Low GI Recipe of the Month

Lemon Semolina Pudding with Berry Coulis
Lisa Lintner’s Lemon Semolina Pudding with Berry Coulis from The New Glucose Revolution Life Plan.


Photo: Jennifer Soo

Serves 6

2 cups (500 ml/17 fl oz) low fat (semi skimmed/1%) milk
½ cup (100 g/3½ oz) fine semolina
¼ cup (60 g/2¼ oz) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large lemon (zest only)
1 egg, lightly beaten
300 g (10½ oz) blackberries, strawberries, or raspberries or a mixture
2 tablespoons icing (confectioner’s) sugar
½ cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) white wine or apple juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350°C. Lightly oil six ½-cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) soufflé dishes. Line the base of each dish with baking paper.
2. Pour the milk, semolina and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and stir for 1 more minute.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
4. Cover the surface of the mixture with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming, and cool. When cooled, stir in the beaten egg.
5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dishes and place them into a baking pan with enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the dishes. Cover loosely with a large sheet of foil. Carefully slide the pan into the oven and poach the puddings for 15 minutes, until set. Remove the puddings from the pan of water. Run a knife around the puddings, turn out onto serving plates and remove the piece of baking paper.
6. Meanwhile, puree most of the berries with the icing (confectioner’s) sugar. (Reserve some whole berries for decoration if desired). Thin the coulis with white wine or apple juice.
7. Pour the coulis around the puddings, and decorate with slivers of lemon peel or whole berries (optional).

Nutritional analysis per serving
814 kJ (195 Cal), 3 g fat, 8 g protein, 35 g carbohydrate, 2 g fibre, low GI

Your Success Stories

Jeanne’s story – ‘I lost over 100 pounds using a combination of good eating habits and low GI foods’
After the birth of my eighth child instead of losing weight I started to gain. We were gaining nicely her and I. The problem was she was supposed to and I was suppose to snap back – isn't that the way it works? A few years earlier, I had started to snore, had reflux and I had a constant ache in my right side, which was gall bladder. I knew in my heart it was diet related as most illnesses are, but I did nothing about it.

When my daughter was about a year old I had had it. Weighing in over 270 pounds I decided to change the way I ate. I found that certain foods made me feel better and lose weight. I made the change. I don't call it a diet because I feel diets fail and I am not failing. I eat low glycemic carbs. But I eat lots of carbs. There you are, with the right foods you can eat what you want and feel satisfied and lose the weight. It speaks for itself. I also eat protein to build muscle mass and low fat dairy. I am now in good shape I feel I have a ton of energy. I am rid of reflux, no more pain in right side and best of all no fatigue. ‘I have lost over 100 pounds using a combination of good eating habits and low GI foods. It is not a diet because it doesn't fail. My skin tone is great and my general health has improved. I forgot to mention I am a person that will not eat white sugar. Sucrose, frutose, any ose is not for me.

Anne’s story – battling hypoglycemia
My life has always been controlled by my hypo attacks. I never go anywhere without a ‘fix’ in my pocket, be that an apple, a packet of chocolate nuts and raisins or a carton of juice. My story starts when I was an early teenager in 1957. I would be miles from home, roaming the countryside when I would gradually develop an inability to function properly, which manifested itself in weakness, perspiration and irritability. I was fortunate if an attack took place during autumn as I could find blackberries, crab apples or sloes to eat until the feeling passed. Instead of walking home I would have to sit and wait for a bus. I began to notice a pattern to these attacks. They nearly always took place in late afternoon. I had a long way to travel to and from my school involving a long walk, a ferry trip and a train journey. At the end of the school day I couldn’t wait to get home to have something to eat. My school life was totally disrupted by these attacks and I could never stay on at school and enjoy extra curricular activities or extra study. Concentration levels were poor and my school work suffered.

