Although the Glycemic Index (GI) classification of carbohydrates, together with low fat eating is the best way to eat to ensure a feeling of well-being at all times, this Website would be incomplete if we fail to point out the importance of general good nutrition. The most important aspect in this regard is to ensure that you eat breakfast every morning. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and "sets the stage" in a manner of speaking, for the rest of the day. All GI tests are done in the morning e.g., since a good breakfast can overshadow the true effects of a particular food on blood glucose, since it has a stabilising effect on the blood glucose. In the same way a "bad" breakfast can cause a person to feel shaky and irritable all day long. Eating low GI foods later in the day, after skipping breakfast, is not going to solve all your problems with fatigue. It is better to prevent fatigue than to try and cure it, once present.

Breakfast:

We would therefore like to recommend eating a hearty low fat low GI breakfast, consisting mainly of low GI cereal, porridge and/or bread, depending on your energy requirements. The bulk of your meal (50-60% of energy) should come from low GI carbohydrates. Add to this a little low fat protein/dairy (10-20% of the meal) in the form of low fat milk and/or yoghurt, low fat cheese, legumes and occasionally an egg (not more than 3-4 per week) of low fat fish, chicken or meat. Ensure that your breakfast is low in fat by choosing low fat/fat free products at all times and using only small amounts of added fat in the form of raw, unsalted nuts (all except brazil nuts, which are too high in saturated fats), mono or poly unsaturated margarine, peanut butter, avocado or olive/Canola oil. You can end off your breakfast with low GI fruit or keep the latter for an inbetween snack. Fruit is the perfect snack and should be the preferred choice for slimmers and all who wish to keep their weight in check. Persons who don’t have a weight problem can eat any low fat GI food inbetween, especially if they are not active during the day. (See section on Breakfast Selection for low GI breakfast ideas).

The only exception to the low GI rule, is when you partook in sport before breakfast or the previous evening. If non-Diabetics regularly partake in sport before breakfast, they still need to eat a high carbohydrate breakfast (50-60% of energy), although these should be mainly high GI (see GI list at end of Introduction). The latter should be consumed within the first 30-60 minutes after completion of exercise, since the uptake of glucose by the muscles is the most during this time. Diabetics who train before breakfast should rather take their breakfast carbohydrates from the Intermediate GI group (see list at end of Introduction), unless they were active for 2-3 hours, in which case they can also go for high GI foods. Non-Diabetics who trained the previous evening might get a good blood glucose response on Intermediate GI carbohydrates for breakfast, but Diabetics should rather stick to low GI carbohydrates the morning after.

Lunch:

Many people do not eat lunch, causing them to be ravenous by suppertime and consequently overeating. We therefore want to emphasize the importance of eating a low fat low GI lunch, consisting mainly of low GI carbohydrates eg. Seedloaf bread, Pumpernickel bread, provitas or any of the low GI starches (see GI list at end of Introduction), as well as salad. Add to this a little protein eg.  lean meat, fish, chicken, low fat cheese/milk/yoghurt or legumes. Keep your lunch low in fat by always chosing low fat products, taking the fat and skins off the meat/chicken before cooking, using fish canned in brine and using only small portions of peanut butter, avocado, Lite margarine, low fat mayonnaise, and olive/Canola oil. End off your meal with low GI fruit or keep it for a snack later on as explained above. (See section on Light meals and Snacks, salads and soups for ideas for light lunches.) Like explained above, the only exception to the low GI rule, is if you have been active during the course of the morning, or if you did strenuous exercise lasting at least 1 hour or more early in the morning. In these cases you will probably need either Intermediate GI carbohydrates for lunch eg. Rye bread, ryvita or others (see GI list) if you are a Diabetic or High GI carbohydrates eg. brown/regular wholewheat bread or similar (see GI list) if you are non-Diabetic. You could also make the GI of your lunch Intermediate by eating eg. brown bread for your starch and eating baked beans or other legumes, low fat milk or low fat yoghurt with the bread. Combining the high GI bread with one or more of the low GI products will bring the GI of your meal down to an Intermediate average.

Supper:

Eating Breakfast and lunch, as well as a snack inbetween meals, will cause you to have sustained energy throughout the day and prevent you from feeling ravenous by suppertime. Many ladies are overweight from nibbling constantly while cooking and many men from raiding the fridge the minute they get home. Eating predominantly low fat low GI food (it need not be a lot) every three hours causes glucose to be released slowly and steadily into the bloodstream without causing a major secretion of insulin. (The only exception to the rule again is activity, in which case higher GI food is needed. Activity actually causes higher GI foods, if taken after the exercise, to have the same effect on blood glucose as low GI food has in sedentary people.) The latter hormone is a fat storer, so if you can keep your insulin levels even and low, you can actually lose weight more easily, in spite of eating 6-7 times per day. It can also protect you from developing lifestyle diseases eg. overweight, diabetes, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and high blood pressure, since all these are caused and maintained by high levels of insulin in the blood (hyperinsulinemia). The bulk of your supper should once again be low GI carbohydrates, in the form of starch and vegetables. Approximately ¾ of your plate should be filled with low GI starch and vegetables (see GI list) and only ¼ with protein coming from lean meat, fish or chicken or beans, peas, lentils or textured vegetable protein. Vegetarians can use low fat milk, yoghurt, cheese or nuts as protein, but should remember that especially the latter is 50% fat and the intake thereof should therefore be limited. (See sections on Main meals, Vegetarian main meals and Pasta and Sauce for ideas.)

