticking to the low fat sour cream.
As an aside, I highly recommend a visit to Sue Radd if you live in the Hills District and are seeking dietary advice.
Have a great weekend!
Sean
