If foods containing refined sugar have an intermediate G.I. factor, does this mean that people with diabetes can eat as much sugar as they want?
Research has clearly shown that the G.I. factor of refined sugar is the same in people that have diabetes and people that don’t. Moderate consumption of sugar (which means 40 to 60 grams of refined sugars a day) does not compromise blood sugar control. In fact, excluding sugar from the diet has important psychological consequences.
Sugar is not just empty kilojoules, but a source of pleasure and reward and it helps to limit the intake of fatty foods and high G.I. carbohydrate foods.
Our advice is to spread your sugar budget over a variety of nutrient rich foods that become more palatable with the addition of sugar, e.g. yoghurt, porridge and other breakfast cereals, milk drinks, fruit desserts, jam on toast.
Bread and potatoes have high G.I. factors (70 to 80). Does this mean a person with diabetes should avoid bread and potatoes?
Potatoes and bread can play a major role in a high carbohydrate and low-fat diet, even if a secondary goal is to reduce the overall G.I. factor. Only about half the carbohydrate has to be exchanged from high G.I. to low G.I. to achieve measurable improvements in diabetes. So, there is still room for bread and potatoes. Of course, some types of bread and potatoes have a lower G.I. factor than others and these should be preferred if the goal is to lower the G.I. as much as possible.
In the overall management of diabetes, the most important message is that the diet should be low in fat and high in carbohydrate. This will help people not only to lose weight, but to keep it off and improve their overall blood glucose and lipid control.
There are so few low G.I. foods that anyone wanting to follow a low G.I. diet would have to narrow the range of foods that he or she eats. Isn’t this a bad thing?
It is a myth that you have to narrow the range of foods you eat on a low G.I. diet In fact, some people have told us the opposite. They have found that the advent of the G.I. factor has expanded the range of foods they can eat because foods containing sugar are not unduly restricted.
The rumour that all low G.I. foods are high in fibre and not very palatable also needs dispelling. It is true that legumes and All-Bran may not be everyone’s favourite foods, but pasta, oats, fruit and many favourite Mediterranean recipes using cracked wheat and lentils etc. are low G.I. and delicious. To dispel such myths finally, we have included many mouth-watering recipes using legumes and lentils in Part II.
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