Eating for Sustained Energy 4: Low GI, Low Fat

By Gabi Steenkamp and Liesbet Delport

Are you tired and lacking energy? Struggling to improve your performance on the sports field, or in need of something that will help your child concentrate better? Then Eating for Sustained Energy 4, the latest in the bestselling Eating for Sustained Energy series of recipe books, is for you. Gabi Steenkamp and Liesbet Delport wrote it in response to their patients' need for practical, easy ways to include slow-release carbohydrates in their diet. The glycemic index (GI) is a physiological measure of the effect of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels.

It is the perfect instrument for controlling these levels effectively and consistently and what's more, it can help give you sustained energy throughout the day. Liesbet and Gabi have found in practice that the more their patients apply the GI principle, the greater the benefits they experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tafelberg
• Release date: Oct 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9780624051435

Gabi Steenkamp

Gabi Steenkamp, 'n geregistreerde dieetkundige, spesialiseer in die beheer van diabetes en kolonprobleme deur dieet. Danksy haar betrokkenheid by die voedselbedryf as dieetkundige en voedseletiketkonsultant het sy 'n unieke insig in die Suid-Afrikaanse voedselsoorte en -produkte.

Book preview

Eating for Sustained Energy 4

Gabi Steenkamp RD (SA) and Liesbet Delport RD (SA)

Registered Dieticians SA

Tafelberg

Dedication

To all those with diabetes, who for so long have had to eat foods containing no sugar and often tasting like cardboard. Thanks to the glycemic index, they can now savour lower fat, lower GI foods that are best for anyone who wishes to enjoy sustained energy.

Authors’ foreword

When we originally compiled Eating for Sustained Energy 1, we had seven aims: we wanted each recipe to be tasty, and quick and easy to make, using ingredients that are affordable and readily available in any home, while also being lower in fat and having a lower glycemic index (GI) than traditional recipes. Our readers assure us regularly that we have achieved each one of these aims.

In fact, we had so many requests from satisfied readers for more recipes that we compiled Eating for Sustained Energy 2 and 3 and revamped Eating for Sustained Energy 1. The original was written 10 years ago, and so the nutrition information needed to be brought in line with the latest research. We hope that you are enjoying the new look and feel of the book. It still contains the original tried-and-tested recipes, but has new photographs to show you clearly, in a more up-to-date style, what you are going to prepare and what the end product should look like. In response to the many requests for more lower GI, lower fat recipes, we decided to put together this book, Eating for Sustained Energy 4. The recipes comply with all our original aims, but we have also tried to give most of the recipes more modern flair using unusual flavour fusions, while keeping them quick and easy to prepare, and not compromising on their nutritional content.

When we started writing Eating for Sustained Energy 1, we had no publisher and absolutely no idea that recipes of this kind would be so popular. What we did have was lots of enthusiasm and the knowledge that it is not that difficult to compile tasty, healthy recipes. In fact, we were both cooking and baking such dishes for our families every day! And we felt they should be shared with you, the public.

Now, after 10 years of steady and increasing sales of our recipe books, we know that these recipes work! Used regularly, they help to lower blood glucose levels of those with diabetes, and to reduce cholesterol levels, blood pressure, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, as well as alleviate the symptoms of chronic candida, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. They also help children who suffer from attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (AD[H]D) to concentrate, overweight people to lose weight more easily, fatigued people to have more energy, and sportsmen and -women to perform better.

As before, we have included the GL value in the nutritional box of each recipe, together with the standard nutritional analysis. This is explained in easy-to-understand terms in the Introduction, which we have also condensed and updated for easier reading.

Our handy South African Glycemic Index and Load Guide has also proved to be of great help to many. It helps you to identify, quickly and easily, the GI and GL of most carbohydrate-containing foods eaten in South Africa, as it includes a cross-referenced alphabetical list of foods. Fat, fibre, protein, carbohydrate and kJ content per typical portion of food are also listed. Many people like to keep the guide with them when they shop, so that they can easily check the GI of any food. This book will be updated again in 2010 and also has a partner in the form of The South African Fat and Protein Guide, which contains valuable information about different types of fats and proteins in typical South African foods. Between these two guides you should be able to look up the nutritional information of any food you can think of.

