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Overweight people lost more weight on low GL (glycaemic load) diets than on high GL or other weight reduction diets and their cardiovascular risk marker profile improved according to a review in July 2007 carried out by the highly respected and independent Cochrane Collaboration.

About GL and the benefits

The Glycaemic Index (GI) is a test done in a laboratory with human volunteers involving blood tests to see how different foods affect our blood sugar level.

What is GL?

An equation based on the GI that also takes into account the amount of carbohydrates in each portion.

Why is GL better than GI?

It’s a more accurate indicator of fat storage as it takes into account portion sizes and carbohydrate content so that you can balance your blood sugar level more easily.

Why is balancing your blood sugar level important?

Eating a low GL diet helps keep your blood sugar level stable and is the key to weight loss, long term health and prevention / management of diabetes.

Choosing low GL foods that don’t produce more glucose (energy) than you need results in weight loss because excess glucose is stored as fat.

Proven health benefits of following a low GL diet:

• Helps you lose weight
• Increases body’s sensitivity to insulin
• Improves diabetes control
• Reduces risk of heart disease
• Reduces blood cholesterol levels
• Helps to manage the symptoms of PCOS (Poly cystic ovary syndrome)
• Reduces hunger and keeps you fuller for longer
• Prolongs physical endurance
• Helps re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise
• Helps prevent diabetes
• Improves diabetes control
• Helps prevent some forms of cancer
• Helps protect eye sight
• Improves acne

If you would like to read more in depth research about the health and weight loss benefits of eating a low GL diet see the Diet Freedom GL Research page. As a member you have access to a huge and constantly updated searchable database of health, advice and research.

With the help of Diet Freedom the online health and diet service, we have listed some of the many low GL foods that we have in stock. Diet Freedom combines EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to address comfort and emotional eating with a low GL diet for sustainable weight loss to great effect.

To gain a special 20% membership discount of Diet Freedom, just enter the code GDNL when you sign up. See some of their testimonials.

What the experts say

The GL was devised in 2001 by the highly respected Professor Walter Willett, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School as an improvement over GI. Harvard is renowned for nutritional research having carried out the longest running nutritional studies in the world.

Although the GI of a food is helpful information, it is only part of the story, because the effect of eating a food on blood glucose and insulin levels depends on both the amount of carbohydrate and the GI of that carbohydrate. For this reason the concept of the ‘Glycaemic Load’ or GL has been developed. This is the amount of carbohydrate in a food multiplied by the Glycaemic Index of that carbohydrate. The GL better reflects a food’s effect on your body’s biochemistry than either the amount of carbohydrate or the GI alone.

Professor Walter Willett, Harvard Medical School

The increasing prevalence of diabetes has huge social and financial implications for developed countries. With increasing incidence of conditions such as the metabolic syndrome, predisposing people to diabetes, the trend is even more worrying. I am convinced that making diet and lifestyle changes to reduce the risk or improve the treatment of diabetes is one of the most critical steps and individual can take. The GL diet combines the fundamental principles of a healthy balanced diet with practical advice to help improve glycaemic control and long-term health.

Sir Michael Hirst, Trustee & Former Chairman, Diabetes UK

Rather than being just a fad diet, GL represents a sustainable lifestyle choice, which is healthy and satisfying in the long term. The science is well founded, and has been talked about in academic circles for years, but now, as we are becoming expert nutritionists, we should all be more aware and conscious of GL as part of a healthy balanced lifestyle.

Dr David Haslam, Clinical director of the National Obesity Forum

Lesley Cutts © Dietfreedom.co.uk