The GI Diet Blog and Board

Last time I said I was going to mention alternatives that have helped me keep up with a low gi lifestyle. Now I’ll be the first to admit, that I have a hard time with some concepts, or at least, keeping on the right track. sometimes I use “low gi” as an excuse to using or overusing products. Multi-grain tortilla chips come to mind. Gotta get off that bandwagon, but I digress.

But a key alternative I’ve switched over to is: Soy products. Now, this was *not* an easy sell for me. Sure, big fan of tofu over here, but, any alternatives to milk, and I was like ‘no way, no thanks’. Just ask my wife.

I will credit my wife for this though, because my diet and comfort from it has truly improved. I don’t know if I was lactose intolerant, but I can tell you that symptoms like upset stomach among other things has greatly reduced since I’ve switched to soy milk. I’ll spare you the details of course, but when I do drink milk, I notice the difference right away, unless I drink milk in smaller quantities.

From time to time I will name some name brands, and this is one such post. If you’re going to make the leap over to soy, consider SILK name brand, if you can find it in your grocery store. The biggest advantage to soy milk over traditional milk is the carb content. It’s about half that of regular milk. I’ve also started using their coffee cream product for my coffee in the morning, because it’s low carb, and low fat, which is a huge winner in a low gi world.

For more information on SILK, click here

Thanks to the use of silk, I can have a morning smoothie with those frozen berries I talked about in my previous post, and have a very filling morning drink with less then 24 carbs.

Soy cheese is also a product I’m starting to turn to, because a low gi diet also means a low(er) fat diet. Soy cheese is a good alternative, but I’ve also found in the past: *low fat* mozzarella in the stores! wow. that made my day, and I hope to find more.

Finally, the last alternative that saves the day for me is Splenda. Splenda rocks my world, and while there are other low gi sugars out there and new ones being discovered, I like splenda because it’s also low carb/low calorie. When I first started losing weight on a low gi diet, I didn’t focus so much on the caloric intake. Part of it was an emotional reason, the other was: I knew there had to be more to weight loss than just calorie counting. But, calories DO count. They DO matter, although many atkins people might disagree on that point. I should also reread my low gi diet book because I don’t think calories are discussed in there as much, but, for those of us that are trying to shed off those pounds, everything counts towards a more successful healthy lifestyle.

So in a nutshell: soy milk ahead of traditional milk products, soy cheese or other low fat cheeses, and splenda (or other low carb/low cal sugar products) are all great substitutes to aid in your low gi world.

If you’re one of those people recently diagnosed with Type II diabetes like myself, you were probably taught very quickly by your doctor or diabetes education center that certain foods had to be eliminated from your diet, or greatly reduced. I remember the first few days after diagnosis; I couldn’t eat anything, for fear that it was poison to my body. I didn’t know where to start! I was drinking regular coke, orange juice, cranberry juice, etc. Any kind of juice, and I was there. I thought hey, fruit is healthy, so juice must be too!

Letting go of fruit juice was the hardest initial hurdle to healthier lifestyle. I knew I could switch to diet coke or pepsi, but pop wasn’t really my downfall: juice was.

Fast track to four years later, and the thought of regular orange juice makes me cringe as bad as drinking unsweetened lemonade. If oranges were bad, I thought, then every other fruit was going to be problematic. I quit fruit as a daily food source for about 2 years.

Then, I rediscovered the goodness of berries.

If you’re a fruit lover, or a berry lover, then I’m here to tell you some great news: berries are one of the best low gi fruits around. Yay berries! They are flavorful, most of them are naturally sweet, and I love how they add a lot of color to my meals. Now, I’m not suggesting we all go crazy and say “yes” to strawberry shortcake, but berries have literally made my GI lifestyle much more friendly.

Today I had multi-grain raspberry pancakes. and sure, while I miss real maple syrup, I didn’t miss the extra sweetness because the berries kept the pancakes moist and tasty to say the least. They are also a very high in fiber. A 3/4 cup serving of raspberries is about 17 carbs, but 9 of those carbs is fiber!

My next blog entry I hope to talk about alternative food products that will help with your Low gi lifestyle, but I can’t emphasize enough how great it is to focus on wholesome foods, and whole foods like natural berries.

So, put the juicer away, and eat your fruit whole. Berries help with my sweet tooth, and they can help with yours too. I can’t recommend them enough.