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Celebrity follower
Kylie Minogue, Kelly Preston and Anthony Worrell Thompson
The plan
The Glucose Revolution diet says that, foods with a low glycaemic index (GI), such as apples, basmati rice, buckwheat and pasta should be eaten, instead of those with a high glycaemic index, like glutinous rice, potatoes, bananas and tropical fruits.
The plan recommends carbohydrate foods which are low GI, because sugars are absorbed more slowly into the body, keeping blood sugar levels steady throughout the day.
This slower digestive process helps stave off hunger pangs and reduce insulin `spikes?, which promotes weight loss. Insulin controls our blood sugar levels and encourages fat storage. The diet also helps people who are 'insulin resistant' where the body does not react to insulin, causing more insulin to be produced.
Pros
- This diet is fairly easy to follow with simple meal plans with suggestions for substituting high GI foods with low GI ones.
- Lower GI foods will often be those with higher fibre contents making it good for a healthy digestive tract.
- It is low in fat and high in carbohydrates, which has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and promote better control of blood sugar.
Cons
- You can't assume that the same types of foods have a similar GI rating, e.g. not all breads, cereals or fruits have a low GI. Much of this is down to types of food (so new potatoes are medium GI while old baked potatoes and chips are high GI), or to processing (so whole porridge oats are low GI while finely milled oats are high GI).
- Some people may not be able to tolerate large amounts of carbohydrate foods, without feeling bloated and sluggish.
Duration
Indefinitely.
Checklist
Restaurants: You’ll need the book to check which foods have low GI scores. In general, go for pumpernickel or mixed grain bread, basmati rice and legumes (such as lentils, beans), mushrooms or sweetcorn.
Alcohol: Limited.
Caffeine: OK.
Need to buy special foods: No.
OK for vegetarians: Yes.
What the pros say:
This approach has a lot of very good science behind it. The person who first brought this diet to the attention of the public is a well respected scientist. However the temptation for a lay person is to be rigid about definitions and not take other dietary aspects into account. Because watermelon is high GI it does not make it a 'bad' food (it is high in antioxidants) and because ice-cream is low GI it does not make it a 'good' food (it is high in fat) ? so common sense needs to be applied. This is probably the best long-term approach to dieting for many people and should help those who are borderline pre-diabetics.
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