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Entries tagged as ‘GL diet’

The GL Diet Cookbook Review, Over 100 tasty recipes for easy weight loss

18 March, 2009 · Leave a Comment

GL or Glycaemic Loading, is the dieting sensation taking the nation by storm. Nigel Denby, the UK’s number 1 authority on GL and author of the bestselling The 7 Day GL Diet, brings you the GL cookbook with over 100 simple and delicious recipes. Every taste is catered for – fish lovers, meat connoisseurs, vegetarian, sweet. Love your food AND lose weight!GL is the diet for people who want permanent results fast without going hungry. GL, or Glycaemic load, gets better results than GI (Glycaemic Index) becasue it helps you manage the quality and the quanity of the food you eat. For example, on a GI diet chocolate is off the menu because a single bar of chocolate and a truckload of chocolate have the same bad rating It’s a different story on GL: you can still enjoy your chocolate fix because GL recognizes that a small amount will not damage your waistline.

In the GL Diet Cookbook Nigel shows you how easy it is to cook healthy and delicious meals in minutes. It’s full of handy tips to keep you on track, and is packed with tasty recipes that are categorised into Fast and Friendly , Veggie Friendly, and Foodie Friendly sections, making it easy to choose the meals to suit your lifestyle.

Recipes include: Crunch Nectarine Granola, Spinach and Cheese Souffle, Chicken, Avocado and Rocket Wrap, Grilled Pears with Blue Cheese and Watercress, Grilled Vegetable and Halloumi pasta, Garlic, Lemon and Cumin Pork Chops, Sweet Potato and Haddock Fishcakes, Roast Chicken Dolcelatte, Spicy Vegetable Dhal, Blackcurrant Brulee, and ..wait for it.. Chocolate and Almond Torte!!

Put the taste back in to losing weight with the GL Diet Cookbook – with all the mouth watering recipes to try, you really won’t feel like you’re on a diet!

About the authors: Nigel Denby is a top dietician with a successful practice on Harley Street whilst also working for the NHS. He has a weekly column in The Sunday Telegraph and writes regulary for other newspapaers and magazines, as well as appearing on Channel 4’s Fit Farm, BBC and INT News and BBC Real Story. Tina Michelucci and Deborah Pyner run the hugely successful online dieting company, dietfreedom.co.uk. All three authors are ex-serial dieters.

Harper Collins

Categories: Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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Lose weight naturally and keep it off with a low GL diet

11 March, 2009 · 2 Comments

Diet Freedom is an organisation founded by two ex serial dieters Tina and Deborah along with registered dietician Nigel Denby, who you may have seen as the nutritional expert on Channel Four’s The Fit Farm series or BBC’s Real Story. Nigel works within NHS hospitals treating patients and also has a private Harley Street clinic, where he uses a low GL (Glycaemic Load) diet to great effect for weight loss, hormonal problems, PCOS, and menopause.

Nigel Denby, health writer and dietitian

Nigel is also a spokesperson for The British Dietetic Association and health writer for The Sunday Telegraph plus many other diet and health magazines. Nigel was very over weight himself which prompted him to train for 5 years as a dietician, he got down to his target weight and stayed there, and has since made it his life’s work to help others with weight issues with great empathy, having got the badge and the tee-shirt himself!

Glycaemic Load versus Glyaemic Index

A low GL diet is the more sophisticated version of the GI (Glycaemic Index) diet. It is based on the GI of foods but goes one step further by taking into account the glycaemic effect of an average portion of food. GI falls down on this as it is a scientific term that can’t be related to an average portion of food which makes it inaccurate and restrictive. The GL reference was devised by Professors at Harvard University (the world’s foremost nutritional research establishment), as they recognised that using the GI alone is only giving half the picture.

By using the GL reference it means that you can eat many more foods previously banned on GI diets, such as watermelon, carrots, parsnips, swede, pumpkin, broad beans and many more as an average portion of these foods has little effect on your blood sugar level.

Read more about GL for weight loss

The Diet Freedom team have written two books to date; The GL Diet published Jan 05; a bestseller and The 7 Day GL Diet newly released in December and published by Harper Collins.

The great thing about the Diet Freedom organisation is that they are totally focused on recommending a low GL diet using healthy natural foods and ingredients.

Win a consultation with Nigel Denby

We have also teamed up with the Diet Freedom team to offer you a chance to win a ‘One to one’ consultation with Nigel Denby Registered Dietician BSc Hons; at his Harley Street clinic (phone consultation can be arranged as an alternative). Please click here to enter.

The Benefits of the low GL Diet

The latest scientific research from around the World shows that following a low GL diet can have the following benefits:

  • Helps you to lose weight
  • Is more effective than a low calorie or low fat diet
  • Improves the body’s sensitivity to insulin
  • Improves diabetes control
  • Keeps you fuller for longer
  • Helps prevent heart disease and some cancers
  • Helps prevent neural tube defects in unborn children

‘Say goodbye GI and hello GL – the new, improved diet for savvy slimmers’ THE TIMES, May 2005

‘Simpler than GI and makes better sense’ EVENING STANDARD, January 2005

Find out more about DietFreedom

You can find out more about Diet Freedom, their online membership service and support forums from their website dietfreedom.co.uk or to buy , their latest book, The GL Diet for Easy Weight Loss, which was featured in The Times on 3rd Dec 2005.