I was better able to control my eating patterns once I started working. When I became a working mother, however, with two children, shopping after work, etc. I found that once again my cravings during the late afternoon were almost unbearable. I resorted to sherry as soon as I reached home and this sustained me whilst I cooked a meal and attended to the usual chores. I found that alcohol, together with assorted savoury nibbles was the answer to giving me that vital boost when I was flagging. As far as I was concerned, I was just an oddity – no one I knew could sympathise or understand my problem and probably thought I was just greedy. I never seem to reach the stage of feeling full and can just go on eating and eating. I don’t. I stop when I realise that I should have eaten a sufficient amount but I don’t feel full. I think part of the problem is that I still tend to eat a ‘traditional’ meal of carbohydrates, protein and vegetables. When I am hungry I cannot face a salad, however varied and interesting. I have found that eating a small snack every two hours or so does stop me from reaching the stage where I lose the ability to be sensible. I should add that I do not have a sweet tooth and have always eaten sensibly, except when I am experiencing a sugar ‘attack’ and then I will eat anything to hand. I have brought up the subject with various GPs over the years.

I have discovered over the years that the foods I like most are my worst enemies. These include potatoes, bread, bananas, rice and alcohol. In the last month I have stopped drinking alcohol and limited my intake of potatoes and bread. I try to eat oat bread wherever possible and am following the low glycemic principle as far as possible. I know when I have eaten the wrong thing and, instead of turning to alcohol I eat a yoghurt or some apricots until I feel comfortable again.

Send Us Your Success Story!

Books, DVDs, Websites: What’s New?

Los Todos Los Carbohidratos Engordan
The Spanish language edition of The New Glucose Revolution is published by Panorama Editorial. www.panoramaed.com.mx



The New Glucose Revolution
The Korean language edition of The New Glucose Revolution is published by Aquarius Publishing Co.



For information on other translated editions visit www.glycemicindex.com then select ‘GI Books’ and the appropriate region

Translating GI News and www.glycemicindex.com
If you would prefer to read GI News or a page from glycemicindex.com in a language other than English, there is a very easy way to translate them (or any site for that matter), using a service provided by Altavista called ‘Babel Fish’. Simply head over to www.babelfish.altavista.com and copy and paste a block of text into the first window (up to 150 words), or enter the website address to translate an entire page into the ‘Translate a Web Page’ box. Next, select which language you would like the English text translated to from the drop-down menu. Click the Translate button and Babel Fish will do all the work for you in just a few seconds.


Babel Fish homepage

www.glycemicindex.com
Glycemicindex.com, the official website of the glycemic index, just passed the 3-year mark with access to statistics via Extreme Tracking. In all, nearly 3 million hits – about 950,000 individual hits per year. Who visits? Countries providing the most visitors are: USA 44%, Australia 13%, UK 10% and Canada 6%. The site was set up by the University of Sydney to make the GI database of foods tested worldwide according to the standardised in vivo procedure accessible to everyone who needs this information free of charge. There’s no need to subscribe. It provides up-to-date information on the glycemic index and the published GI values of foods tested internationally according to the established procedure along with details about GI testing, the GI symbol program, the most common FAQs and a selection of books on GI published internationally. The site is interactive and the GI Group answers queries.


Glycemic Index homepage

Feedback—Your FAQs Answered

How relevant is the GI for athletes?
'The glycemic index can be a useful tool to help athletes select the right type of carbohydrates to consume both before and after exercise,’ says Dr Emma Stevenson. ‘Several studies have investigated the effect of changing the GI of carbohydrates eaten before exercise on substrate metabolism during prolonged endurance exercise. Studies have consistently reported that a low GI pre-exercise meal results in a better maintenance of blood glucose concentrations during exercise and a higher rate of fat oxidation. This is likely to result in reduced muscle glycogen utilization during prolonged exercise and possibly improve endurance performance. Eating high GI meals before exercise may result in plasma glucose concentrations peaking before the onset of exercise and then hypoglycemia occurring within the first 30 minutes of the exercise period. There is little data available on the effect of the GI of carbohydrates eaten before intermittent, power or strength related sports.'