The only people who should be eating large potatoes, mash, rice, samp, mealierice, pasta made from flour and other high GI starches for supper, are those who were active during the course of the afternoon (non-diabetics) and those who were active for 2-3 hours in the case of diabetics. If non-diabetics who were not active during the day eat high GI carbohydrates for supper, they could get a reactive low blood glucose a few hours later or during the night. If diabetics eat high GI starches for supper, they will invariably find that their blood glucose will rise above 10 mmol/l about 1 hour after supper and that their fasting blood glucose is high the next morning i.e. over 7 mmol/l, both of which is undesirable. Eating protein with higher GI carbohydrates will lower the effect of the carbohydrates on the blood glucose, but not as effectively as when higher GI carbohydrates are eaten together with protein which contain carbohydrates and have an overall low GI eg. low fat milk, yoghurt and legumes. This is due to the fact that the body takes the GI of the meal to be the average of the total amount of carbohydrate that is eaten at a particular meal eg.

If therefore you want to eat higher GI carbohydrates and have not been active/active enough, rather have low fat milk, yoghurt or legumes with your meal instead of meat, fish or chicken.

Fibre:

Once again this section will not be complete if we don’t say something about fibre. Most South Africans do not come close to the 30-40g fibre that is the recommended amount that should be consumed per day. Consequently people develop high cholesterol and high blood pressure (due to consuming too little soluble fibre in addition to eating too much saturated fat, cholesterol and salt in the case of the latter), diabetes (since a lot of the high fibre foods-though not all of them- are also low GI ), spastic colon (due to eating too much refined foods and too little high fibre foods) and cancer, especially colon and breast cancer.

Fibre is the name that is given to a group of plant substances that is present in the cell walls of plants and which give plants its structure and form. Plant products i.e. starches, fruit and vegetables are the only foods that contain fibre. Please note that, although we need a certain amount of dairy every day, in order to get in the necessary calcium, as well as protein, to build our tissues, these foods eg. milk, yoghurt, cheese, meat, fish and chicken contain no fibre. Legumes and nuts are the only food sources of protein that also contain fibre. Fibre moves just about untouched through the alimentary canal until it reaches the colon. There are two types of fibre i.e. water soluble fibre which appears in oats, oatbran, barley, legumes, pasta, mealies and certain fruits and vegetables and fibre that is not water soluble and which appears in digestive bran, brown and wholewheat bread, wheat, brown rice, etc.

It was found that high cholesterol and high blood pressure do not only come from eating a diet high in saturated fat, cholesterol and salt (in the case of high blood pressure), but that a low fibre diet also contributes greatly to these problems. Foods high in soluble fibres, which are listed above, protects specifically against these western diseases, since they bind cholesterol in the alimentary canal, preventing and combating high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Although not all high fibre foods have a low blood glucose raising ability, foods that contain soluble fibres mostly have a low GI and can, if eaten regularly in stead of other high fat high GI foods, protect you from getting type 2 Diabetes, since these foods do not over stimulate insulin secretion. A constant over stimulation of insulin secretion by eating high fat high GI low fibre foods all the time, may lead to the depletion of the beta cells of the pancreas, which is responsible for producing insulin. Constipation and colon cancer can be prevented by a high fibre diet, since fibre shortens the transit time of food through the alimentary canal, which leads to the formation of a bulkier, soft stool and harmful carcinogens not staying in contact with the mucus membranes of the colon for too long. (Carcinogens are substances which can lead to the development of cancer.) Fibre, especially soluble fibre, also absorbs fluids, which make waste products softer and thicker so that it can be excreted without difficulty. It is also thought that fibre absorbs and excretes certain harmful substances even before they are absorbed by the body. A low fat high fibre diet decreases high oestrogen levels , due to the fact that fibre binds oestrogen, one of the female hormones that can lead to the development of breast cancer, if present in too large amounts. Although all types of fibre have play a protective role, wheat fibre is apparently very effective in decreasing the amount of oestrogen in the body, as well as legumes. According to the results of a study that was done in Australia by dr. Baghurst, the intake of 30-40g fibre per day can reduce the chances of contracting breast cancer by as much as 50%. The regular consumption of cabbage can also reduce the the risk of getting breast cancer, since the indoles therein binds excessive oestrogen in women. Do not forget to eat citrus fruit (also a source of fibre) regularly, since the oils therein combat cancer that comes from eating too much smoked and charcoal grilled meat, fish or chicken. Care should be taken to consume dark green and/or dark yellow fruit and vegetables daily, since they contain beta carotene, one of the anti-oxidants, which neutralise free radicals, highly unstable oxygen molecules which damage our body tissues and lead to the development of cancer. These products are also high in fibre.

So although we include low fibre foods in the GI list, so that you can know which foods are Low, Intermediate and High GI, we want to encourage you to always rather choose a higher fibre product that is also low fat and low GI, instead of its refined counterpart.