Jackie Miao

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Snagged from hubpages.com. Shows blood glucose levels over time after a meal that is high or low in GI

Life got ultra busy again and I couldn’t log what I was eating for my apparent diet. Saying that I’ve been having better carbs as much I can, but it was a challenge during the Chinese New Year week with so many face-stuffing parties.

So what I did was pay attention to the total GI and GL of my meals. If there was a high GI dish like mashed potatoes, I would pad two spoonfuls of that with half a plate of low-GI veges to lower the GI profile of my meal.

Saying that, I’ve been making better choices on an everyday basis. I asked a friend at the gym who had lost heaps of weight how she changed her chubby genes to show a skinny body and she said, “Make better choices!”  and that’s exactly what I did; I made better choices.

Switching from white rice to brown rice, cutting out potatoes, no bread, ho fun noodles, glutinous rice, or flour-based cakes. I also substituted sugar with honey when necessary, and chose to drink calorie-free freshly brewed Tazo teas instead of lattes at Starbucks.

The verdict? My energy levels were steady and I felt my mood was more stable.

In fact I cheated yesterday, and took a few mouthfuls of some my grandma’s Ho Fun and I kid you not it made me feel so edgy, anxious, moody, and restless. I felt so uneasy that I spent an hour at the bookstore feeding myself positive attitude quotes to overcome the foulness of the carb crash. Why does Malaysian noodles have to taste so good and give you the worst carb crash ever?!

Perhaps I’ll substitute my favorite noodles with their lower-GI cousin the bean thread vermicelli, which is also called glass noodles or Tanghoon. I reckon I’ll be eating low-GI foods predominantly from now on to avoid feeling like fecal matter from the backside of a Saharan mammal. Whether or not it makes me lose weight is secondary because I just feel better after eating low-GI foods.

Mestemacher bread is yummy toasted

Here’s the 7 guidelines of Low GI Eating taken from page 183 of The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index – the Dietary Solution for Lifelong Health:-

1. Eat seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
2. Eat low-GI breads and cereals (I eat Mestemacher breads (see left) and oats for breakfast).
3. Eat more legumes including soybeans, chickpeas and lentils.
4. Eat nuts more regularly.
5. Eat more fish and seafood.
6. Eat lean red meats, poultry and eggs.
7. Eat low-fat dairy products.

Alrighty hope you are making better choices!

A healthy energy bar

Convenient energy usually comes in the form of high GI carbs like breads, rice, noodles, potatoes and junk food in bags. The problem with eating a high GI diet is that it sends your blood sugar levels sky high, forcing your pancreas to create more insulin to fix the glucose surge. According to the doctors who wrote the The New Glucose Revolution, a high GI diet over time could lead to diabetes and other heart diseases.

Here’s a delicious and healthy low-GI bar I created today that you can make at home in no time. A perfect healthy snack to share with your friends and family!

Makes 10 bars | Prep. Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 15-30 minutes

P/S: I’ve used mostly organic ingredients in this recipe but you don’t have to if you’re only interested in the GI/GL factor.

DRY INGREDIENTS

• 120gm Organic Rolled Oats
• 80 gm chopped Almonds
• 50 gm chopped Macadamia nuts
• 50 gms chopped dried Cranberries
• 50 gms chopped dried Apricots
• 2 tsps of wheatgerm

WET INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 large ripe Banana (mashed)
• 6 teaspoons of organic raw honey
  (I used N.Z. Kamahi Raw Honey but you can substitute with Agave Nectar or Fructose Syrup)
• 2 egg whites (emulsifier)
• 2 teaspoons of lecithin granules (emulsifier)
• 3 tbsp of Canola oil
  (Or melted butter, but I didn’t want it to taste buttery as it would overwhelm the taste of the nut oils)
• 1/4 cup of hot water (to melt the lecithin)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) for 15 minutes.

2. Whisk the hot water and lecithin granules in a bowl with a fork. Once the granules have melted and emulsified, add the eggwhites, mashed banana, honey, vanilla, canola oil and continue whisking for about a minute until even.

3. Baste the tin foil with a bit of butter or cooking oil.

4. Mix all the dry ingredients together evenly, then add the wet ingredients in Step 2. Make sure the mixture is not too dry, and not so wet that it is lumpy. You can control the moisture by adding water by 1/4 cup ratios. If it becomes too wet, just add a bit more oats to dry it out. The dry ingredients need to be thinly coated evenly with the wet mixture.

5. Taste for sweetness. (You can make it sweeter if you want by adding more honey but I like it mildly sweet.)

6. Spread and compress the mixture on a flat baking tin or tray like the picture below. Be sure to make it as even as possible. You can use a spatula but to get the right shape on a baking tray, you’ll need to use your fingers to press and shape it. Think pottery skills!

Spread and compress!

7.Shape it into a square and ensure that the surface is even and packed nicely.

8. Depending on how much of a baked taste you want, you can either bake it for 30 minutes (dark) like the one below, or 15 minutes (light). The darker variety toasts the nuts more so you get more of a baked taste whereas the lighter variety doesn’t cook and release the nut oils as much. Most commercial bars do them light.

8. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes.

9. Cut bars into desired sizes (like the picture below), and let cool for another 15 minutes.

Cut the bars before it completely cools.

10. Voila! It is now ready to eat.

Let it stand on a cooling rack so that most of the moisture goes before you store it. Kept out it can keep for 2 days but kept in a Ziploc in the freezer it technically keeps for much longer.

Disclaimer: The above information is for entertainment purposes only. Not suitable for those with allergies to the above ingredients.