Your opinions on Patrick Holford and LOW GL diet?

[CathyN]

Hi

Just considering whether or not to try the Patrick Holford LOW GL method but have a few concerns. Some of the menu options on the diet look as if they will spike me quite badly. ( like eating 4 oatcakes at breakfast for example ). I realise that it is the combination of foods on the plate that is what appears to make the diet work - but am worried that it will raise rather than lower my Blood Glucose.

I am on a lowish carb diet at present but am on the verge of losing too much weight ( 5'1 and 8st 6lbs ) and the Holford book keeps talking about mega weight loss which I don't need.

Has anyone been on this low GL regime? If so, what effect did it have for you and were you are you happy on it?

My last HbA1c was 5.9% but I feel I have had a bit of a honeymoon period and things are seemingly not as easy as they were - i.e my sugars seem a little higher in the last few weeks which has prompted me to look into low GL.

Your thoughts would be gratefully received - just feeling a bit overwhelmed and slightly negative!!!

Cheers

Cathy N

 

[Indy51]

I can't comment on Patrick Holford in particular since I haven't read his book.

However, on the GI/GL dietary principles in general, I tend to agree with Jenny Ruhl:

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/22168291.php

Especially when I tested after eating wholemeal rolled oats (which have a GL of 11) and found what they did to my blood glucose levels:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/foodSearch ... &ak=detail

Hopefully someone who has had success with the diet will be able to advise you further, but personally I go by what my glucometer tells me, not what diet gurus tell me

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi Cathy,

I have followed a low G.I. diet for 10 years with success. I have not read the book you are referring to.

If you read around the forum, whatever the diet, there are snags for some people. Weight maintenance was a problem for me but I have re-visted the original book I used and found a solution in the maintenance phase. I find I can now add a small portion of some of the foods in the medium group, (yellow foods), as my author gives an easy to follow traffic light system and I only ever used the green list. I still am classed as underweight on the BMI chart but know that this weight is ideal for me and was roughly the same as I always was before a 6 month period of overeating, due to being unable to cope with a very personal stress factor, piled the weight on.

You have to accept that although a G.I. food is put forward for everyone, this does not work as we all have different responses and it is only be testing that we can find out what is working for us. You readings may differ after three consecutive tests on the same food but then you have to ask yourself why it was OK on the second test but not on the first and third. Was I stressed, did I do more or less exercise, am I under the weather? I will cut this food out and try again at a later date. It is the same whatever method you decide. A small portion of new potatoes are advised as acceptable by some members. Ragardless of how I am feeling physically and mentally, they do not work for me and so I substitute them with mixed beans, a starch resistant food.

I think whatever way you decide, you have to adapt it to what your meter tells you is OK. In other words, it has to be personalised.

 

[phoenix]

Personally, I only take into account the GI but because I inject insulin, I also am careful to weigh starchy foods/calculate carbs and limit the portion size so GL is automatically taken into account.


I'm not normally too keen on Holford (don't like the way he promotes supplements). On a quick look (I have a second hand copy and haven't read it thoroughly) I thought that his book was better than I expected but on closer inspection there are some things that do stand out as being not quite right.

For example he says that a 30g bowl of porridge as having a GL of 2. This is a minuscule portion if you include the weight of the liquid as well. He says a 75g portion is 5GL but he strangely (in the charts at the back so perhaps I've missed something)says that you can eat as much as you like for a GL of only 10. I don't think that's right.

My own porridge in the morning weighs 250g, it isn't a huge portion (38g oatmeal + liquid to make up to 250g).
The GI data base that Indy linked to also uses 250g as a portion size.
The average GI (from 11 porridges) is 58, the average GL 14 so his GL works out about for 75g and 30g but is totally wrong for a 'normal' size portion or anything above that.


If he was just using raw oatmeal then Indys example shows it to be wrong. In this test, raw oatmeal in a 30g serving, had a GL of 11 for 30g ( and that is medium not low GI or GL.)




