Sugar 'may be good for you'

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[Hmm. There's some truth in this, but not much, I think. Some of what she says is based on the Glycemic Index, which I think is extremely useful. I don't think you should eat white bread OR drink Coke, lol! But that's because I hate the first and can't drink the latter.]

By Caroline Gammell 17sep02

COCA-Cola, Lifesavers and flavoured milk could be better for you than white bread, wholemeal bread or potatoes, a leading nutritionist has said.

Rather than rebuffing sweets and sugary drinks, people should look at the type of carbohydrates they are eating, Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, of Sydney University's Human Nutrition Unit, said. Prof Brand-Miller, who turned traditional ideas of what is good for you upside-down in her book The GI Factor, first published in 1996, has updated her message.

In the third edition, renamed The New Glucose Revolution, she has tried to simplify the science and bring her ideas into the mainstream.

Speaking at the book's launch today, Prof Brand-Miller said one in four Australians suffered from high blood sugar and this was largely due to eating carbohydrates with high glucose content.

Out of an index ranging from 0-100, potatoes, Weetabix and wholemeal bread have a glucose content in the 90s, while sugary foods such as Coca Cola and flavoured milk only rank in the 60s.

By eating high-glucose food, the body has to produce extra insulin to break down the sugars.

If the body has to work constantly to get rid of the glucose it can eventually lead to insulin failure and diabetes.

Other health risks from a such a diet include heart attacks, weight gain and cancer.

She said: "A high carbohydrate diet is still the best diet but you need to be choosy about which carbohydrates you eat.

"The book does not suggest that you cut out any food, just the type of food you are eating - swapping one breakfast cereal for another, for example. It is a this-for-that philosophy."

The Professor said the most likely candidate for high blood sugar was a "middle-aged man, 40 to 50, with a slight bulge around the waistline".

She said everyone could follow the inexpensive diet as no foods were denied, just replaced by a low glucose alternative.

She also said Chinese meals were a classic example of high-glucose food with the rice used making you feel immediately full but then hungry an hour later.

Prof Brand-Miller said the beauty of low-glucose foods such as barley, beans, pasta and muesli, is that they make a person feel full for longer.

"GI foods are more filling and they delay the return of hunger," she said.

The professor questioned recent criticism at the Obesity Summit of sugary drinks and food, claiming the need for sugar was "instinctual".

She said: "If you restrict sugars you are fighting against something that is totally instinctual.

"I think sugary drinks have a place in people's diets."

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2002


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