....New Glucose Revolution, and I'm more confused than ever!

Not so much confused with the science of the diet, but more confused at the contradictory things I've been reading between NGR and MM. I bought NGR because so many people here said it was the same as MM, explained in easier to read language, however not so confusing.

However it seems very different. In this book (NGR) the author says that carbs like pasta, potato and bread are NOT so bad after all. In fact they have low GIs!! Yet this is in contradiction with MM, is it not?

She also says that SUGAR is only bad when combined with FAT, implying that by itself it isn't verboten, as I was led to believe it was. Does anyone eat sugar on MM?

I looked at some of her other sample foods that are low in GI that she recommends and they seem to be foods that I'm hearing people say NOT to eat on MM (i.e. potato's, pasta). Maybe she's writing more for weight maintenance as opposed to weight loss?

Shirls - I'll get back to you with more as soon as I can -I've got some morning stuff to do right now - if you check the top of the recipes it says whether they are rated low or moderate. The low ones are best for the weight loss phase.

Gotta go got a son to wake up -not the one in the pic. I'll explain about that later too.

Ok I have things undercontrol - l stubborn teenaged boy out of bed and his breakfast made

This contradiction problem is something we all share - I would say go with the NGR book if you are confused because Montignac contradicts himself a lot. The GI table at the back of the book will help you a lot. Something that confuses people is how the GI of a food can change by the cooking time or method - pasta's gI increases the more it is cooked. Rice is very variable according to type brown and basmati are lowest. For pasta as far as I understand you can have it on montignac - make sure it is made with durham-semolina wheat (most here in Canada is) do not use fresh pasta, it is not processesed the same way as the dry packaged and has a higher GI - the way the dry pasta goes through the machine causes a procedure called extrusion which gives it a lower GI. Its best to have a meatless sauce on your pasta or rice. However I have had some homemade spaghetti sauce where I knew it was very low in fat because I made it and I just added more tomatoes to mine so it had very little meat in it.

The yellow peas and brown rice should be ok- I don't think that the kind of protein made by combining grains and legumes is a no no - its the fat in the meat proteins that should be avoided with carbs. Vegetarian proteins should be allright.

As for sugar - it's definetly out on Montignac - he suggests fructose as a sweetner or stevia. Montignac along with many other diet authors believes that artificial sweetners have as bad an effect on the blood sugar as real sugar and can cause people to not lose weight. On the general Low Carb forum there is a lot of discussion about this some people do use other sweetners as they just can't give them up. It is really best to try and wean yourself from sugar and sweetners though I know for some this is easier said than done. Check out the recipe thread here for some dessert ideas.

Hopefully Spang will see your questions and also reply - I feel a bit incompetent at trying to explain things and she is much better at it. I am afraid I only confuse you more

About how to get a picture under your name - I think you need 25 or 50 posts - before you are allowed to and then you can click on your profile (top of page under orange bar) and go to edit profile and down at the bottom there are lots of little pics to choose for an avatar (thats what the pic is called) or you can choose to upload a photo from your computer - the pic has to be cropped to 100x100 pixels. Its lot's of fun to see what our "virtual freinds" look like. That pic of my son is very old - I just like to pretend I'm still that young He is 24 now and graduating this year from University of Toronto my other son is 15 and in High School.

anyway this is extremely long. I better stop now.

MM is a diet book for weight loss.

NGR is a book about healthy eating, with a section of it devoted to weight loss. Therefore it may seem as though NGR contradicts intself, but it is mainly adapting the basic principles for what type of diet you want.

Compared to the average "non low carb dieter" diet, pasta etc have low GIs.

Compared to Montignac's strict noting about 30 GI in phase 1, and nothing about 50 GI in phase 2, pasta ect would be out even possibly on phase 2.

I prefer NGR to MM as it is more up to date, less contradictory and has more actual useful information about GI vs GL. Montignca barely mentions GL at all.

i still don't eat much sugar whatever any book says - except the occasion fructose.

Basically, the more weight you want to loose, the lower GI / GL food you should consume. Based on this - Montignac being mainly a weight loss mantra book - says don't eat pasta etc, ngr - which isn't mainly a weight loss book, is not so harsh.

The basics between the 2 ARE the same - LOW GI, LOW GL

Hope this helps

Spang

Thanks Spang and Koko for helping me through these initial stages.

It makes sense now, knowing that MM is more for weight loss, and NRG more for healthy lifestyle, hence the seeming contradictions.

I was so fed up and frustrated reading the book and finding all the contradictions between MM and NGR, I actually returned the book (maybe this was a mistake) and got the Suzanne Somers one because I wanted to start this diet straight away, and I think (from what I've read here) she follows the MM plan more closely. (Still awaiting shipment for the MM book. Such a pain we don't have it here!)

So for weight loss, you recommend the MM and then continue with the NGR menu plans once weight loss is achieved?

Also, I am really unclear about the correlation between the GI and GL. I have read about this on the Mendosa site and in the NGR book, but I'm just not getting it.

Can anyone explain this to me in simple English? What is more important, the GI or GL? How do we use it together?

Thanks again for all your help. You guys are the best!

Hi Shirl

Re the GI/GL usually they are about the same not the numbers but if 2 foods have a similar GI they will have a similar GL - but not always. I will have to re-look at my book to help you out - but hang in I will try to help. Normally though if the food is in a low GI the GL will also be low - I would say eat by the GI. However if you run accross a situation where it tells you that a hershey bar has a 12GI and a 89Gl avoid it by all means!!!!


I know this is not much help - but truly since I am not an expert I would hate to give you misleading info. I am much more comfortable with understanding the plan now but I'm a bit inarticulate in explaining it to others. You do seem though to have a pretty good grasp of what is good and what is bad. I bet in a few days you will be understanding a lot more - that's how it went for me.