....in glycemic value lists on the Internet? Before I make turnips my new favorite food, I decided to check around and see how healthy it is. Now, the SBD book allows it on Phase 1, which I take to mean, I could eat turnips baked, boiled, grilled or ground up and sprinkled over ricotta.

However, other Web sites (not necessarily SB-related) are declaring turnips an "unacceptable" food, in the vein of potatoes, corn or beets. Huh?

I require very clear directives on what to eat and the world's Internetizens are failing me on this. I can only hope the Chick-adees will not? Otherwise, it's back to broccoli at every meal.

Hmmm...I don't know it's GI, but I've found the ones listed for SB as fairly accurate. But the most important test is the effect it has on YOUR body...so include it in your mealplans, but don't go overboard, and see what effect it has on your weightloss. GI's aside, people react to foods differently...e.g. a SBer friend can eat whole grain/brown rice with no problem, but if I even look at SB-friendly rice I bloat for days. :-)

Hmmmm, that can be annoying. But remember, SBD was not created to be a diet, it was created to be a healthy way of eating to reduce the risk or heart disease, etc. The side effect is that you lose weight. There are certain foods that I know have been added as accptable merely because of their health benefits. Not knowing the truth about the GI, that would be my best guess. If the revised list includes them, and you like them, then eat them because they are good for you. My suggestion would be to pair them with something that you KNOW has a low GI that way the average will be lower than that of turnips by themselves and will have a lower impact on your blood sugar. I even apply this rule with other "cheat foods" when I let myself splurge and have them.

By the way, the turnips allowed in Phase I are Turnip GREENS, not the root. The root is for phase II.
The difference in GI readings could be because there are two different types of "turnip". There's the big orangey one sometimes called a rutabaga and the smaller white and purple one. The orangey ones are higher in calories and carbs than the smaller white ones.

I use the small white and purple ones in place of potatoes in stews. Sometimes I substitute them for all the potatoes and sometimes I do half turnips and half small red potatoes. I even chopped them this last time with mushrooms to put in the stew and then the pieces were small enough and mixed up enough that my son ate them (he won't eat cooked mushrooms if he knows they are there).

How 'bout that? I had no idea. I just got the frozen turnips (orange ones) and microwaved them up. I'm in Phase 1.5, currently (meaning I ate couscous once and had turnips).

Is there a big difference between the two kinds of turnips? I think I've only had the orange.

And thanks to all for your insight. I forget that, that SBD isn't solely a weight-loss plan.

According to Fitday, white turnips are 35 calories, 8 carbs, 2 fiber and 1 protein per cup or raw cubed pieces and rutabagas are 50 calories, 11 carbs, 4 fiber and 2 protein per cup or raw cubed pieces - not a huge difference but it would make a difference in the GI calculations.

http://www.glycemicindex.com/ is a good site... this is under GI testing. They also have an extensive searchable list. Only problem is that it's an Australian site, so you have to know what they call something.

The GI value of a food is determined by feeding 10 or more healthy people a portion of the food containing 50 grams of digestible (available) carbohydrate and then measuring the effect on their blood glucose levels over the next two hours. For each person, the area under their two-hour blood glucose response (glucose AUC) for this food is then measured. On another occasion, the same 10 people consume an equal-carbohydrate portion of glucose sugar (the reference food) and their two-hour blood glucose response is also measured. A GI value for the test food is then calculated for each person by dividing their glucose AUC for the test food by their glucose AUC for the reference food. The final GI value for the test food is the average GI value for the 10 people.