Customer Reviews

Living the G.I. (Glycemic Index) Diet

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wanted to lose weight so badly that I was prepared to do anything to achieve it, except give up my favourite foods! Then I heard about the GI Diet and ordered the book right away. I found this book very easy to read while being packed with valuable nutritional information. I have never found a healthier more sensible and balanced diet anywhere! This is not just another diet but is really a new way of eating. Most diets fail because you feel deprived or you get tired of weighing or measuring or counting (grams or calories or points...)or you just know they are not healthy. The GI Diet has already made all the calculations for you. All foods are divided into three categories: Red Light, Yellow Light and Green Light (just like the traffic lights). Just eat what is on the Green Light List! (In most cases, as much as you want) The Glycemic Index measures the speed at which you digest food and convert it to glucose. Eating low GI foods causes foods to be digested slowly, leaving you feeling fuller, longer, not causing spikes in your blood sugar levels or causing your pancreas to secrete large amounts of insulin. On this diet, you do best if you eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day.

All the recipes included in the book, that I have tried, have been excellent! The Baked Chocolate Mousse, the rice pudding, and the granola bars alone, got me through the first few weeks. I especially like this diet because I have lost 50 pounds ( and my husband has lost 57) and because it promotes Good Health, not just weight loss.

I've lost weight on other diets before, but always regained the weight because I never really understood 'Maintenance'. This time I get it!

I finally understand how good food promotes health while preventing disease, while a poor diet, with lots of white flour, white sugar and processed foods, puts your health at risk. The biggest bonus of being on the GI Diet, is that after a few weeks, my cravings stopped! It was like breaking an addiction! (Chocolate was my drug of choice) Now my body only gets the best fuel, and my high blood pressure and cholesterol scores all fell into place!

If you are really ready to lose weight, if you want to get control of your eating habits, this is the best, easiest, healthiest way to do it.

This book gives an overview of the G.I. Diet (based on the glycemic index, which measures how quickly different foods turn to sugar when metabolized), but it's primarily a recipe book. If you want to know about the G.I. Diet in more detail, read the author's first book, "The G.I. Diet." However, you don't need that book to make use of this one. All you need to understand is the red light (BAD), yellow light (OK in small amounts) and green light (GOOD) ratings of the foods. There is nothing magical or faddish about G.I. ratings -- whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean meat and nonfat dairy is good for you; fatty meat, starch, sugar, and highly processed white flour is bad for you. This is a diet you should switch to permanently if you want to lose weight and keep it off.

The trick, even with a healthy, sensible, scientific diet, is to find enough food you like to keep eating it forever. One of the complaints about Gallup's first book was that there were not enough recipes, so he put together this book, which is full of recipes that use green light foods (with sparing amounts of yellow light foods, and even the occasional touch of a forbidden red light ingredient). These recipes are GOOD. Everything is covered from simple basics like sandwiches, salads, and breakfast staples to pasta, meat, and vegetarian entrees, stews, smoothies, and desserts. You could go a long, long time preparing nothing but recipes from this book without getting repetitive, and you'll find that a lot of the same basic ingredients are used over and over (stock up on whole wheat pasta, beans, fruits and vegetables, apples and berries, nonfat yogurt, fish, chicken and turkey breast).

You don't need to be "following the G.I. diet" to use this book. These are healthy recipes, so if you use them, you WILL be following the G.I. diet and eating healthy. Since a lot of the recipes were submitted by readers of his first book, there is a very "homemade" feel to them -- these aren't fancy recipes requiring exotic ingredients or advanced kitchen skills. Anyone with a kitchen and a decent local grocery store can prepare just about anything in this book.

For people who want to eat healthy but need variety (who wants to eat tuna on whole wheat toast or plain chicken breast with brown rice and broccoli day after day?), but don't have the time or skills to learn a new cooking style, I highly recommend this book.

I borrowed the book from my local library...Loved the ease of the charts soooo much, I purchased my own copy... To lose weight, simply eat unlimited foods off the GREEN list...(Tons to choose from!... Nothing to measure, or weigh).... Maintain weight, eat from the YELLOW list... To gain weight, eat from the RED list... Blood sugar stays low and steady.... I've been a size 4 for three years now... The book achieves, with the simplest of ease... It's not a DIET per sae, it's a way of life... Healthier... Life is good... *smiles*

Everything works better with this diet. In addition to allowing me to lose 12 pounds over the last 6 weeks, the GI diet has reduced my chronic back pain, and enabled me to better control the pain. ( I am at BMI 21 - 144lb - age 50)

I have always noticed that my back pain went away for a while after I ate something, so I wondered if this was something to do with my blood sugar/insulin level. The GI diet's stabilizing effect on insulin levels sounded intriguing when I spotted the Feb.17,2004 front page Women's World "Canadian Miracle Diet" headline, and when I saw how easy it was to follow, I bought "The GI diet" and "Living the GI diet" and started in. The recipes in both the books are excellent. I had no idea how strongly blood sugar/insulin affects one's appetite, let alone how one feels. The improvement in the way I feel is really amazing. I am quite active and have found my performance in swimming and exercising has improved markedly. My husband is sort of following the diet too (he cheats a bit - one beer a day, plus 30grams of dark chocolate a day, but he exercises with weights every day too) and he has lost 10 pounds, so I am telling all my friends, family, and colleagues about it. (A colleague at work has already lost 11 pounds since she started a month ago)

These books are a life-line to all of us.