Categories: Diet · Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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Glycaemic Index and Glycaemic Load –a ladybird explanation

11 March, 2009 · 2 Comments

What is GI and how is it worked out?

To find out the GI (Glyceamic Index) of a food scientists feed volunteers enough of one specific food to give 50g of carbs. For example, if testing bread this would equal two large slices, if testing watermelon, a whole watermelon, or if testing carrots 700 g. They then take blood samples afterwards to see how much each food raises the level of sugar in the blood. GI or Glycaemic Index is the result and is numbered 1 – 100 (low GI equals 55 or less, medium GI 56 – 69 and high GI 70 plus)

So the GI is a good way, in the science laboratory, to compare the effects of different carbs (i.e. bread carb – v – watermelon carb) but, where it falls down is that it doesn’t tell us how much the level of sugar in our blood will rise after we eat a ‘normal’ portion of the food in question. Two large slices of bread are feasible as a portion but how often have you eaten a whole watermelon or 700g of carrots at one sitting?! Unless you’re a donkey of course!

Enter GL!

GL or Glycaemic Load is a simple calculation based on the GI test result, but importantly, it also takes into account the amount of carbs contained in an average food portion. This gives us a relevant reference that can be directly related to the actual amount of food we eat, which is crucial. For example the GI of watermelon is 72, (a whole one would have been used in tests) so it is classed as a high GI food (anything with a GI over 70 is high) BUT the GL of a ‘portion’ of watermelon, i.e. a large slice (120g) contains very few carbs and so when you calculate the GL it has a very low score of 4, (a GL score of 10 or less is low).

This means that a normal ‘portion’ of watermelon will have little or no effect on the level of sugar in your blood – so you should eat and enjoy and not avoid as it is ‘high GI’.

Professors from Harvard University (the most prestigious and longest established nutritional research establishment in the world) came up with the GL calculation as they felt that using GI alone as a food reference doesn’t give a true picture, and we couldn’t agree more!

Most authors of GI books are now starting to talk about GL, although The GL Diet and The 7 Day GL Diet were the first to be published.

So you can forget GI

The only reference you need to think about is GL Low GL = 10 or less Medium GL = 11 – 19 High GL = 20 plus Most people have a high GL or Glycaemic Load of over 120 per day from what they eat. Aim for a lower GL of around 80 per day as a good target. A comprehensive food list with GL scores can be found in dietician, Nigel Denby’s latest book The 7 Day GL Diet or on the diet freedom website.

Diet Freedom © DietFreedom 2005

Categories: Diet · Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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GI and GL made easy

11 March, 2009 · Leave a Comment

GI and GL made easy

To find out the GI (Glyceamic Index) of a food scientists feed volunteers enough of one specific food to give 50g of carbs. For example, if testing bread this would equal two large slices, if testing watermelon, a whole watermelon, or if testing carrots 700 g. They then take blood samples afterwards to see how much each food raises the level of sugar in the blood. GI or Glycaemic Index is the result and is numbered 1 – 100 (low GI equals 55 or less, medium GI 56 – 69 and high GI 70 plus)

So the GI is a good way, in the science laboratory, to compare the effects of different carbs (i.e. bread carb – v – watermelon carb) but, where it falls down is that it doesn’t tell us how much the level of sugar in our blood will rise after we eat a ‘normal’ portion of the food in quetion.  Two large slices of bread are feasible as a portion but how often have you eaten a whole watermelon or 700g of carrots at one sitting? Unless you’re a donkey of course.

Enter GL

GL or Glycaemic Load is a simple calculation based on the GI test result, but importantly, it also takes into account the amount of carbs contained in an average food portion.   This gives us a relevant reference that can be directly related to the actual amount of food we eat, which is crucial.   For example the GI of watermelon is 72, (a whole one would have been used in tests) so it is classed as a high GI food (anything with a GI over 70 is high) BUT the GL of a ‘portion’ of watermelon, i.e. a large slice (120g) contains very few carbs and so when you calculate the GL it has a very low score of 4, (a GL score of 10 or less is low).

This means that a normal ‘portion’ of watermelon will have little or no effect on the level of sugar in your blood – so you should eat and enjoy and not avoid as it is ‘high GI’.

Professors from Harvard University (the most prestigious and longest established nutritional research establishment in the world) came up with the GL calculation as they felt that using GI alone as a food reference doesn’t give a true picture, and we couldn’t agree more!

Most authors of GI books are now starting to talk about GL, although The GL Diet and The 7 Day GL Diet were the first to be published.

