The following is a quote from page 43 of "The Glucose Revolution" by Jennie Brand-Miller, Thomas M. S Wolever, Stephen Colagiuri and Kaye Foster-Powell.

"THE POWERFUL EFFECT OF ACID ON G.I. (VINEGAR, LEMON JUICE, SOURDOUGH BREADS)

Within the last few years, several reports in the scientific literature have indicated that a realistic amount of vinegar or lemon juice in the form of a salad dressing consumed with a mixed meal had significant blood sugar lowering effects.

As little as 4 teaspoons of vinegar in a vinaigrette dressing (4 teaspoons vinegar and 2 teaspoons oil) taken with an average meal lowered the blood sugar by as much as 30 percent. These findings have important implications for people with diabetes or individuals at risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease or Syndrome X (impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension and high blood lipid levels).

The effect appears to be related to the acidity because other organic acids (such as lactic acid and propionic acid) also have a blood sugar lowering effect but the degree of reduction varies with the type of acid. Our findings show that among the various types of vinegar, red wine vinegar was the best. And lemon juice was just as powerful. It is well known that acidity in food puts the brake on stomach emptying, slowing the delivery of food to the small intestine. Digestion of the carbohydrate in the food is therefore slowed and the final result is that blood sugar levels are significantly lower. Good news for people with diabetes! The take home message is that a side salad with your meal, especially a high G.I. meal, will help to keep blood sugar levels under control.

SOURDOUGH BREADS, in which lactic acid and propionic acid are produced by the natural fermentation of starch and sugars by the yeast starter culture, also produce reduced levels of blood sugar and insulin compared with normal bread. The area under the plasma insulin curve was 22 percent lower with the sourdough product. In addition, there was higher satiety associated with breads having decreased rates of digestion and absorption. Thus there is significant potential to lower blood sugar and insulin and increase satiety with sourdough bread formulation.

This was originally posted back in Sept. 2000 on the weekly board.


Is the tomato a fruit or vegetable?

To really figure out if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you need to know what makes a fruit a fruit, and a vegetable a vegetable. The big question to ask is, DOES IT HAVE SEEDS?

If the answer is yes, then technically, you have a FRUIT. This, of course, makes your tomato a fruit. It also makes cucumbers, squash, green beans and walnuts all fruits as well. VEGETABLES such as, radishes, celery, carrots, and lettuce do NOT have seeds (that are part of what we eat) and so they are grouped as vegetables.

In 1893 , the Supreme Court ruled that the tomato must be considered a vegetable, even though, botanically, it is a fruit. Because vegetables and fruits were subject to different import duties, it was necessary to define it as one or the other. So, tomatoes were declared to be a vegetable given that it was commonly eaten as one. The ruling has never changed.

Tomatoes have a GI rating.

Here's the link to LaTortilla factory.... whole wheat tortillas with NO SUGAR added:
http://www.latortillafactory.com/

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Healthy Hugs!

This was posted back in Nov. on the recipe board, but thought it was good to put it here as well.

YOGURT CHEESE

This is easy to make. You can use it as a substitution for sour cream and/or cream cheese.

Use any NATURAL YOGURT, that does NOT contain gelatin. Gelatin holds the whey in the yogurt and does not allow it to drain off.

Place yogurt into a yogurt drainer (funnel with a fine mesh), cheese cloth tied into a bag and allowed to drain overnight suspended over the kitchen sink, or a strainer lined with a coffee filter sitting over a bowl.

Allow to drain anywhere from 2 - 24 hours, if you want to use as a sour cream, maybe around 2-4 hours, or until desire creaminess is achieved, or for cheese, at least 24 hours, but personally, I let mine go for longer sometimes.

A 32oz container will yield approx. 2 cups yogurt cheese.

You can use fat free yogurt, but I prefer the low fat instead. Recipes using lowfat vanilla yogurt can be adapted to nonfat plain yogurt by adding sweetner and vanilla to taste.