Finally, an easy way to follow the low glycemic way of eating. The color coding makes it very easy to plan menus and the many recipes are easy to follow and very tasty.

I would recommend this book not only for losing weight but for anyone who wants to follow a healthier way of eating.

This diet has really worked for me and I want to add some of my observations. There are some pretty comprehensive reviews on here already so I will not summarize anything from the book to minimize repetition.

Stats on me: I started in May of 05 and lost 5 pounds a week for the first four weeks. I only lost so much because I was well over 200lb (as a 5'5'' female). After that it was more gradual with plateaus and minor ups and downs. I have gone periods were I was only following it 50% faithfully and did not gain the weight back. I am moderately active: gym two to three times a week (usually for an hour water aerobics class) and I do not have a car so I walk everywhere.

Diet Pro's:

- Its Healthy. No doctor would be concerned if his/her patient ate veggies and balanced whole grains and lean proteins. Worst-case scenario: you try it and don't loose weight, but you will not have hurt your metabolism or raised your cholesterol in doing so.

- Its Not a Gimmick. This is not based on "eat all the bacon and cheese you want" or some other counter-intuitive nonsense. Its principals are in line with what is known and widely accepted in medical science.

- Cuts Cravings and is designed to keep your belly full. With three meals and three snacks a day of slowly digested food I am not hungry. Additionally, keeping my blood sugar stable stopped the need to binge eat.

- Not dogmatic. Ever read a diet book where you feel like the author is practically trying to convert you to a religion? Gallop certainly believes in this diet and he makes no mention that it might not work for every person (see con below), however he spends most of his time laying out simple science and practical guidelines. He even says your goal should be to follow it 90% of the time. If you have a cookie, big deal, the worst thing that can happen is it will take slightly longer to lose some weight.

Diet Con's:

- Unfortunately, as with all diets, this will work great for some people and not for others. Its more likely to work for you if you:

o Tend to carry your fat in the belly. i.e. "apple," "barrel," or "cone" shaped for women, or a guy with a "beer belly"

o Have major cravings for carbs - perhaps even binge eat on things like pastries, candy, pasta and bread.

o Have been diagnosed with insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, or even type II diabetes

-The recipes can be bland - more from the author not being a chef, not the principals of the diet, so if you are a practiced cook you can make alterations for flavor and texture that stay true to the diet. The book encourages you to go the author's website where there are recipes submitted by readers available for free and they are quite good.

-You will have to cook. I have been on this diet for nearly two years and like to cook, so its been great for me.

***UPDATE June 2008***

Make that 90+ pounds lost in three years. I still cook most of my food from the recipes found in Gallop's books. They have passed the picky boyfriend test, potluck test and the I can stick to this for the rest of my life test. Some points:

-During this time I have gone months and months with no weight loss but I was only *mostly* following the diet. I think I needed these breaks.

-I work out intensely for 60 minutes 4 days a week now.

Two-thirds of this (300 page) book contains recipes. The remainder contains lots of helpful information and ideas about GI diet, meal planning and cooking.

In addition, most of the recipes also contain "bonus" info such as ingredient options, storage, and "helpful hints" about the recipes's preparation.

I was glad to see that the breakfast chapter contained 10 recipes that are not primarily egg-based. A big plus for those of us who like a substantial breakfast of something other than eggs.

This book gets 4 stars instead of 5 because the recipes do not provide nutritional information. Many of us are paying attention to what is in our food--in addition to the GI rating.

This book, primarily of recipes, has an overview of the glycemic index and how it works. With the color system for the recipes it's easy to use and understand. The meal plans are realistic and well planned.The recipes are generally quick and the ones I tried were delicious. Many can be made ahead or doubled to save time. A worthwhile read.

Even since I have been on this diet I have lost inches around my waist. Been on the awful Atkins Diet, the Atkins diet made me gain weight and I followed it religiously. This G.I diet is the way to go. Not some high fat and protein diet that ruins your organs. This diet is really good for diabetics as well.

This is a wonderful book, with great recipes! This "diet" is by far the easiest to follow. I have lost 8 pounds in two weeks, and have just started. The best part is that I am NOT HUNGRY!