GI Diet

The GI Diet is based on the glycemic index (GI), a device developed by Dr David Jenkins, a nutrition professor at the University of Toronto. The GI essentially ranks all foods by the amount of time it takes your body to convert the food into fuel (glucose). The faster the body generates glucose from the food, the higher the GI.

The faster your body converts food to energy, the sooner you’re likely to need a pick-me-up snack to get more energy. Many leading nutrition experts agree, peaks and troughs in blood sugar levels are one of the key reasons people fail when dieting. Using the glycemic index diet, people are encouraged to consume foods with a lower GI number, which take longer to break down and convert to fuel for the body – this provides a sustained level of energy, and leads to less impulse or binge eating.

To succeed at the GI Diet, one only needs to consume foods with a lower GI number – the GI Diet book by Rick Gallop categorises foods into a traffic light-style system where red foods should be avoided, yellow foods should be consumed only occasionally and green foods are to be eaten liberally.

Additionally, the GI diet is convenient. As it doesn’t restrict food types or groups, the GI diet is suitable for all the family. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding can also follow the GI diet without worrying about missing vital nutrients. This means dieters don’t have to make one meal for the rest of the family and one meal for themselves. Because the GI diet doesn’t require you to count calories, fat or carbohydrate grams, or “points”, it is easy to follow both at home and when dining out.

Diets based on the glycemic index are celebrated as easy to follow, realistic and beneficial to dieters seeking a long-term solution to managing their weight and gaining a healthier lifestyle. The GI Diet offers a unique approach, enabling participants to change their eating habits for a lifetime. What’s more, dieters who suffer from hypertension, high cholesterol or type-two diabetes stand a reasonable chance of improving their overall health, and in some cases people are able to reduce their dependency on medication. As the GI diet is fairly flexible, even those with allergies to wheat, gluten or dairy intolerances are able to reap the rewards of following the programme.

Leading supermarket chains are beginning to list the GI rating of their own-brand foods and ready meals on packaging so that customers following the GI diet can quickly and easily determine whether a food or meal is acceptable for their eating plan. Tesco in particular offers an exceptionally wide range of ready meals and own-brand foods which are specifically targeted at GI dieters.