Re Jenny Ruhls article: The GI originally came out of research with people with diabetes. If you look through the Sydney data base as linked by Indy you will see that some of the tests have been done on normal subjects and others on people with diabetes. When they compiled the latest edition of the index in 2008 about 20% of the foods tested had been tested on people with some form of glucose intolerance (T1, T2, IGT) They looked at 20 major foods and found a high correlation between the GI as tested on people with and without diabetes.

This doesn't mean someone with D will get a similar rise as someone without D; if they did then they wouldn't have diabetes.
It means they should have a lower spike from the same amount of carb in a low GI food than a higher GI one.

(ie if you have a spoonful of rice using GI principles would suggest that a lower GI rice like converted or basmati rice was likely to be much better than sticky rice. If you are going to eat a breakfast cereal be aware that there aren't really any very low GI ones, porridge is better than most but it is at best medium GI and not low so portion size an hence glycemic load is very important)

2008 list of GIs/GLs in foods tested on people with glucose intolerance (+ those tests using small samples)
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/conten ... leA2_1.pdf

 

[Nikkig]

I have been following Holfords low GL diet for three weeks now and the results are very good I have eaten foods I didn't dare touch previously, but have had excellent readings pre meal in the 5s posts 7 to 7.5 - on two occasions under 7. I can now eat Holfords porridge (I believe it's the inclusion of oat bran that reduces the absorption of sugars) and last night I had his Quinoa with cashews and had a reading at 2 hours of 6.8.

I thought the same about oatcakes but have had no problems (I usually have two with cheese).

The real proof will be when I get my HB1ac results on Monday after my 6 month test.

My decision to try Holford was based on tha fact that I had plateaued on weight and BG readings and had a month before my test. The change of diet has certainly kick started the reduction in BG, the loss of weight has begun again as well - I have lost 4lbs in the las 3 weeks, not brilliant I know, but at least it is better than putting it on!!!

 

[lucylocket61]

I am a diet controlled T2

I watch my carbs, but go for low GI wholefoods, basmati rice etc when I do have carbs. So far, it works for me.

 

[CathyN]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply with such thorough advice!!

Catherine, I think that the crux of this is just what you said - personalising any diet is what has to happen, and at the moment I'm really feeling like I just need someone to tell me exactly what to do and how to do it!! I'm in a bad phase and I just want something to be the magic thing that works, so that I can stop thinking about diabetes 100% of the time!!

I'm giving it a go, anyway.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time.

CathyN

 

[JTL]

I have his books and read the big one from front to back when I was first diagnosed.
The first thing to grab my attention was GL as opposed to GI.
That helped me no end to get a better understanding.
As for oatcakes ... just don't ... they're for your hamster!

 

[Jill the tt]

I have been following Holfords low GL diet for three weeks now and the results are very good I have eaten foods I didn't dare touch previously, but have had excellent readings pre meal in the 5s posts 7 to 7.5 - on two occasions under 7. I can now eat Holfords porridge (I believe it's the inclusion of oat bran that reduces the absorption of sugars) and last night I had his Quinoa with cashews and had a reading at 2 hours of 6.8.

I thought the same about oatcakes but have had no problems (I usually have two with cheese).

The real proof will be when I get my HB1ac results on Monday after my 6 month test.

My decision to try Holford was based on tha fact that I had plateaued on weight and BG readings and had a month before my test. The change of diet has certainly kick started the reduction in BG, the loss of weight has begun again as well - I have lost 4lbs in the las 3 weeks, not brilliant I know, but at least it is better than putting it on!!!

hi,
on another thread some one said to check 3 or 4 hrs after a meal with slow release carbs to get true result of that food, have you tried that
Jill

 

[Lamont D]

hi,
on another thread some one said to check 3 or 4 hrs after a meal with slow release carbs to get true result of that food, have you tried that
Jill

After two hours I am on my way back down to my norm BSLs. So that wouldn't work for some.