THE G.I. FACTOR: WHAT IS A BALANCED DIET?
May 8th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: DiabetesNo Comments
It makes sense to balance our food intake with the rate our bodies use it. This way, we maintain a steady weight. These days, however, this balance is difficult to achieve. It is very easy to overeat. Refined foods, convenience foods and fast foods frequently lack fibre and conceal fat so that before we feel full, we have overdosed on kilojoules. It is even easier not to exercise. It takes longer to walk somewhere than it does to drive (except perhaps in peak hour). With intake exceeding output on a regular basis, the result for too many of us is weight gain.
We need to adapt our lifestyle to our kilojoule-laden diet and fewer physical demands. It’s become very important to catch bursts of physical activity wherever we can to increase our energy output. It may mean using the stairs instead of the lift, taking a 10 minute walk at lunch time, coasting on a treadmill while you watch the news, reading on the stationary bike, making more effort in the garden, walking to the shops to get the Sunday paper, parking a kilometre from work, or taking the dog for a walk each night. Whatever it means, do it. Even housework burns kilojoules. All these seemingly small bursts of activity accumulate to increase our kilojoule output. You don’t have to take exercise seriously, just regularly.
While you work on increasing your kilojoule output, the G.I. factor can help you select the best foods to balance your intake. Its high carbohydrate basis ensures a filling diet which isn’t packed with kilojoules.
So, our first message is to reduce the amount of fat you eat. This applies to all sorts of fat: saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated. (Caution: A low-fat diet is good for most of us, but it is not appropriate for children who rely on fat for growth.) But the flip side of this message is to eat more carbohydrate because this will automatically reduce your fat intake. The following chapters tell you how you can eat more carbohydrate and which foods you should choose to replace fatty foods. It also goes one step further and tells you which carbohydrates are best for health—and why.
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