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With the rise of T2 Diabetes why aren't food companies required to put the GI index on Carb rich foods like bread?

david_lee05 said:
I completely get your frustration managing carbs without clear GI info can feel like guesswork, especially when two “healthy” breads can affect blood sugar so differently. Having the GI index on packaging would make things so much simpler.
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I checked high and low GI products in the year after diagnosis - only in meals as I only have a simple meter - but it made no difference at all. Not once did a low GI variant produce a lower blood glucose level than the 'normal' one.
 
What is in a name said:
It was my GP who told me not to totally exclude carbs from my diet because they were needed.So go figure !
I think we can all agree that low carb is the way to go though.
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I wonder why your GP thinks carbs are needed.

Low carb works, but I don't believe in going out in the rain and wind to buy them if I have enough other things to eat.
 
The highest blood sugar reading I've ever seen was after I followed the initial advice from my medical practice and ate a lot of fruit one evening (apples, bananas and oranges), instead of an evening meal. The result was something like 24.3 when I tested my blood the next morning. That was the point that I did some of my own checking and realised the general NHS advice to eat more fruit and switch to lower GI bread and pasta etc. wasn't really useful!

Edited by moderator to conform with forum rules.
 
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A number of posts have been deleted as they are off topic. Please remember this post is about whether companies should list the GI index on foods which are high carb.

It is not the place for a debate about low carb or low fat diets.

Regards Lakeslover, on behalf of the mod team.
 
What is in a name said:
So, I was told ages ago to switch out white bread for brown. I found a brown I liked and did just that.
Now it seems my blood sugar is spiked by the bread I switched to and have to find an alternative.
What a minefield! Wholemeal, whole grain, protein bread, bread with bird seeds in it.
I know it may be down to the individual and now they react to carbohydrates (which even diabetics need)
but it would be a lot easier if bread, pasta and rice companies and those who use carbs in their process, had to list the GI index!
After all, they have to list sugar, salt, E numbers etc; So why not GI?
Rant over.
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GI has rarely worked for me. If you PM me I can send you a recipe for bread rolls made from psyllium husks and flax meal and come in at around 3.1g per roll. They are quite fluffy and tasty.
 
CarbMaster said:
GI has rarely worked for me. If you PM me I can send you a recipe for bread rolls made from psyllium husks and flax meal and come in at around 3.1g per roll. They are quite fluffy and tasty.
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Hi @CarbMaster

You could consider posting your recipe here for everyone to see https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/post-your-recipes-here.2856/

Or if you prefer start your own thread in that forum for bread recipes….other people might have more to share.

I’m sure plenty of people would be interested.
 
Lakeslover said:
Hi @CarbMaster

You could consider posting your recipe here for everyone to see https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/post-your-recipes-here.2856/

Or if you prefer start your own thread in that forum for bread recipes….other people might have more to share.

I’m sure plenty of people would be interested.
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I was thinking of doing that but as the recipe is from a book I was worried if I posted it publicly it might infringe copyright although from I what I've read copyright of recipes is a difficult area. I also read that if one changes the recipe a little then there are no copyright issues.
 
julieclarke said:
The brown bread is ok for diabetes
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My Tee2+ meter showed that it very definitely was not OK for me to eat brown bread - I can eat small amounts of home made bread-like things made with the lowest carb ingredients I can source, but a 'normal' loaf of bread is not an option.
 
Once again mods would like to remind members to keep to the topic of the thread, a number of posts were deleted yesterday for being off topic, we are in danger of going that way again. Please keep in mind the title of this thread

With the rise of T2 Diabetes why aren't food companies required to put the GI index on Carb rich foods like bread?​


Let’s stick to the topic of GI index on food labels, thank you :)
 
Years before I was diagnosed T2 I went to my GP because I couldn't lose weight. I was putting on half a stone a year and nothing I had tried worked.
She gave me the GI diet and with a knowing look said that if I stuck to it I would lose weight. She had! I followed it to the letter and put on 4 pounds the first week and another 4 pounds the second week. I stopped following it after that and never went back to that doctor as I was ashamed and knew she would say I had cheated.
Now I know that even back then I was very insulin resistant. I wish doctors would test fasting insulin levels when an obese person asks for help.
So, in short, GI didn't work for me.
 
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Hahaha, today I went to the supermarket and read the label of some "whole wheat bread." Its first ingredient was white wheat flour. I'm pre-diabetic, and the glycemic load of food affects me a lot. One Sunday, I was craving sweets, so I went to the bakery and bought pastries. My blood sugar shot through the roof. That was in the morning, and I spent the whole day without eating and drank more than two liters of water. It wasn't until the evening that my blood sugar finally returned to normal.
 
Maybe food companies are not required to put the GI on nutritional labels as we could end up being overwhelmed by too much information? After all, why stop at GI - why not also show the Glycemic Load which can be helpful? And then, and then, where would it all end?

It's not that difficult to find out the GI of a food so putting it on a nutrition label might be superfluous.

In my view the most important info on a label is the carbs followed by fats and maybe calories.
 
ChrisT2 said:
My wife hates shopping with me as we have to examine the often small print on the food packaging to work out the good, the bad and the downright ugly values.
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I use the supermarkets' online shopping sites to research the carb content of foods. It saves all that putting on of reading glasses and peering while I block the aisle with my trolley.
 
Outlier said:
How useful is knowing GI when we already know which food is high-carb?
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As a T1, I need the carb content of foods to dose for them correctly, but I do find that high gi stuff spikes me more than low gi. So I wouldn't object to having the gi content listed on foods, but I'd most like to have the carb content, the gi is just a bonus.

But the title of the thread specifies T2 diabetes, so I'm not sure how relevant my contribution is....
 
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