Thursday, February 1, 2007

‘What a relief to finally understand why a little butter and sugar actually won’t kill you.’ – Jane
‘For reasons unknown, my metabolism seemed to change and I put on an extra 15 kilos over 12 months when I turned 35 – without changing my eating habits. I trudged off to the nutritionist - had my hormones, thyroid, blood sugar, everything tested, but nothing was obviously amiss. So it was decided that I was an over-eater (which I knew was not the case-more like an occasional binge-potato-chip-eater - sound familiar?) and put on a strict calorie counted, portion weighed and measured diet. Apart from regularly almost fainting from the constant and gnawing hunger on this diet, I only lost 4 kilos in 6 months. The nutritionist got angry and said that I must be eating on the side and lying about my calorie intake, so needless to say I didn’t visit that person again!

Then while surfing the web, I discovered the whole low GI thing. I suffer from a number of food allergies as well and had always joked with friends that I was allergic to the 20th century! Now that I have started the GI way of eating, I discover that this is pretty true. Much ‘modern’ food, (read ‘processed’ food) has a high GI. So after studying the GI, and cutting out most processed food, anything that even slightly resembles potatoes and a number of other high GI foodstuffs, I have lost 7 kilos in 30 days with no effort at all. I eat whenever I’m hungry with naturally much smaller amounts because real food is so much more filling. I always had the feeling that my weight gains and fluctuations were linked to what I ate, not the quantity, and the low GI way of eating has helped me understand just how that works within me. I was a potato-high-carb junkie.

I am just back from a two-week exotic holiday where I paid 50 per cent attention to what I ate (still avoiding those spuds!) and I didn’t put on a single ounce, while still enjoying all the local delicacies. Now into my second month, I have just got the exercise bike up and will help myself even more by getting out of my modern sedentary style of life with time on the pedals every day.

My personal understanding is that basically, the low GI diet brings us back to a culinary point in our evolution that our bodies can still cope with. And what a relief to finally understand why a little butter and sugar actually won’t kill you ... it’s more likely the white bread and cookies that will be your real downfall! But no longer mine!’

[WEIGHTLOSS]

‘I am in my mid-seventies, and feel renewed.’ – Karl
‘As a physician I closely followed my blood chemistries and weight. At retirement my BMI was 26.5, body fat 25%, total cholesterol = 170, LDL/HDL = 2.5:1, triglycerides = 160, and HgbA1C = 6.3 - 6.6. After having a single stent placed in the LAD coronary artery, I became motivated to take control of those factors within my control. I discovered your website and obtained the recommended books and literature. After 18 months of maintaining a diet with a GI below 55, a GL at or below 80, limiting saturated fats, and consistently exercising with an output of 500 Kcal in each of two sessions a day, I have achieved an amazing improvement in wellbeing and energy. And I have the following bonus chemically. Body fat 17–18 per cent with lean weight gain of several pounds and a total weight loss of 25 pounds; HgbA1C = 5.6, total cholesterol = 115, LDL/HDL = 1:1, triglycerides = 60, and BMI = 24-25 (lean weight gain skews the BMI, and ageing reduced my height by 1.5 inches). Chemistries are important, but the most impressive is the activity level and sense of wellbeing. I am in my mid-seventies, and feel renewed. Thank you.’