2O YEARS OF GI NEWS

This month, twenty years ago, the first edition of GI News was published using what was then one of the latest and greatest forms of social media: Google’s Blogger. Professor Jennie Brand-Miller teamed up with nutrition scientist Scott Dickinson and writer/editor Philippa Sandall to launch the world’s first Blog dedicated to the glycemic index of foods. Each month GI News has aimed to bring subscribers/visitors the latest glycemic index research from around the world, with regular features including:

• Food for Thought
• GI News Briefs
• GI Values Updates
• Low GI Food of the Month
• Low GI Recipe of the Month

While the team has changed (except Prof. Jennie), and the Blog is now part of www.glycemicindex.com, this basic formula has been adhered to over the past 20 years with outstanding success – approximately 100,000 subscribers, thousands of whom access the Blogg each day, from all around the world.
Our goal has always been to help people choose high-quality carbs that are digested at a rate that our bodies can comfortably accommodate and to share the latest scientific findings on foods, meals and diets, with a particular focus on available carbohydrates (maltodextrins, starches, sugars), dietary fibres, blood glucose, glycemic index and glycemic load.

Back in 2005, available carbohydrates were the dietary demon, with the success of the Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution and CSIROs Total Wellbeing diet advising people to reduce their consumption. In particular, the sugar fructose was being cast as the worst of all of the carbohydrates – mostly by people with little – if any – expertise in food or nutrition science.

Thanks to the scare campaigns, populations responded with average consumption of available carbohydrates and fibre decreasing in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, body weight has continued to rise in most nations, but in some parts of the world, including Australia, the incidence (i.e., new cases) of type 2 diabetes has been slowly decreasing, even though prevalence (new + existing cases) rates are still increasing (in part due to improved management). We would like to think, at least in Australia, knowledge and use of the GI has helped reduce type 2 diabetes incidence rates down under, helping people to choose and enjoy better quality carbs rather than avoiding them.

Twenty years later, available carbohydrates are still demonised by many tribes, but many consumers have moved on from fructose to the latest evil, ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which happens to include a lot of foods and beverages with added sugars and refined starches. High quality science tells us that there is no simple relationship between GI and UPFs, but some devotees consider their adverse effects is at least partly due to their effect on blood glucose and insulin levels. Another form of carbohydrate – dietary fibre – continues to be a nutrition hero as the quality and quantity of research supporting its numerous health benefits continues to grow. Of course, there are many different kinds of dietary fibre, with each form having unique health benefits.

Thanks to our ingenious ancestors and modern innovators, there’s an abundant variety of carbohydrate-containing foods and beverages with different colours, textures, aromas and flavours that we can all afford to enjoy on a regular basis. Hopefully GI News will continue for at least another 20 years to talk about them, as nutrition science is still young and carbohydrates are an essential nutrient and enjoyable ingredient that add much pleasure to our daily fare.

Thanks to current GI News contributors Kate Marsh and Nicole Senior who help make the Blog what it is today, and past regular contributors including Fiona Atkinson, Johanna Burani, Kay Foster-Powell, Karen Ky Lau, Joanna McMillan and Catherine Saxelby. Special thanks to our original writer/editor Philippa Sandall and the team at the University of Sydney, in particular Doug Chappell and Gareth Denyer who helped set up GI News 20 years ago, and supported us along the way.

Read more:

• Yeung and colleagues. The Decreasing Trend in Dietary Glycaemic Index and Glycaemic Load in Australian Children and Adolescents between 1995 and 2012. Nutrients. 2018
• Kusnadi and colleagues. Changes in dietary glycemic index and glycemic load in Australian adults from 1995 to 2012. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Diabetes: Australian Facts. Australian Government, 2024.