HIGH PROTEIN, LOW GI FOODS AND BEVERAGES

In wealthy Western nations where animal-based protein foods are relatively cheap and abundant, it’s easy to think of a high protein diet as one based on meat, poultry and/or seafood. Indeed, popular high protein diet books are usually constructed around eating animal-based protein foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

As illustrated in this months Diabetes Care, it is possible to consume a high-protein diet based predominantly on plant proteins like nuts, seeds and legumes (i.e., peas, beans and lentils). While the evidence is clear that vegan diets have a variety of health benefits for adults like lower body weight and decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, they can be challenging for pregnant and lactating women, and growing children and adolescents from a nutritional perspective, and for many others from a food culture perspective. Humans are omnivorous. Some people enjoy eating meat, and food is one of life’s great pleasures, after-all.

Luckily, there is a happy medium – an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet. Enjoyed by certain cultures for millennia (e.g., Indian sub-continent), it is not only nutritious but also delicious, with Indian restaurants found and enjoyed all around the world. A typical ovo-lacto vegetarian diet includes a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes (e.g., chickpeas, soybeans and puy lentils), meat substitutes (e.g., textured soy-protein), nuts, seeds, cheese, milk, yogurt and eggs. In most Western English-speaking countries, “vegetarian” usually refers to this type of vegetarianism.

While not typically classified as high carbohydrate foods, dairy foods like milk, yoghurt and certain fresh cheeses (e.g., cream cheese, mascarpone, quark, ricotta and cottage cheese) do provide appreciable quantities of carbohydrate in the form of the sugar, lactose. They are also high in high-quality protein and low GI, and are of course enjoyed by vegetarians the world over.

So, when you think of a high protein, low GI diet, don’t think that it has to be built around meat, poultry or seafood. It is very easy to eat a high protein, low GI vegetarian diet that is relatively inexpensive and socially inclusive. While a vegan diet is more challenging, it has been very popular in recent years in many parts of the West, and can be enjoyed by those who are well motivated.

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