The ideal diet for life, as well as reducing your future risk of cognitive decline, is a low-GL (low-glycaemic load) diet. By definition, this is a diet that keeps your blood sugar levels even. This means that you produce little insulin, which is not only the fat-storing hormone but also a promoter, in excess, of cancer cell growth and numerous other diseases, from heart disease to diabetes, and from dementia to depression.

There are more immediate benefits as well, such as increased energy throughout the day, and better and more consistent concentration and mood. Below are examples of the feedback we receive on a regular basis from people embarking on a low-GL diet:

‘I feel incredible. Before, I didn’t have a cut-off switch. Now I feel full and can leave food on the plate because I’m full.’ Adrian

‘It’s as if someone has given me a magic pill and said, “You’ll have more energy, you’ll feel calm and you’ll feel less stressed.” I am full of energy.’ Marianne

‘This is the easiest way to lose weight and stay healthy I’ve ever tried.’ Glynda

‘My energy level is incredible. My blood sugar is well under control (I’m diabetic). It’s been so easy.’ Linda

‘I lost 6kg (13lb) in a month and, amazingly, I lost my craving for sweets! My energy level increased so much.’ John

A low-GL diet prevents and reverses disease

More than any other criterion, the GL of your diet is associated with a lower risk of just about every disease you’re likely to suffer from. Also, lowering the GL of your diet has been shown to reverse many diseases as well. It is also the best predictor of how much insulin you are going to produce in response to a meal (it works better than knowing the grams of carbs) which we have learnt is critical, not only for health, but also for protecting your brain.

These are the benefits:

• Prevention and reversal of weight gain.
• Less hunger and sugar cravings.
• Better appetite control and weight-loss maintenance.
• Prevention and reversal of Type 2 diabetes,
• Prevention and reversal of heart disease, hypertension and high cholesterol.
• Reduction in the risk of cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and rectum, ovary, thyroid, endometrium and
  pancreas.
• Reduction in Alzheimer’s dementia risk and cognitive impairment.
• Reduction in depression and aggression, and building up stress resilience.
• Switches on anti-ageing genes.
• It lowers IGF-1, associated with accelerating ageing and increasing cancer risk.

Read the Report What to Eat for Breakfasts and Snacks in your Library.

The principles of the low-GL diet

There are three core principles at the heart of a low-GL diet. Each of them is a positive guideline in its own right, and each supports the others. All three are easy to attain and essential if you are serious about achieving health (and weight control).

1. Balance your blood sugar by eating 45 GL a day for weight loss or 60 GL for lifestyle.
2. Eat good fats, and avoid bad fats. (This will become clear in the ‘brain fats’ guidelines)
3. Keep on the move – exercise is important (see ‘active body’ guidelines)

Why should you balance your blood sugar?

Balancing your blood sugar, and consequently keeping your insulin level down, is the fundamental concept at the heart of the low-GL diet. Once your blood sugar and insulin levels are in balance, sustainable weight loss (if you want it and are eating 45 GL a day) and 100 percent health will follow, and will continue, when following the higher-GL lifestyle diet of 60 GL. Success is inevitable.

Keeping your blood sugar balanced depends not only on WHAT you eat, but also on HOW and WHEN you eat. We’ll explain exactly which foods and food combinations stabilise your blood sugar best and help to burn fat. When you understand that it is high-GL foods and meals that lead to gaining weight, you’ll understand how to control what you eat to lose weight, or to maintain your healthy weight.

In time, GL-awareness will become second nature, and, before you know it, you’ll be experimenting by mixing and matching your own combinations of low-GL foods at every meal. Reducing your blood sugar level will encourage fat burning instead of fat storing, your appetite will be satisfied and you will feel energetic for longer than you are used to.

Knowing your GL will become a lifestyle essential.

The first step in the low-GL direction is to avoid adding sugar, or eating foods with added sugar, as well as eating refined carbohydrates, which tend to be white in colour: white bread, rice and pasta, for example. The unrefined carbohydrates are better for you because they are broken down into glucose slowly, and your body has more time to use the energy. They tend to be brown in colour, providing more fibre: brown rice, whole grains, brown bread and pasta, for example. Eating too many unrefined carbohydrates increases your blood sugar levels fast – which produces excess glucose, which turns into fat.