GI Symbol News with Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Kick start your day with a healthy low GI breakfast
Breakfast does just that. As the first meal of the day, it breaks the overnight fast, jump-starts your metabolism and generally gets you going. After an overnight fast your body’s energy stores are starting to run low, so a good breakfast replenishes your vital reserves of carbohydrate, fat and protein, along with vitamins and minerals, to energise your day.

There’s a large body of research that has proven that breakfast eaters perform better than those who regularly skip breakfast. For adults, this translates into improvements in the work environment. With children and teens, it’s been well established that breakfast eaters show improved cognitive skills in the classroom compared with skippers.

Skipping breakfast on the other hand, by both children and adults, is associated with a significant increase in the risk of becoming overweight, being obese and developing type 2 diabetes.

Other breakfast benefits include appetite regulation, better blood glucose, cholesterol and free fatty acid levels, insulin sensitivity. Eating breakfast is also associated with healthier overall dietary patterns – breakfast eaters tend to have reduced intakes of fat and cholesterol, and higher dietary fibre intakes compared with skippers.

Making that healthy breakfast low GI delivers additional benefits like decreased feelings of hunger and subsequently lower kilojoule (calorie) consumption at lunch time.

8 easy, healthy low GI breakfasts
In the following list I’ve included products that carry the GI Symbol so you know that they are healthy low GI choices. I appreciate that these aren’t going to be available to all our readers around the globe. Check the GI database or The Shopper’s Guide for your local low GI options.

• Natural muesli (e.g., Morning Sun) with reduced or low fat milk (e.g., Dairy Farmers Skim)
• Wholegrain, low GI breakfast cereals (e.g., Kellogg’s Sustain or Guardian) with reduced or low fat milk and fruit
• Fruit bread (e.g., Burgen Fruit and Muesli) with a teaspoon of quality (low saturated and trans fat) margarine and a little of your favourite spread (jam/marmalade)
• Other quality wholegrain and low GI breads (e.g. Tip Top 9 Grain) with a teaspoon of margarine and your favourite spread (jam/marmalade/vegemite/peanut butter/etc…)
• Quality wholegrain and low GI bread with baked beans
• Quality wholegrain and low GI bread with margarine and a poached or non-stick pan fried egg
• Fresh, canned or dried fruit
• Plain or diet yoghurt with fruit

Kellogg’s join the GI Symbol Program
We are delighted that one of the world’s leading breakfast cereal producers, has joined the GI Symbol Program. The first products GI tested according to the International Standard and meeting our Program’s stringent nutrient criteria are Kellogg’s Guardian (GI=34) and Sustain (GI=55).

The GI Foundation will be working with Kellogg’s to develop a more comprehensive range of healthy low GI breakfast cereals.

Help us get the GI Symbol on more foods
To help bring more healthy low GI foods to your local supermarket:

• Buy products that carry the Certified Low GI symbol. They are delicious and healthy, and their sales support us.
• Write a thank you email to the manufacturers’ of healthy low GI foods customer care departments to help ensure that they continue to bring healthy products to market.
• Call or email manufacturers encouraging them to join the GI Symbol Program.

For more information about the GI Symbol Program
Dr Alan W Barclay, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Glycemic Index Foundation (Ltd)
Phone: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Mob: +61 (0)416 111 046
Fax: +61 (0)2 9785 1037
Email: alan@gisymbol.com
Website: www.gisymbol.com