Basing a diet on the glycemic index sounds good, but is it?

It's interesting to see how many diet books have come out in recent years taking portions of the wildly popular Atkins diet and tried to transform them into nicely packaged "new" diets. Sadly, most of these so-called diets greatly miss the mark of the masterpiece of the original.

Such is the case with Rick Gallop and his series of books on The G.I.Diet. It's an interesting concept that Gallop has capitalized on selling millions of his little books. But is the information he provides useful to people who are livin' la vida low-carb? Let's examine his latest book to find out.

It's called The G.I. Diet Express: For Busy People and is aimed to reach the active dieter. Isn't that ALL of us who are attempting to lose weight? Yep and Gallop knows that, too!

Looking at the "diet in a nutshell" outlined in this book, Gallop explains what the glycemic index is since most Americans haven't really caught on to it yet. It's all about the impact of foods on blood sugar and to choose foods that will slowly digest to prevent your body from making too much insulin which can lead to diabetes.

Here's a key point to remember: All low-carb foods are also low-G.I. foods, but not all low-G.I. foods are low-carb. This is too important to be overlooked as you delve deeper into this new diet. The ratio of carbohydrates/protein/fat is 50/40/10. Yikes!

Gallop bemoans saturated fat as "positively dangerous to your health and can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and some cancers." Um, no it doesn't, Mr. Gallop! You're referring to the MUCH more dangerous and unhealthy trans fats found in many of those high-carb foods you love people to eat on your diet.

Using traffic light colors as symbols throughout the book, Gallop lists his approved "Greenlight" foods that I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole on my low-carb diet--bread, cereal, margarine, pasta, potatoes, dairy, oatmeal, and rice. Is he joking? This can't be a seriously "healthy" diet!

Sadly, that's EXACTLY what he's trying to fool people into believing. What really got me was how much emphasis was placed on portion sizes, calories, fat, salt, fiber, protein and sugar...but nary a word about total carbohydrates! Very telling!

In fact, the more I read The G.I. Diet Express: For Busy People, it quickly obvious that this book was nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing as a front for the USDA-indoctrinated Food Pyramid. That tried and true failure of diet consisting of high-carb, low-fat, low-calorie, portion-controlled meals we've been forced to accept as "healthy" our entire lives! Not anymore!

Many of these "50 Speedy Recipes" included in the book are quite high in carbs, although most of them could be converted into genuinely healthy low-carb meals by removing the suspiciously high-carb ingredients. I wouldn't buy the book just to have to make all these changes to the recipes, though.

And I just about had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I saw Gallop RECOMMEND fast food restaurants for his diet. He gushed over Subway for their "broad range of low-fat products" and claiming they "deserve a G.I. Diet gold star and warrant your support" for offering such high-carb junk as ham, roast beef, and turkey breast subs. Wanna take a guess how many carbs that bread has in it, Mr. Gallop? Do you care?

McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Arby's, and even Pizza Hut all get the thumbs up from this brilliant diet book author seeking to help people find a way to lose weight. From the looks of these recommendations, that's probably the last thing he's doing.

Sure, some people will do this diet and think it's great because their body can somehow handle the same high-carb, low-fat diet which Dr. Dean Ornish has been pushing for decades. But not for people like me who react strongly to the presence of carbohydrate in our diet in any form--after all, it turns to sugar in the body just the same.

Finally, in the FAQ section of the book, we get the real agenda of Gallop and his opposition to livin' la vida low-carb when he describes low-carb diet plans such as Atkins as "diuretics" which only work "in the short term." Hmm, that's strange you say that, Mr. Gallop since I lost 180 pounds on that diet in 2004 and have kept it off ever since.

You're just a big fraud and I'm happy to expose you as such! But you don't care since you're laughing all the way to the bank with the millions of dollars you've bilked out of people who have bought your books. Shyster!

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written by Lindsay, July 16, 2007

Fair enough that that's your opinion but if you actually take the time to read the books, you'll see that they really do offer a healthy living plan, rather than a fad "eat all the fat you want, it's healthy" atkins stlye diet. I was 150lbs when I started the GI plan, wanting to lose about 14lbs, which I did easily, without feeling hungry and having tons more energy about me. I've kept it off easily and really enjoy the feeling of knowing that the food I eat is natural and unprocessed. And Rick Gallop does not "recommend" fast food, he says that if you have to eat it, chose wisely - hence his comments about subway. It's not great food but it's the best of a bad bunch.
I'm glad you lost weight on Atkins but don't be so quick to condemn other plans because they contain carbs, your body needs a bit of everything!