Lifestyle Choices

All diets focus on weight loss, and there is general acceptance that the closer you are to your ideal weight, the healthier you will be, with less risk of life-threatening and debilitating diseases.

However, your weight is only a part of the picture. Your lean muscle tissue is important as well. Vital body organs, such as your heart, liver and kidneys, need to be supported by lean tissue, as does your whole body. That is why fitness is so important. When we exercise we shape up on the inside as well as the outside.

Muscle uses up more glucose, and therefore calories, than fat meaning that muscle (or lean mass) helps you burn fat. This means that if you are heavy, but fit, your weight may not be as much of a problem as you think. On the other hand, if you are thin, but lightweight and lacking in muscle tone, you may not be as fit as you suppose. How can this be?

The reason is your body is made of both fat tissue and lean tissue (made up of muscle and organs). Having much more fat than lean tissue is a health risk. That is why your body-fat percentage is actually more important than overall weight.

The ideal percentage of body fat for a man is no morethan 15 per cent.

The ideal percentage of body fat for a woman is no morethan 22 per cent.

Yet the average man on a Western diet has a body-fat percentage of over 20, and the average woman’s is above 30.

Your body-fat percentage is easily determined using a set of special scales - your local gym should have some, or you can purchase your own set (see Resources section). Alternatively, ask your doctor to calculate it for you.

Are You Food Sensitive

One in three people now has specific food intolerances. These can cause weight to pile on, mainly due to water retention and bloating, and will cause fatigue, too. The body lets go of this excess water when you avoid the foods you are intolerant to. If you’d liketo read up on allergies in more depth, see The Holford Low-GL Diet.

The most common allergy-provoking foods are:

cow’s milk eggs

yeast beans

wheat nuts

gliadin grains (in gluten) shellfish

oats white fish

The cook’s notes for each low-GL recipe contained in this book take allergies into account and suggest ways to modify your meals.

How Stimulants can Keep You eat

One of the hardest - but best - things about the low-GL Diet was the insistence on giving up coffee and stimulants. I hadcaffeine-withdrawal headaches for the first few days, but began to feel wonderful after that - alert and fit, and thoroughly detoxified. Weight Loss: 10th (4.5kg) in four weeks

Do you reach for a cup of tea or coffee routinely throughout the day? Do you think of yourself as a chocoholic? Or are you having trouble kicking the cigarette habit? If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, then stimulants may be making you fat. When you start the day with a caffeine kick or find sugary snacks irresistible, you upset your blood sugar levels and release too much of the stress hormone, adrenaline, into your body.

If you are a smoker you won’t need me to tell you that cigarettes destroy many nutrients, but you may not know that smoking also contributes to being overweight. If you can choose to stop smoking - one day at a time - the benefits will be immense and immediate. Your doctor will be pleased to provide support if you ask.

Caffeine (in chocolate, coffee, tea, colas and energy drinks) and nicotine trigger the brain’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals (including dopamine and adrenaline). These chemicals break down stores of sugar held in your body and raise your blood sugar level very quickly, which has the same effect as eating high-GL foods. As your body craves more of the stimulant, so the swings in yourblood sugar levels become harder to control. These lead to fatigue, mood swings, anxiety, sugar craving, weight gain and further dependence. The simple answer is to give up all stimulants. But don’t do it all at once. Plan to quit, but begin the diet first. This will help to stabilise your blood sugar levels, which will reduce your cravings. You’ll then find it easier to give up the stimulants.

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