80/20 Nutrition Planner


Glycaemic Index

You may find it beneficial to include a low GI carbohydrate in each meal. Low GI foods should keep your blood sugar levels more stable throughout the day.

Basically the glycaemic index (GI) of a food is the blood glucose response to the ingestion of that food. To maintain more stable blood glucose levels try to consume more foods with a lower GI. Maintaining blood glucose throughout the day reduces the risk of hypoglycaemia. Symptoms of hypoglycaemia include headaches, nausea, lack of concentration.

Several other nutritional factors affect the glycaemic index of foods. For example, the addition of fat, protein and fibre decreases the GI. The following is a list of some foods and their GI. For a comprehensive list, there are pocket guides available at bookshops on the GI of a variety of foods.

It is important to remember that when talking about the glycaemic index of a food that we also consider the carbohydrate content of the food. Foods with a low carbohydrate content may not produce a large effect on your blood sugar levels. For this reason, most vegetables are considered to produce a low glycaemic load and therefore are fine to eat at any time.

Examples of the Glycaemic Index of different foods: Low GI foods are best for blood glucose control, sustained release of energy and increasing satiety.

Food Low GI Intermediate GI High GI
  <55 55-70 >70
Breakfast Cereals All-bran Mini Wheats Cocopops
  Porridge Untoasted muesli Cornflakes
  Toasted Muesli Nutrigrain Puffed wheat
  Special K Sustain Rice bubbles
  Sultana Bran Vita Brits Weet-bix
       
Grains and Pastas Buckwheat Basmati rice Calrose rice
  Bulgar   Brown rice
  Instant noodles   Sunbrown rice
  Egg fettuccine   White rice
  Ravioli (meat)    
  Spaghetti    
       
Bread and Crackers Fruit loaf Vogel's Bread Wholemeal bread
  Kibbled barely bread Croissant Bagel
  Mixed grain bread Ryvita White bread
  Oat bran bread Rye bread  
     
 
Vegetables Most vegetables have a low glycaemic load Beetroot Baked potato
    Sweet corn Pumpkin
       
       
       
Legumes Baked beans Couscous Broad beans
  Butter beans    
  Chickpeas    
  Haricot beans    
  Kidney beans    
  Lentils    
  Soya beans    
       
Fruit Apple Mango Watermelon
  Apricot Pawpaw  
  Banana Pineapple  
  Cherries Raisins  
  Grapefruit Rockmelon  
  Grapes Sultanas  
  Kiwifruit    
  Orange    
  Peaches    
  Plums    
       
Dairy Foods Whole milk Ice-cream  
  Skim milk    
  Chocolate flavouredmilk    
  Low fat ice-cream    
  Yoghurt    
       
Sugars Honey Honey Glucose
  Fructose Sucrose Maltose
  Lactose    
       
Other Foods Soup Arrowroot biscuits Corn chips
  Sponge cake Potato chips Cereal bar
  Banana cake Chocolate  
    Orange juice  
       

Therefore, some carbohydrate suggestions for your evening meal are:

  • Basmati or Doongara rice
  • Pasta (cooked al dente i.e. just cooked)
  • Noodles
  • Sweet potato
  • Legumes (e.g. kidney beans, lentils)
  • Bread which is grainy and dense
  • Wholemeal pita bread