Also, I like to use STONEYFIELD FARMS or AXELROD LF yogurt.

Here's are some great sites that tell you about STEVIA


STEVIA:
http://www.emperorsherbologist.com/stevia.htm


COOKING WITH STEVIA FAQS:
http://steviapetition.org/stevia/faq.html

Make sure you check out the sub pages, lots of info!!!!

BEACHFAN provided this very helpful information found in the SB book about DAILY PORTIONS


Daily Portions:

2 Fruits: Example (1/2 grapefruit, 1 orange, 1 apple, 1 tangerine, 1 cup grapes etc.)

3 breads or grains: Example (1 piece WW bread, 4 triscuits, 1 cup cereal, 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup brown rice)

6-8oz Protein: Example (turkey, roast, chicken, cheese, peanuts, almonds etc.)

2-3 cups Vegetables: Examples (green beans, asparagus, brocolli, etc.)

1-2 cups Milk


also, 2 other points she noted from the book:

If you have a low metabolism and store fat very easily, you may want to skip the pastas, rice or breads altogether and substitute one or more of the lower-glycemic carbohydrates listed on Figure 4.

Also, in the back of the book under questions it says that the most common reason for people not losing weight is eating too much of the legal carbohydrates.


THANKS BEACH!!

Since it seems we can have sourdough bread, I found this wonderful bread by Rudi's-here's the link to the site that shows not only the label, but the ingredients!!


http://www.rudisbakery.com/pages/pag...andwich-rmsour

RICE


Rice is one of the foods most tested for its glycemic indexes. They are important because most of us tend to eat a lot of rice abecause they can have a high glycemic index. Professor Brand-Miller reports the results of 49 studies of rice with the results for rice ranging all the way from 54 to 132.

What could possibly cause such tremendous variation? According to Professor Brand-Miller, for rice one of the most important considerations is the ratio of amylose to amylopectin. She says that "the only whole (intact) grain food with a high G.I. factor is low amylose rice, such as Calrose rice...However, some varieties of rice (Basmati, a long grain fragrant rice, and Doongara, a new Australian variety of rice [which is not available in the United States] have intermediate G.I. factors because they have a higher amylose content than normal rice."

Wallace Yokoyama, a research chemist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Albany, California, gave me a comprehensive explanation. There are, says this noted rice specialist, four types of rice: long-grain, medium-grain, short-grain, and sweet rice. Sweet rice is also known as sticky or waxy rice. It makes the best sauces and gravies, and is usually the rice used in Asian restaurants. Sweet rice has no amylose, Yokoyama says. In other words, it is the rice that has the highest glycemic index. The three other types of rice have lower glycemic indexes. Among these types, long-grain rice has the highest amylose content and short-grain the lowest.

Of course, each of these three types of rice may be brown or white. Brown rice has a lower glycemic index than white rice, everything else being equal. Therefore brown long-grain rice -- or if you can find it -- brown Basmati rice -- will probably be your best best for a rice with a lower glycemic index. White Basmati rice had a glycemic index of 83 in one study. Brown Basmati rice can be expected to have a somewhat lower index, but we don't know precisely what it is, because the studies haven't been done yet.

Richard Jackson maintains in e-mail to me that my statement that there are three basic types of rice is "somewhat incorrect." He says that there is also a sweet rice used in oriental cooking. "It is not only very much stickier than standard Asian milled rice (such as Kokuro Rose Brand)," he writes, "but is perceptably sweeter when eaten. It is typically fermented prior to cooking, whereas standard Japanese-style milled rice is not. I think if more research is done into this factor, the data may prove that the difference between sweet rice and regular Asian-style rice is different on the scale of caloric values as pertains to ingestion by diabetics."

