Results tagged “glycaemic index” from Mostly Eating

Everybody and their Mum knows that porridge is a super-filling breakfast. Except that you really wouldn't think so from reading the comments on my last post about having quinoa for breakfast; it’s just not true that porridge is a filling breakfast for one and all.  There are a whole host of reasons why this might be and I’ve jotted a few of them down in this post. If nothing else, now you now know that it probably isn't because you are freak of nature if you don’t find porridge a filling breakfast. Plus the information here might also give you an inkling as to why nutrition research is so tricky; people and their food are just so variable.

But first, a little bit about why porridge does do the trick for so many people.  Oats are high in soluble fibre, which forms a jelly like substance in your stomach, slowing down how quickly porridge is digested compared with a cereal lower in soluble fibre.  Porridge is also classed as a low glycaemic index food meaning that the porridge releases its energy into our bloodstreams in a slow and steady way, theoretically delaying that bit just before lunch when your blood glucose levels drop low enough to cause hunger, prompting you to eat again.

So on to those reasons why you might not find porridge to be a filling breakfast:

Porridge and portions vary

• People have massively different portions size. Some people have a few tablespoons of porridge, others have a massive bowlful.  A quick scan across a few recipes and packages showed serving suggestions from 35 to 75g of oats per person. There is no right or wrong to this; a little bit extra everyday might contribute to weight gain or might be just enough to help you resist that mid morning biscuit.
• Some people embellish their porridge with all kinds of nutritious optional extras like fresh and dried fruit, seeds and nuts (I am very firmly in this camp).
• As I mentioned in that last post, not all porridge oats are equal.  Old fashioned big fat porridge oats are low GI; instant oats are not.
  

Glycaemic response varies between people
The Glycaemic Index values you read about are measured by looking at what happens to people's blood glucose levels when they eat a particular food.  Glycaemic index can't be calculated by a machine and instead is determined in a laboratory; those published values are an average value obtained by testing the food on at least ten different healthy individuals (you can read more about GI testing on the University of Sydney site).  Across those ten people there will be a range of responses and for some people the energy from the food will effectively be released more quickly, most likely leaving them hungrier sooner.  Which is a roundabout way of saying that for some people porridge might be a medium to high GI food.

There’s a recipe this week, for a delicious cooling summer salad with herbs, salmon cucumber and spelt.  But first a digression into the world of wholegrains and spelt, with a couple of labelling tricks for savvy shoppers to be on the look out for.

There is a surprising amount of nutrition hocus-pocus on the web and in magazines about spelt. Apparently it is “easier to digest” and “better for you than wheat”. The digestive claims could have some substance to them (for one group of the population) if spelt was gluten free.  In reality if you have coeliac disease with its accompanying immune response to gluten then spelt is not suitable for you; it is not gluten-free.

For those of us who don’t have coeliac disease, is spelt better for you?  So hard to say with any great conviction!  Every grain has its subtle distinguishing features (a little more protein here, a bit more of this mineral). While spelt bread “with bits in” has been shown to be low GI like most other similar breads, there still don’t seem to be any reliable results for spelt itself regarding glycaemic index.

The big selling point for spelt therefore (in addition to the lovely nutty taste) is all of that wholegrain goodness with its associated fibre and cardioprotective benefits.  Something to be found in all wholegrain products, even those made from spelt’s much maligned cousin, wheat.  But as is so often the case with food, you need to look carefully at the label to be sure that you are getting what you think you you are.

Is your wholegrain still whole?
Certain ingredients just have an aura of healthy goodness surrounding them don’t they?  Spelt is one of those; nobody says nasty things about spelt in the same way they do wheat.  Spelt is a whole grain, right?  Well kind of.  Spelt is a wholegrain if it is a left as a wholegrain, but can be milled and processed until it is no longer “whole” just like any other grain can.  I put my hand up to falling for this one; upon closer inspection at home my newly purchased spelt wholegrains were actually not whole at all but semi-pearled; somewhere between wholegrain and refined.

It pays to read the label closely on "wholegrain" products.  Look out for terminology such as pearled, polished, multi-grain; these products are generally not wholegrain.  Flaked, cracked and ground may or may not be made using the whole grain.

I’m planning ahead a little here I know, but I reckon this warm sweet potato salad will really come into its own in dreary January and February. There is no way it can fail to bring a bit of cheer to the table with its sweet flavours and vibrant shades of purple, pinks and orange. Happily my plan should work; sweet potatoes, beetroot and red onion are all seasonally available now in the northern hemisphere and should be around for a quite a while yet.

This recipe has its roots in the moreish potato salad recipe in Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer book, made from baked potato, spring onion, olive oil and sumac. This autumnal version brings in sweet potatoes and beetroot and most importantly keeps the potato skins. Potato skins I love in all their chewy leathery-ness, and as your mother no doubt told you when you were growing up they are very good for you too (there you go, not every bit of advice in nutrition changes with the month!). Last but not least, for what is essentially an oven roasted vegetable dish this one requires surprisingly little oil.