Our book on weight management, Eat Smart and Stay Slim: The GI Diet, has also been updated to keep abreast of the dynamic science of nutrition. Apart from providing useful food information, this book should help users to get their mind right about getting thin and staying thin. The book also contains a few recipes, as well as a handy section on meals for a week, which allows users to combine any breakfast, lunch, dinner and two to three snacks per day, and so create a personalised meal plan or menu. Other invaluable information on how to get off the treadmill of compulsive eating, on label-reading skills, on fat-proofing meals and on motivation to start exercising is also included.

Eat Smart for Sport is another book in this series and shows the professional and amateur sportsperson, and concerned parents, exactly what and how much should be consumed before, during and after training and competition, as well as how to use the GI and GL to gain the competitive edge.

All our recipe books – Eating for Sustained Energy 1, 2, 3 and 4, Sustained Energy for Kids and Snacks and Treats for Sustained Energy – contain many more delicious recipes to help with weight management, blood glucose control, general healthy eating and improved sports performance.

May you enjoy this book as much as all the others!

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Gabi and Liesbet

Introduction

Most people feel they could do with more sustained energy. Feeling tired or chronically exhausted and having no energy seems to be the norm in our modern, stressed world. We believe that most of the solution lies in eating correctly.

The glycemic index

By learning how to use the glycemic index (GI) and consuming a lower fat diet, we can attain a sustained supply of energy. Resorting to all sorts of pick-me-up-quick tonics or caffeine, or alcohol or cigarettes to relax, will no longer be necessary. Carbohydrates are the body’s source of fuel and if you consume the right type and amount at the proper time, you should ensure sustained energy, instead of feeling hyped up one moment and hitting the depths the next. By eating the lower fat way and following the GI, you will regulate your blood glucose levels, keeping them stable, and as a result you should feel great all the time.

In the past, it was assumed that complex carbohydrates or starches, such as potatoes, mealie meal and bread, were digested and absorbed slowly, resulting in only a slight rise in blood glucose levels. Simple sugars, on the other hand, were believed to be digested and absorbed quickly, producing a large and rapid rise in blood glucose levels. We now know that these assumptions are incorrect, and that the general public, as well as those with diabetes, no longer need to avoid sugar altogether, provided they use it correctly. In fact, we now know that table sugar has a slightly more favourable effect on blood glucose levels than do potatoes, bread and a few other starches if used on their own.

As early as the 1930s scientists challenged the assumption that all carbohydrates are created equal and that the metabolic effects of carbohydrates can be predicted by classifying them as either simple or complex. In the 1970s, researchers such as Otto and Crapo examined the glycemic impact of a range of foods containing carbohydrates. To standardise the interpretation of glycemic response data, that is, the effect of food on blood glucose levels, Jenkins and colleagues of the University of Toronto, Canada, proposed the GI in 1981.

The GI is a blood glucose indicator, where gly = glucose, emic = blood and index = an indicator. This work of Jenkins disproved the assumption that equivalent amounts of carbohydrate from different foods caused similar glycemic responses. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that the carbohydrate exchange lists that had regulated the diets of most diabetic individuals did not reflect the physiological effect of foods and were therefore no longer sufficient to control blood glucose levels. With research done over the past three decades, scientists proved that it is not only the amount of carbohydrate but also its rate of digestion and absorption into the bloodstream – in other words, the GI – that determine the physiological response of the body. Research conducted all over the world since then confirms that the new way of ranking foods according to their actual effect on blood glucose is scientifically more accurate.

In a typical GI list, carbohydrate-rich foods are ranked on a scale from 1 to 100, according to their actual effect on blood glucose levels. Internationally, glucose is taken as 100, since it causes the greatest and most rapid rise in blood glucose levels, and all other foods are rated in comparison with glucose. It must be noted, however, that some published GI testing has used white bread as the reference food, which is completely acceptable in the scientific world, but could create the impression that certain GI values from different sources seem to differ. When looking up GI values, always establish whether the reference food used is glucose or white bread. The South African Glycemic Index and Load Guide by Gabi Steenkamp and Liesbet Delport (Glycemic Index Foundation of South Africa [GIFSA] 2007/2010) is one of the most reliable sources of the GI values of commonly eaten foods in South Africa. It is available from www.gifoundation.com, www.gabisteenkamp.co.za, your dietician, local bookstore, health shop or pharmacy. All the values published in this guide are based on glucose as the reference food, and the guide contains the most recent GI values of carbohydrate-rich foods tested in South Africa and internationally. Since the GI is a ranking of foods based on their actual effect on blood glucose levels instead of on assumptions, it is a much more accurate tool to use in the regulation of blood glucose levels.