Here's the skinny on THE FRUIT RULE. If fruit doesn't bother you at all, you can eat it with other foods-BUT, the reasoning behind that is best explained by Montignacs Book:

Fresh fruit should preferably be eaten on an empty stomach. This particular advice has little to do with the weight loss in which we are interested. It is instead to assure better digestive comfort because the consumption of fruit at the end of a meal, as is often the habit, can cause digestive problems.

The digestion of fruit begins in the mouth with the chewing and ends in the small intestine. Fruit, then, has nothing to do in the stomach but go through it. When fresh fruit is eaten after foods containing proteins, such as meat or cheese, it is blocked for a certain amount of time in the stomach by the digestion of the proteins even though it would prefer to pass quickly to the intestines. Fruit is imprisoned in the stomach and, under the effects of heat and humidity, may ferment, sometimes even causing a small amount of alcohol to be produced. The whole digestive process could then suffer (bloating).

Fruit should be eaten whenever you have an empty stomach - in the morning for example, before breakfast. But you should wait about fifteen minutes before beginning to eat something else, in order to allow it to pass easily through the stomach. You could also eat fruit late at night before going to bed, that is, at least three hours after the end of dinner. A piece of fruit could be eaten in the middle of the afternoon. But you should also be sure to leave a sufficient amount of time following lunch (about 3 hours) and before dinner.

As all rules have exceptions, some kinds of fruit, because they have a very low concentration of sugar, do not ferment easily. Included in this category are STRAWBERRIES, RASPBERRIES, BLACK CURRANTS, RED CURRANTS and BLACKBERRIES, which can be eaten with no problem at the end of a meal.

Cooked fruits can also be eaten at the end of meals because they lose the ability to ferment in the stomach. Lemon does not ferment either, so you can drink its juice (unsweetened) at any time or use it to flavor food.

Does anyone know if this would be a legal food - Holland Rusk light, crisp toast? The ingredients are wheat flour, glucose syrup, eggs, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and one or more of palm oil, soya oil, coconut oil and canola oil. It says 2 pieces contains 60 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbs and 2 grams sugar. Thanks for your help. Linda

Lin Mae,

I do not think that would be legal. If you were a Diabetic, possibly, with the content of sugar. However, Sugar Busters does not allow any sugar, whatsoever. Also, the sugar that is in the recipe wouldn't be legal. So, I truly do not think it would be legal.

But, please keep in mind that I have only been with Sugar Busters since last summer (little over a year), so someone more experienced might have to correct me.

Sincerely,

April Marie

Moving Up!

This article is from Rick Mendosa's Diabetic Newsletter of May, 2001. http://www.mendosa.com/diabetes_update_14.htm

Eat Your Carrots!

For fully 20 years we have had questions about whether to eat carrots or not. The first journal article ever published on the glycemic index indicated that we quickly digest the carbohydrates in carrots. That study that showed the GI of carrots at 92 (where glucose = 100). A later study that got much less attention showed the GI of carrots to be 49.

Originally, I included both studies as the basis for the average number I report on my GI Lists <http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm> page. I based that on the first Australian edition of The G.I. Factor, which did the same thing.

Subsequently, Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller, the lead author of that book, now published in the U.S. as The Glucose Revolution, determined that the first study was fatally flawed (as she wrote me) and threw it out of her tables. I followed suit.

A week ago Dr. Brand-Miller wrote Dr. Thomas Wolever, Canada's top GI researcher, with the results of a new study. She sent a copy of the message to me, as follows:



My response noted that Michel Montignac's book Eat Yourself Slim on pages 67-68 claims that it is cooked carrots that have a high glycemic index.

Dr. Brand-Miller's reply was succinct and to the point:



These numbers mean that everybody-even those following the Sugar Busters! diet-should now feel comfortable eating carrots or drinking carrot juice.

Copied from the NOVEMBER, 2001 WEEKLY SUPPORT BOARD.

