Glycaemic load

danlen

lads i was just listening to patrick holford on the Last Word on Today FM. basically he was saying that to achieve weight loss it is more important to have a low GL diet than a low calorie diet. what do people make of this? if this is true would people mind posting up a list of low GL common foods and the ones to avoid.
thanks.

Serafijn

A low GL diet will keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable over the course of the day, rather than having the peaks and troughs caused by high GL foods. This is supposed to 1) keep you feeling fuller longer and 2) keep your metabolism ticking over.

This kind of diet is definitely good for you and will most likely help your weightloss efforts, but the fact remains that if you eat more calories than you're using up, whether they're low GL or not, you will put on weight. Eating low GL will normally cause you to automatically eat less calories since you would be avoiding sweets, white bread and other high cal/fat foods and replacing them for wholegrains and fresh vegetables.

A quick google search for 'low gl foods list' or similar will give you a whole load of results and you can also find some good information about the science behind it all if you're interested.

Common foods to avoid would be anything processed, high in sugar or simple carbs (white bread, pasta, cake). Foods to stock up on would be any fresh veg, berries, nuts, lean meat, wholegrain (whole-, not multi-) bread / rice / pasta. Basically all the good stuff that any self-respecting healthy-eating plan would advocate

danlen

cheers

EileenG

Low GI or GL foods are definitely healthier for you, but according to studies, unless you are diabetic, or heading for diabetes, just switching to lower Gi foods are not enough to make you lose weight. You've still got to watch portion size.

*Honey*

Not 100% sure on low GL diets but low GI (which is the same but slightly different I believe) I have found to be the best diet ever... watch your portion sizes (which all of us should be doing anyway) and you will never never be hungry. It's such a "doable" diet, all members of the family can eat it and they don't even have to know they're eating "diet" food ... if any of them want to lose weight, they just need to watch portions. I have found it to be the best diet I've ever tried.

vard

It has some degree of sense, yes.

But if he follows his own advise and, for the long term, eats more calories than he is consuming, he'll fall flat on his own opinion.