GI Diet

The GI Diet is something I expect I shall talk about quite a lot on Fwitter. As a health and fitness professional, the GI Diet is something I am happy to say to fully advocate! I especially support the GI Diet as it's ideas are easily sustainable to maintain for the rest of your life and it promotes balance including all the food groups. I could probably spend all night talking about it, but I'll hold back for now and give more of a general overview of it for the first Fwitter chat topic!

There are so many different fad diets out there which trend faster than the latest Charlie Sheen quote, but fade even faster! This is because they are unrealistic to maintain, thus give fast results (hence they become the latest craze over night) but as the methods for the fast results are totally unsustainable, they're dropped fast and the results reverse. Examples I am referring to would have to include, the 'cookie diet', shakes diets, the 'baby food diet' and the list could go on and on.
The human body is perfectly designed to maintain a healthy state and weight- if we feed it right! It's what its designed to do and, providing you do this, it comes easy! And yet there seems to be a very definite unrealistic notion between people these days that optimal health/weight is insanely hard to reach and its put on a pedestal as something that's going to take some crazy method to attain. It's not.

One thing that almost all diets that have trended at some point or another throughout time have included (or rather not included!) is the avoidance of one or more types of food group. The key to a healthy diet is balance and avoiding any of the food groups certainly does not adhere to this. Avoiding a food group adds to a diet being less sustainable, convenient, enjoyable and, most importantly, healthy! Each of the food groups serves a purpose within your diet and often in many ways the food groups intertwine with each other in how they work around your  body and when, so missing one food group can change the affect that other food groups have on your health.
An example- no carb diets; no/low carb diets were particularly popular in the 90s and were heavily mentioned in the media at the time. A very popular example would be The Atkins Diet. The human body is designed and adapted to use carbohydrates as its primary source of energy. The carbs in diets such as Atkins were usually replaced with higher levels of protein and so the body's then forced to use this as it primary fuel source. When the body is forced to change to metabolise mainly proteins, the body goes into whats known as a state of ketosis. This is when Ketone bodies are released and blood PH levels rise making the body more acidic. As the body works in a fragile balance for optimal function, this increase PH decreases the body's equilibrium and the body reacts to try and return the PH to neutral. In doing this the body attacks alkaline sources to reduce the PH by leaching calcium from the bones. Therefore, long term use of low carb/high protein diets can lead to calcium deficiency related conditions such as osteoporosis which many people do not consider when they take on these diets wanting to lose fat fast.

So, we know now that we should include all the food groups for a balanced diet. But in what quantities? ...
Carbohydrates: 50-55%
Protein: 10-15%
Fat: 30-35%
These are approximate gov guidelines for the 'average' individual, carb content etc may vary for different activity levels in atheletes for example.


As mentioned, the GI Diet does not exclude any food types. 
The main concept behind the GI Diet is instead controlling blood sugar levels and trying to keep them constant throughout the day. This involves eating filling foods in regular patterns throughout the day.
What is GI? GI stands for Glycaemic Index and refers the blood glucose response foods give, ranked from high to low. Low GI foods give a slow, steady release of energy and keep us fuller for longer. High GI foods give a very steep, fast energy response which falls very quickly, sending blood sugar and energy levels sky high then causing a 'crash' where they drop suddenly very low making us very hungry and crave more high energy food to get the buzz again fast.
The GI Diet works on the basis of eating low GI foods throughout the day to reduce hunger levels, to help control quantity intake and reduce very high sugar cravings (often leading us to choose unhealthy foods which give a fast energy kick) allowing us instead to have this time to think rationally and choose our meals much more wisely.
The very appealing aspect to this diet is that you don't have to cut anything from your diet! But you will eat less as you are fuller for longer and can concentrate on eating a healthy balanced diet, free of naughty cravings!

Examples of LOW GI foods (good!)
apples,
low fat yogurt,
peanuts,
cherries,
oats,
basmati rice,
eggs,
lentils,
more!
Examples of HIGH GI foods (bad!)
baguettes,
white bread,
chips,
rice cakes,
cornflakes,

The GI Diet can still be very appealing and tasty and not feel like diet food at all! Stay tuned in for more raving on the GI Diet and some seriously yummy low GI recipes!