Sweet potato has a lighter texture than a regular potato and has the advantage of being low GI to keep you fuller for longer. Orange and purple beetroots add an earthy note, more sweetness and a good helping of folate. The smattering of crushed sumac berries add a delicious tartness as well as more flecks of luminous pink, as if the beetroot and potato were not colourful enough already! Don’t worry too much if you don’t have sumac – the raw onion does a pretty good job on its own in providing a bit of contrast. If you are using a fresh orange for the juice (rather than a carton) you could chuck in a bit of finely grated orange zest in place of the sumac.

This salad is a regular fixture in our house for workday lunches. It tastes fabulous and provides a neat package of heart healthy ingredients: omega 3 rich oily fish, fresh vegetables and a wholegrain in the form of bulgur wheat.

There is just one area of contention in this recipe – it contains a green pepper! Personally I think green peppers are much maligned and love them in certain dishes (especially in this recipe and in a stir fry) but I know some people aren’t keen on them so feel free to substitute with a different colour (yellow looks good). Bulgur wheat is a low GI carbohydrate and so ideal for a lunchtime recipe - its slow energy release is tailored to prevent you from nodding off or reaching for the cookies mid-afternoon (my extensive desk-based trials show that this works approximately 95% of the time!). If you haven’t tried it yet bulgur wheat is super simple to cook, a bit like a sturdier cousin to cous cous; much less temperamental and with a bit more about it. In this recipe the bulgur wheat is made extra delicious by soaking the grains in stock – I’d definitely suggest trying this way of cooking it just once, even if you don’t fancy trying the whole recipe.

Oily fish and heart health

Back to the main ingredient, the mackerel. Did you know that we still don’t know exactly why the omega 3 fatty acids in oily fish are good for your heart? Some of the benefit is thought to be due to its effect in lowering triglyceride levels but increasingly it seems that one of the main ways that oily fish works is by correcting arrhythmias, abnormalities in the natural rhythm of your heart.

Different places recommend different amounts of oily fish and for different people. The Food Standards Agency in the UK recommends that most people have at least two portions of fish per week, at least one of which should be oily and the American Heart Association simply recommends fish twice a week. For people who have already suffered a myocardial infarction (a heart attack), the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the UK, quaintly known as NICE, have recently published a recommendation (in May 2007) for doctors to advise these particular patients to have two to four portions of oily fish per week. While this may all sound like a big list of numbers and recommendations I think the important conclusion is that despite a little bit of adverse publicity a couple of years ago about oily fish and its impact on heart health, most groups are now recommending eating oily fish more than ever.

Breakfast is a meal that I expect to work hard for its money (nutritionally speaking that is!). I'm very attached to the idea that if I start off with a good healthy breakfast then the rest of the day (food and everything else) will magically fall into place. A fruit smoothie for breakfast is a very tempting idea but it doesn’t really do it for me in practice - my stomach starts looking round for its next snack far too soon (I’ve no idea how those people who live on black coffee until lunchtime cope). I’m confident now that it isn’t just me being greedy because one of the top purveyors of smoothies in the UK, Innocent, have come up with a clever solution to exactly this problem: the Breakfast Thickie. Fruit, honey and yogurt blended with a handful of oats to make something substantial enough to call itself a Breakfast. I’d happily buy an Innocent Thickie every day (I can’t even whinge about creating unnecessary packaging as they are in a fully compostable “eco-bottle”) but Innocent only make one flavour at the moment (Raspberry and Blueberry) which although lovely is starting to get a bit dull, not to mention expensive.

Rhubarb is the “in” fruit in the UK at moment (by virtue of being the only fruit actually growing in the country). I don’t think anybody eats rhubarb raw (I could be wrong?) and so my technique for rhubarb is to roast it in a big batch with a sprinkling of sugar and to munch through that gradually during the week. I’m into rhubarb for breakfast at the moment; tart rhubarb plus creamy porridge is fantastic (I'm even considering freezing a few batches ready for the Autumn). But then the weather got a bit warm for porridge hence my first attempt at making a thickie, with roasted rhubarb and little stem ginger for added wake-you-up feistiness.

Today was not a day to go out to buy something for lunch – the weather forecast said “damaging winds gusting 60 to 70mph” and it was not exaggerating. It was so bad that every so often the wind gusts through the roof and makes the hatch from the landing to the loft lift up and drop with a bang (boy did that scare the cat!).

Lunch was therefore something concocted from the remainders in the fridge. The last of the virtuous seasonal, organic and local parsnips fried in a little olive oil and thyme, with a dollop of cottage cheese on the side and finished off with a sprinkling of seeds. The whole thing was surprisingly good; the sourness of the cottage cheese complemented the sweet, caramelised parsnips and the seeds added a welcome crunch to the whole thing.