'During recovery from exercise, muscle glycogen resynthesis is of high metabolic priority. The eating high GI carbohydrates after exercise increases plasma glucose and insulin concentrations and this facilitates muscle glycogen resynthesis. If however, you are exercising for weight loss purposes or are involved in weight restricted sports, low GI carbohydrates after exercise may be more beneficial as the lower glucose and insulin concentrations will not suppress fat.'




‘I have recently been diagnosed with celiac disease on top of diabetes. Any suggestions for foods that are both low GI and wheat-free foods?’
This is not as hard as you may think. If you like Asian food – Indian dahls, stir-fries with rice, sushi, noodles - you're in luck, because they are all low GI. Choose vermicelli noodles prepared from rice or mung beans and low GI rices such as basmati. Use sweet potato instead of potato, use all manner of vegetables without any regard for their GI. Choose fruits and dairy for their low GI. If you can tolerate dairy products, then take advantage of them for their universal low GI. If lactose intolerance is a problem, reach for live cultured yoghurts and lactose-hydrolysed milks. Even ice-cream can be enjoyed if you ingest a few drops of lactase enzyme first. Dietitian Kate Marsh, however says: 'people need to check the labels of yoghurts and ice-cream for gluten as many do contain wheat based thickeners.'

What’s the real deal on the GI of beer?
Beer has so little carbohydrate that it's difficult to test its GI. That's why we listed its GI and GL as 0 in earlier editions of the New Glucose Revolution series books. But eventually we decided that the valid way to test beer would be by comparing responses to a 10 g carbohydrate portion of beer (about 300 mL) with a 10 g carbohydrate portion of glucose (in GI testing a 50 g carbohydrate portion is normally used). In this test the GI came out as 66. The GL will be therefore be 66 x 10/100 = 6.6 (round up to 7).




‘I have diabetes, but I enjoy an occasional drink. Does the way a beer is brewed (ales, lagers, pilseners, stout etc.) have a significant impact on the final product and its sugar content?’

Generally, alcoholic beverages contain very little carbohydrate. Most wines and spirits contain virtually none; regular beer contains around 10 g carbohydrate per 12 fl oz can; stout around 14 g carbohydrate per 12 fl oz can while a light beer has from 3–7 grams of carbohydrate per serving (12 fl oz can). Compare this with 36 g carbohydrate in a can of regular (not diet) soft drink! So yes, a beer will raise your glucose levels but not excessively. And if you drink beer in large volumes (not a good idea really) then you could expect it to have a significant effect on blood glucose. Although we haven’t GI tested many brands of beer, there are some useful websites out there that will tell you how much carbohydrate there is in various brands. We use www.calorieking.com as a quick reference.

As for enjoying an occasional drink, researchers (Kaniz Fatima and Chris Middlemass) from the University of Sydney reported at the Nutrition Society of Australia (November 2005) that a pre-dinner drink tends to produce a ‘priming’ effect, flicking the switch from internal to external sources of fuel and keeping blood-sugar levels low. In one study, they gave healthy, young, lean people two standard glasses of beer, or wine, or gin and tonic or water to drink about an hour before eating a meal then they measured their blood glucose and insulin levels. They found that: ‘realistic amounts of beer, wine or gin reduce postprandial glycemia but not insulinemia’.

