The world's best diet

Bryan Hubbard — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:38:00 GMT

There seem to be as many diets as sub-optimal mortgages - but which one is the best?

The accolade has to go to the low-GI (glycaemic-index) diet because not only does it help you lose weight, it is also great for your health, and may well help you live longer.

Every week a new study seems to support the diet, and this week scientists have discovered that a diet that's high in processed foods - such as white bread and standard breakfast cereals - can cause fatty liver, a life-threatening condition where large globules of fat collect in the liver.

People on the GI diet would be avoiding these foods, because it is based on low-glycaemic foods that produce only small fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin levels. These include pulses and most vegetables, whereas high-GI foods include white rice, fried and processed foods.

The GI diet has already been vindicated by the prestigious Cochrane Review, which compared the diet with six others. The GI outperformed all the others, and was especially appropriate for obese people as it still allowed them to eat a wide variety of different foods.

Those who stayed on the diet also saw a reduction in their BMI (body-mass index), and in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels.

And the participants didn't get fatty liver, either.

Adverse Reactions : glycaemic index

The world's best diet