YMCA Healthy Living Magazine, powered by n4 food and health Autumn 2019 | Page 5

LEXIE JIN
Lexie is an Accredited Practising Dietitian at Diabetes NSW
(www.diabetesnsw.com.au) and Diabetes ACT. She is passionate about
empowering people to make healthier food choices to best manage their health.
Easy Low GI swaps:
• Swap soft white bread, pikelets
and
crumpets
for
grainy,
wholemeal and/or seeded breads.
• Swap mashed potato and chips
for sweet potato or pumpkin.
• Swap medium grain white rice for
lower GI varieties like long grain,
basmati, wild rice, back/red rice,
or rice blended with chia or quinoa.
•
•
Swap cakes and biscuits for fresh
fruit, raisin bread and low fat
yoghurt.
Starches like rice or pasta that
have been cooked then cooled
develop ‘resistant starch’. This is
a type of fibre resistant to
digestion, that can lower the GI of
the food.
Are all low GI foods healthier?
While many low GI foods are the
healthier choice, this is not always the
case. Some low GI foods can still be
high in saturated fat and low in
nutrients, for example, chocolate and
ice-cream.
Understanding the glycaemic
load
How high your blood sugar rises after a
meal depends not only on the GI of
carbohydrates eaten; the quantity of
carbohydrate is also important.
SOME LOW GI FOODS CAN STILL BE
HIGH IN SATURATED FAT AND LOW
IN NUTRIENTS
For example, an apple has a GI of 38 and contains 13g of carbohydrates, giving it
a GL of 5.
A medium potato has a GI of 85 and contains 14g of carbohydrate, giving a GL of
12.
In reality, not many people are going to sit down and calculate these figures for
each meal they eat, but it’s a great concept to understand.
A simple and practical way to moderate the glycaemic load of each meal is to aim
for a quarter of the plate being carbohydrate (ideally incorporating low GI choices),
a quarter being protein rich foods (e.g. meat, fish, chicken, eggs, legumes), and
ensure plenty of colourful, non-starchy vegetables to make up the remaining half
of your plate.
Should you avoid high GI food completely?
Not necessarily. For an athlete or for someone who is very active, they can be
very useful. Consuming medium to high GI foods during prolonged exercise
sessions can help replenish the muscle glycogen stores as a continuous energy
supply. On top of this, some high GI foods, such as most potatoes and brown
rice, can still be an important source of fibre, vitamins and minerals.
The bottom line:
GI value can be a useful guide in choosing nutritious carbohydrate-rich foods and
managing blood glucose levels, but it should not be the sole consideration, as the
overall nutritional quality of a meal and its serving size, are just as important to
take into account.
The Glycaemic Load (or GL) concept
combines both the quantity and quality
of carbohydrates in a meal. To calculate
the GL of a particular food or meal the
formula is:
Carbohydrate (grams) x GI
rating ÷ 100.
GL can be classified as low,
medium or high:
Low: 10 or less
Medium: 11 to 19
High: 20 or more
AUTUMN 2019 YMCA HEALTHY LIVING MAGAZINE
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