I wanted to bring up this thread (if it's okay with ya, Deb ) because I often refer to it, and becasue I found an abbreviated GI list that I thought you all might like. Please note this is for equal measures of food, so in my instance, when I was looking up cornstarch, this is for 3.5 oz of food - I don't think many of us would eat 3.5 oz of cornstarch, but 3.5 oz of potatoes, well, thats' another story! It copied funny, but the bottom number on each food is the number we want to look for.
viv

AVERAGE PURE-CARBOHYDRATE CONCENTRATION FOR 100 g (3.5 oz.) OF FOOD AND
GLYCEMIC INDEX

FOOD
PURE CARBOHYDRATE
GLYCEMIC INDEX

Beer
5g
110

Baked potatoes
25g
95

French fries
33g
95

Puffed Rice
85g
95

Mashed potatoes
14g
90

Instant rice
24g
90

Honey
80g
90

Cooked carrots
6g
85

Corn flakes
85g
85

Plain Popcorn
63g
85

T 45 flour (white bread)
58g
85

Rice cake
24g
85

Potato chips
49g
80

Cooked broad beans
7g
80

Tapioca
94g
80

Crackers
60g
80

Pumpkin/squash
7g
75

T 55 flour (baguette)
55g
75

Watermelon
7g
75

T 65 flour (farmhouse bread)
53g
70

Sweetend cereals
80g
70

Chocolate bars (Mars)
60g
70

Boiled peeled potatoes
20g
70

Sugar (saccharose)
100g
70

Turnip
3g
70

Cornstarch (US) Cornflour (Brit)
88g
70

Corn
22g
70

Instant non-sticky rice
24g
70

Cola
11g
70

Noodles ravioli
23g
70

T 85 flour (brown bread)
50g
65

Unpeeled boiled potatoes
14g
65

Refined semolina
25g
65

Classic preserves
70g
65

Cantaloupe
6g
65

Banana
20g
65

Processed orange juice
11g
65

Raisins
66g
65

Long-grein white rice
23g
60

B flour shortbread cookies
68g
55

Butter cookies
75g
55

White pasta
23g
55

Whole wheat bread (T 150)
47g
50

Buckwheat flour
65g
50

Buckwheat pancake
25g
50

Sweet potato
20g
50

Kiwi
12g
50

Basmati rice
23g
50

Whole brown rice
23g
50

Sorbet
30g
50

Whole white pasta (T 150)
19g
45

Bran bread
40g
45

Al dente spaghetti
25g
45

Pumpernickel bread
45g
40

Fresh peas
10g
40

Grapes
16g
40

Fresh-squeezed orange juice
10g
40

Natural apple juice
17g
40

Whole rye bread
49g
40

Whole-wheat 100% pasta (T 200)
17g
40

Kidney beans
11g
40

Fresh 100% whole-wheat bread (T 200)
45g
40

Vanilla bean ice cream
25g
35

Chinese vermicelli
15g
35

Ancestral indian corn
21g
35

Quinoa (cooked)
18g
35

Dried peas (cooked)
18g
35

Raw carotts
7g
35

Whole yogurt
4,5g
35

Low-fat yogurt
5,3g
35

Oranges
9g
35

Pears, figs
12g
35

Dried apricots
63g
35

2% milk
5g
30

All-Bran
46g
30

Peaches
9g
30

Apples
12g
30

White beans
17g
30

Green beans
3g
30

Brown lentils
17g
30

Chickpeas (cooked)
22g
30

Sugar-free "marmelade"
37g
30

Dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
32g
22

Green lentils
17g
22

Split peas
22g
22

Cherries
17g
22

Plums, grapefruit
10g
22

Fructose
100g
20

Soya (cooked)
15g
20

Peanuts
9g
20

Fresh apricots
10g
20

Walnuts
5g
15

Onion
5g
10

Garlic
28g
10

Green vegetables, lettuce, mushrooms, tomatos, eggplant, green pepper, cabbage, broccoli, etc.
3 à 5g
10

moving up