So you can forget GI

The only reference you need to think about is GL   Low GL = 10 or less Medium GL = 11 – 19 High GL = 20 plus Most people have a high GL or Glycaemic Load of over 120 per day from what they eat.  Aim for a lower GL of around 80 per day as a good target. A comprehensive food list with GL scores can be found in dietician, Nigel Denby’s latest book The 7 Day GL Diet or on the diet freedom website

Tina Michelucci of DietFreedom © DietFreedom 2005

Categories: Diet · Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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Glycaemic Load (GL) is more effective than low fat / low calorie

4 November, 2008 · Leave a Comment

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

Categories: Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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X is for Xylitol not Xylophone

3 October, 2007 · 1 Comment

Xylitol – the new sweetener on the block

I’d like to tell you about two of my favourite products at the moment – Xylitol and Agave Syrup.

Xylitol is a substitute for sugar called a polyol that occurs naturally in many fruits and vegetables. The branded ready to buy product is called Xylobrit and is extracted from birch trees – never has tree extract tasted so good! Xylobrit looks and tastes just like sugar, with no aftertaste, and can be used just like ordinary sugar in hot and cold drinks, in baking and on cereals. So what are the benefits?

Xylitol has a very low Glycaemic Index of 8 and so is great for those of us on a low GL diet.
It has only 2.4kcal/g as opposed to 4kcal/g in ordinary sugar.
Xylitol does not need insulin to be metabolised, so is better for diabetics as it does not cause fluctuations in blood sugar.
Xylitol actually promotes healthy teeth and gums, and is used extensively in sugar-free chewing gum and oral-hygiene products because of its unique dental-care properties which have been clinically proven.
Xylitol also has a prebiotic effect, promoting the growth of friendly bacteria.
Fantastic, the only downside is that excessive use may induce laxative effects… oops. For this, and general health reasons you still need to keep consumption of sweet foods down.

Agave, another sweet wonder
Agave syrup or nectar is naturally extracted from the inner core of the Agave cactus plant, and it is about 90% fructose. It has a low glycaemic load of 1.6 and is a delicious alternative to sugar (GL 92), tasting a little like mild honey or maple syrup. As a syrup, it is fructose in its natural form and so doesn’t contain any processing chemicals, and is sweeter than table sugar so you don’t need very much. Like Xylobrit, Agave is great for diabetics or those who have insulin resistance, or those who are just watching their carbohydrate intake.

Although Agave syrup has a low GI value, if you are following a GL regime you need to be aware of one of the strange concepts. If fructose is consumed after eating a large meal that raises the blood sugar, or with high GI foods, it takes on the value of the higher glycaemic food, so it’s a good idea to eat fructose based dishes on an empty stomach, in between meals, or with other low GL foods.

In recipes use 25% less Agave than sugar. For example use 3/4 cup Agave syrup where it says a cup of sugar. You will also need to reduce your liquid in the recipe by as much as 1/3. Reduce you oven temperature by around 25 degrees.

Categories: Diet · Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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GI Diet

27 May, 2005 · 2 Comments

I received an e-newsletter yesterday which advocated “Fat is beautiful” and proceeded to extol the virtues of a little rolly polly to aid with some aspects of health. How’s that for flying in the face of what around 40% of women strive to attain?

It seems from where I sit in my office in the sky, that those of us who don’t need to loose much weight go diet crazy, whereas the more obese among us keep troughing the pastries, crisps and cream doughnuts and need a little more help with this. I suppose its keeping our eyes on health and wellness and ruling out obsession? None of us can argue with the heart disease mortality figures.

With all the interest around in weight loss and nutrition I have naturally been embroiled in several diet schemes which have hit the media – the Hamptons Diet, Southbeach, Gillian McKeith and Adios to name a few of the more recent ones which have passed my desk and been available from GoodnessDirect. But I must say I am rather taken by the GI (Glycemic Index) approach. This diet is based on the rate at which the food we consume converts and is taken into our blood stream as sugars. Glucose absorption (if that’s the right word) is taken as 100 and is used as the control and all other foods are given a number to rate it against this. The lower the number the better. Glucose being taken into our blood so quickly causes a sugar rush. Outwardly we may feel great for a short time, energy zoom, but this is short lived as inwardly our bodies release insulin to counteract this mass influx of sugars and try to calm it down (sorry for the lack for scientific lingo).
It succeeds and the result is that we feel flat and sluggish, maybe even depressed and need our next “fix”. More sugary foods – yum.

Foods with low GI rating on the other hand release the sugars into our blood streams more slowly – we don’t feel hungry so quickly – get it? It does make sense doesn’t it and there is more good news ‘cos the range of foods is massive, and there are more do’s than don’ts. There is plenty of information about GI and ratings and I am in the process of gleaning what I can to put on the GD website. I’m using the books written on the subject, plus the www.GlycemicIndex.com which gives loads of info and research done by Sydney University in Australia. They seem to be the leaders in the field at the moment with some quality info here. The testing done in the UK at Leatherhead to give foods their GI rating even uses the Sydney Uni methodology.

I’m in the process of creating a list of indicators for the products on the GoodnessDirect website, but if anyone out there has any authorative info on GI – I’m yer gal. All info appreciated, especially if you’re trying the diet.

Categories: Low GL (Glycaemic Load)
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