Printing Information



© ® & ™ The University of Sydney, Australia

GI News—March 2006

In This Issue:

• Food for Thought
  —Johanna Burani article
  
• GI News Briefs
  —Making the Switch, Making a Difference
  —Risk Assessment
  —Sense and Sensitivity
  
• GI Values Updates
  —White Bread Matters
  —Sweet Cactus Farms Premium Agave Nectar
  
• Low GI Food of the Month
  —Soy Milk: A Great Way to Include Soy Protein in Your Diet
  
• Low GI Recipe of the Month
  —Sourdough French Toast with Peaches
  
• Success Stories
  —Sanna’s Story: Giving Your Body the Fuel It Is Actually Meant to Run On
  —John’s Story: Managing Diabetes with GI
  
• GI Profile
  —Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller
  
• Books, DVDs, Websites: What’s New?
  —The 10-day GI Diet
  —The Low GI Guide to Your Heart and the Metabolic Syndrome
  
• Feedback—Your FAQs Answered
  —What effect good or bad, can a GI diet have on prostate cancer patients undergoing hormone treatment to limit testosterone?
  —I enjoy brown rice and always assumed it had a lower GI than any kind of white rice, but I see that Basmati’s is lower. Why’s that?
  —Does it matter if you eat carbs after 5pm? Will this affect your fat metabolism?
  —Dispelling Some Myths About Hypoglycemia
  
  

If you have posted a question in our newsletter, be assured that the GI Group will answer this as soon as possible. We welcome your views about our articles and other reader’s suggestions. Please POST your comments on the site.

We receive a great deal of feedback from readers and visitors to our website about how a low GI diet has made a real difference to their lives along with some inspiring weight loss and blood glucose control stories. Please share your success. Your experiences really can motivate others. If you feel you have a story that will inspire or help others and you are prepared to give permission for it to be published in GI News, please click HERE to send us your story.

If you want to print a copy of just one article (ie. the recipe from the newsletter), simply click on the recipe or article name in the right-hand column under PREVIOUS POSTS. You will arrive at the page you have chosen. Select PRINT and you will find that you can print just the information you want.

To receive our FREE e-newsletter each month, click the SUBSCRIBE link in the right-hand column. Your email address will be kept strictly confidential and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want to search the GI News Archive for a particular topic, food or recipe? Make the most of our search feature with Google. Simply enter the term in the space provided and press SEARCH.

GI News Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web Design and Management: Scott Dickinson

Food for Thought

People Power for People with Diabetes
In February GI News, Atarah Grysman made the point that: ‘Many people today are ready and willing to be active participants in their own health care. They want to learn more about their conditions and how to manage them, even if this entails more than a few simple rules, and requires a deeper understanding of how their body works.’

The findings of a study by Johanna Burani of Nutrition Works in New Jersey and Dr Palma Longo of the University of Massachusetts in The Diabetes Educator (Volume 32, Number 1, January/February 2006 ) confirm this point. In a small retrospective study to evaluate the incorporation of low-GI carbohydrates into daily meal planning as an effective behavioural lifestyle change for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the authors found that in most cases, patients were keen to succeed in their diabetes self-management care. And they were successful too. The participants in the study reduced HbA1c by an average of 19% and BMI by 8% simply by lowering the GI of their meals by 25% (15 points) over the period of the survey (3 to 36 months). Once presented with basic information about incorporating low-GI carbohydrates in meal planning, they made their own decisions and over time converted this dietary change into a way of life to improve their overall glycemia and preserve quality of life say the authors. They report that ‘learning to incorporate low-GI carbohydrates affords patients a practical skill that is within their grasp. It empowers them to “own” their diabetes and actively contribute to their control over it … The documented responses to the subjects’ conceptual and practical knowledge of the GI confirm their acceptance of this approach as a permanent behavioral lifestyle change and not a diet.’