Using the GI concept, diabetic individuals and those suffering from other blood glucose control problems – low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), candidiasis, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and children with attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder

(AD[H]D), as well as sportsmen and -women – can all optimise their blood glucose control. For a lower GI, lower fat recipe book for children, see Sustained Energy for Kids by Gabi Steenkamp, Tanzia Merlin and Jeske Wellmann (Tafelberg 2006). For detailed information for sportsmen and -women, see Eat Smart for Sport by Liesbet Delport and Dr Paula Volschenk (Tafelberg 2007).

Total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, serum triglyceride levels and blood pressure can be lowered if the GI concept is used in combination with lower fat eating, and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels may be increased. HDL cholesterol is considered the good cholesterol. For those who want to lose weight, the increased satiety and the fact that less insulin (a fat storer) is secreted result in better fat loss. For a simple and comprehensive weight management book based on these principles, see Eat Smart and Stay Slim: The GI Diet by Liesbet Delport and Gabi Steenkamp (Tafelberg 2003/2009).

Eating the low GI way and emphasising beneficial fats also protects from, and can be used to treat, inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, gout and cancer. For detailed information on different types of fat, see The South African Fat and Protein Guide by Prof Nola Dippenaar and Liesbet Delport (GIFSA 2006). Even people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can benefit from lower fat eating and the GI concept, although they, as well as those suffering from arthritis, gout and cancer, should consult a dietician, as some other adjustments will also have to be made to their diets. See www.gifoundation.com for a list of dieticians who use the GI concept. Foods with a low GI release glucose slowly and steadily into the bloodstream over three hours, which prevents over-stimulation of insulin secretion. High insulin levels are implicated in many of the diseases of our modern lifestyle: high blood pressure, for instance, as well as high cholesterol and high triglyceride levels, diabetes, hypoglycemia, obesity, PCOS, coronary heart disease, arthritis, gout and cancer.

Apart from being lower GI, all the recipes in this book are also lower in fat and the fats they do contain are mainly beneficial fats.

Fats, particularly saturated fat and trans fatty acids, are the main dietary cause of heart disease and high cholesterol, high blood pressure, excess weight and cancer, and these fats also play a major role in the development of hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, diabetes, AD[H]D and gout. In contrast to this, beneficial fats such as mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) protect against the development of many of the conditions mentioned above. A high fat intake aggravates IBS and also results in the body’s insulin working less effectively, especially if the person is overweight and consumes mainly detrimental or bad fats, which may play a role in the development of hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance and, eventually, diabetes.

Furthermore, it was found that it is fat (especially bad fat), and not really carbohydrates (starches, vegetables, fruit and sugars), that is fattening. This is particularly true if low GI carbohydrates are consumed as a rule and higher GI carbohydrates are reserved for during and/or after exercise. It takes no effort for the body to turn dietary fat into body fat, whereas it takes a lot of effort and energy for the body to convert carbohydrates and protein into body fat. Thin people mostly consume a lower fat diet that is higher in carbohydrates and moderate in protein. Overweight people tend to eat high fat diets and/or diets that contain mainly high GI carbohydrates, while being inactive.

Not more than 30% of total energy in our diet should come from fat, and of this not more than one third should come from the less beneficial saturated and trans fats. In this book we have heeded this recommendation and have kept the fat content of every meal serving as close to 10 g of fat (or below) as possible, focusing mainly on beneficial fats.

How the GI is determined

The blood glucose response (BGR) to glucose or white bread (the reference foods) of at least 10 people per food tested is measured. This is done on three occasions for each person, and the average value is the BGR of that person. The BGR to glucose is given the value of 100, and when white bread has been used as the reference food, it has to be calibrated against glucose. Glucose is absorbed quickly and generally causes the greatest and fastest rise in blood glucose of all foods. The BGRs of all other carbohydrate foods are also measured by blood tests in the same 10 people per food tested, and rated in comparison with glucose for each person. The mean GI of the food for the group is