The Glycemic Index Diet

If you can understand a stoplight, you can understand this diet. That's the claim of this Canadian bestseller by Rick Gallop, the former Chairman of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario.

The book's premise is that you can lose weight eating foods with a low glycemic index, a tool which measures the speed at which foods are digested and converted into glucose (the body's source of energy).

The usual suspects--white bread, candy, and potatoes--have a high glycemic index, and are "red light", or DO NOT EAT, foods.

Egg whites, skinless turkey breast, and spinach are "green light" foods. With all the color-coded charts in the book, it is easy to understand--but is it easy to follow?

The book outlines two phases of the weight loss plan for readers. In Phase I, you alter your eating patterns in order to meet your ideal BMI (body mass index), which can take at least three months depending upon where you fall on the chart (handily included in the book).

This means that any food on the "red light" list, including ground beef, eggs, processed meats, full-fat cheese, alcohol, or white-flour based breads need to be avoided.

When you reach your target BMI, you can have some "red light" foods on occasion, though increasing your exercise is key to maintaining weight loss in Phase II of the diet.

I tried a week on this diet with mixed results. I figured that I would just need to eliminate foods on the "red light" list and replace them with "green light" alternatives.

Switching from sugary, low-fat yogurt to a non-fat, artificially-sweetened version was relatively pain free (although I could taste the difference). Luckily, I rarely eat some of the "red light" foods like white bread or potatoes anyway, but it was interesting which foods made the cut: even seemingly healthy mangoes, pineapples, and raisins are major no-no's according to this book.

However, there are plenty of "green light" options on this diet, including some pasta (whole-wheat fettuccine or linguini) in small portions (3/4 cup cooked) and even ice cream (as long as it is low-fat and no-sugar added). Love that.

Although I only had a week's go, I did drop 1.5 lbs on this plan. I do believe that if I stick with it, I could lose weight and still have many of the foods I love.

The hardest thing for me was giving up coffee and alcohol. Both are prohibited on this diet in Phase I.

I managed to go a week without my morning jolt of java and my evening glass of pinot noir, but could I skip out on Margarita Mondays with the girls for three months to meet my target weight? It doesn't seem likely!

source:www.amny.com