Johanna Burani

GI News Briefs

Making the Switch, Making a Difference
Studies are showing that metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance syndrome is widespread among adults in developed nations, with estimates in Australia alone for example of one in two adults over 25 years having at least two features of what is seen to be a silent disease. People with metabolic syndrome are three times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared with people without the syndrome and they have a five-fold greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes (if it’s not already present). David E Laaksonen and his team from Finland report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that a simple dietary modification may lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in people with metabolic syndrome by enhancing early insulin secretion. They assigned 72 overweight or obese men and women with the metabolic syndrome to a 12-week diet in which either rye bread and pasta or oat and wheat bread and potato were the main carbohydrate sources (34% and 37% of energy intake, respectively). Body weight did not significantly change in either group during the trial. However, only the pasta-based carbohydrate modification enhanced early insulin secretion (by 33%) and was associated with improved glucose tolerance reducing the risk for the development of type 2 diabetes.
—American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 82(6):1218-278, 2005 Dec



Risk Assessment
Reduce blood glucose (sugar) levels and you’ll reduce the risk of coronary heart disease reported Elizabeth Selvin and her colleagues in Archives of Internal Medicine (September 2005; 165, pp1910-1916). ‘For non-diabetics, lifestyle modifications, such as increased physical activity, weight loss and eating a healthful, low-glycemic, index diet rich in fibre, fruit and vegetables, may not only help prevent diabetes, but also reduce the risk of heart disease.’ This study was based on what’s called the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC). Analysing the data from this long-term program has helped to give us a clearer understanding of heart disease risks. Set up in 1987 to measure the associations of established and suspected CHD risk factors in men and women, it tracked almost 16,000 people from North Carolina, Mississippi, Maryland and Minnesota. Participants had four medical examinations (1987-90, and 1990-93, 1993-96, and 1996-99), and were contacted every year to update their medical histories.

In Selvin’s study reported in December 2005 Diabetes Care, her team looked at the ARIC data for 2,060 people with diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes. The researchers identify several associations between HbA1c (a measure of long-term blood glucose) and known CVD risk factors and suggest that HbA1c is independently related to thickening of the carotid artery walls (a sign of heart and blood vessel disease). They conclude that: ‘chronically high blood glucose levels may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis in people with diabetes independent of other risk factors.’


photo: scott dickinson

Sense and Sensitivity
Writing in December 2005 Diabetes Care Liese et al report on the association of digestible carbohydrates, fibre intake, glycemic index and glycemic load with a number of factors including insulin sensitivity in 979 adults from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. The researchers analysed data from the study and estimated nutrient intake using a food frequency questionnaire and concluded that: ‘Carbohydrates as reflected in glycemic index and glycemic load may not be related to measures of insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, and adiposity. Fibre intake may not only have beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity and adiposity but also on pancreatic function.’
—Diabetes Care 28:2832-2838, 2005

GI Group: The food frequency questionnaire used in the study does not assess an individual’s carbohydrate intake very well. Comparison with another method of assessing an individual’s carbohydrate shows that the food frequency questionnaire has a very poor correlation ( just 0.37) for carbohydrates and thus it would be judicious to question the study’s conclusions.

Assessing a person’s food intake accurately is challenging. People tend to under-report some foods and overestimate others. There isn’t a perfect method. Food records, dietary recalls and list-type methods such as food frequency questionnaires are all subject to some error and bias. That’s why it’s important to assess the relative validity of estimates of nutrient intake statistically by comparison with independent methods to see how well they compare. The GI Group requires a correlation >0.5 for carbohydrate for these types of studies to be accepted and a recent paper published by the Harvard Group (Park et al. JAMA. 2005; 294:2849-57) corroborates this decision.

The average GI for the older Americans in the Liese et al study was 58, with a relatively small variation (standard deviation of 4). The relatively small variation would have meant it would be very difficult to find statistical differences between the groups with high and low insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion and adiposity. This may be because the food frequency questionnaire used does not measure carbohydrates well, or that their study population has a very similar diet from a GI perspective.

Interestingly, research in Australia shows a similar average GI for the older Australian population of around 56, and this appears to be pretty typical for those developed nations that have been studied. Although more research is needed, it appears that the average GI associated with the least risk of developing chronic lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, is around the low to mid-40s as stated in the Liese et al study . The GI Group has previously suggested that individuals need to decrease the average GI of their diet by around 15 units and this is consistent with Liese et al.