This is a high protein diet with low GL carbohydrates. Low GL carbohydrates release energy SLOWLY into your blood thereby keeping the blood sugar stable. This diet is not about starving yourself, it's about eating good food regularly and feeling satisfied with the food. So far, I've found it easy and fun to follow and I haven't had any cravings at all. This is a big thing for me because I used to nip down to the corner shop once or twice a day to get a sweet snack.
You can actually eat whatever you like but, as you'll see on the Glycemic Load Tables, you can't each much of the high GL foods. Low GL foods are better because they'll fill you up and stop cravings.
Every meal and every snack needs to be balanced with proteins and veg. Breakfast, Lunch and Supper must not exceed 10GLs each and 2 snacks inbetween must not exceed 5GLs each. Each day, only 40GL can be consumed in total and it is recommended to balance this out throughout the day:
Breakfast 10GL
Snack 5GL
Lunch 10GL
Snack 5GL
Dinner 10GL
Breakfast
This diagram is taken from Holford's Low GL diet book and shows how breakfast should be made up.
The essential fats are the sprinkles that I've referred to in my daily food diaries.
To know how much protein to eat, refer to the Protein Servings page.
The Carbohydrate part of the breakfast must not exceed 10GL. To find serving sizes, refer to the Glycemic Load Tables page. If you pick fruit, watch out for the type of fruit that you pick. 10GLs is half a banana which doesn't sound very filling to me!
Here's an example breakfast:
| Item | Category | GL |
| handful almonds | RDA | n/a |
| tablespoon sprinkles | RDA | n/a |
| 5 strawberries | veg | 2 |
| handful frozen berries | veg | 2 |
| juice of 1 orange | starch veg | 4 |
| 150 ml camphill yoghurt | Protein | 2 |
| TOTAL GL | 10 |
Refer to my daily food diaries for some breakfast ideas. I've really enjoyed eating a good breakfast for the last couple of weeks and it sets me up well for the day.
Snacks
As I've never been on a diet before, I'm delighted to see that I'm SUPPOSED to snack! Some snack examples:
- A piece of fruit with 10 nuts
- 2 Oatcakes with peanut butter
- Crudites with hummus
- A small yoghurt with berries
- A thin slice of rye bread with cottage cheese.
Again, refer to my daily food diaries for snack ideas.
Lunch and Dinner
This diagram is taken from Holford's Low GL diet book and shows how lunch and dinner should be made up.
Again, to know how much protein to eat, refer to the Protein Servings page. For the Carbohydrates part, refer to the Glycemic Load Tables page to make sure that you don't exceed 10GL.
Basically, I've been eating 1 serving of Carbohydrate-rich (higher GL) foods such as brown rice or potatoes and then I haven't weighed the Vegetables that are very low GL such as cucumber, mangetout, tomatoes etc - my plate would have to be overflowing with these veggies to exceed the other 5GLs that I'm allowed.
Don't feel that you HAVE TO eat the higher GL carbohydrates. It's not essential to have rice or potatoes on your plate so don't eat them if you don't want them. It's quite fine to have a serving of protein and heaps of veggies.
