In the final week of our low-GI healthy-eating plan, we show you how you can boost your energy levels by eating one of our low-GI energy-boosting breakfasts, lunches and dinners each day, while continuing to lose weight — a further 2lb this week. You can select these from the delicious recipes or alternative suggestions overleaf. In addition to these energy-boosting meals, you can enjoy one substantial snack, along with a fruit snack and half a pint of skimmed milk (or unsweetened soya milk fortified with calcium) for use in drinks.
Eating the low-GI way provides you with a good, steady source of energy, but now you can start getting clever. Here, we explain how to manipulate your meals to suit your hour-by-hour needs. For instance, if you are not getting sufficient sleep, when you wake up, you will probably crave foods that will give you a fast sugar hit. At moments like this, it is more important than ever to avoid high-GI foods and turn instead to a smaller than usual serving of low-GI carbohydrate with a decent-sized serving of a low-GI protein. Two scrambled eggs on a slice of multigrain toast is a good example, as is porridge made with milk, which you fortify with skimmed-milk powder. While the low-GI carbohydrate will keep hunger-stimulating hormones on an even keel, and provide energy, the extra protein (in eggs and milk) will help to sharpen your mind, allowing you to concentrate better during the morning ahead.
The same advice applies if you are falling asleep by lunchtime and need to be alert during the afternoon. A small pitta bread with a large serving of tuna salad, or an open sandwich with a slice of rye bread and lots of chicken, should get your brain back into gear.
If, on the other hand, you are tired because you have been especially physically active — after stepping up your fitness routine to burn off extra weight, perhaps — then a different type of low-GI tweak can help to re-energise you. This is the time to stray into the medium-GI food list to benefit your body. Eaten as between-meal snacks, medium- to low-GI foods such as muesli bars, Rich Tea biscuits, ripe bananas, sultanas or pineapples can give you a burst of energy to replace the stores you have burnt up as a result of extra exercise.
Gaining energy is not simply about physically fuelling your body. It also involves optimising levels of feelgood brain chemicals such as dopamine, which helps to keep you fresh, upbeat and positive. Specific foods in your energy-boosting low-GI plan provide direct nourishment for the production of these uplifting chemicals. Dopamine, made from the protein building block tyrosine, is important for a healthy sex drive in women and men. When your dopamine levels dip, you are more likely to feel depressed, irritable and moody, and to experience loss of libido. Along with tyrosine, nutrients such as the B vitamin folic acid, vitamin B12 and magnesium provide the foundation for dopamine production.
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Steak, lean lamb, pork, chicken, pheasant, turkey, venison and all fish and shellfish are great food sources of tyrosine. Eggs, milk, pulses, peanuts and almonds supply not only tyrosine, but vitamin B12. For folic acid, you should eat fortified-bran breakfast cereals, spinach, broccoli, lettuce and avocado. Milk, nuts and seeds supply magnesium in healthy doses.
As well as providing the necessary tyrosine for making dopamine, the dark meat of chicken and turkey, and oily fish such as sardines, contain iron, without which your energy levels will slump. Iron is needed to transport oxygen to every cell in your brain, your muscles and each organ in your body, and without sufficient quantities of this mineral, you may find yourself barely able to lift one foot in front of the other, or just feeling permanently lethargic, grumpy, lacking in motivation and concentration. Iron deficiency can also profoundly drag down your libido.
About 40% of British women have an inadequate daily intake of iron. Eating more iron-rich foods is one of the most significant energy-boosting moves you can take. Apart from lean meat, low-GI foods that are high in iron include fortified breakfast cereals such as bran flakes, sugar-free muesli, chickpeas, lentils, soya beans, peas and ready-to-eat dried apricots. Medium- to low-GI food sources include sultanas, muesli and wholegrain pasta. Vegetables such as broccoli, watercress, spinach and peppers, as well as nuts, including pistachio, cashews and almonds, are all good vegetarian sources.
It is also well worth adding shellfish to your regular diet. Not only are mussels, cockles, oysters and winkles good sources of iron and tyrosine, they are rich in zinc, a mineral crucial for men when it comes to sex. A lack of zinc, which is also found in multigrain bread and muesli, is known to trigger impotence, but this is reversible once intake is increased.
Equally, women can benefit from foods such as tofu, soya milk, yoghurt, lentils, chickpeas and multigrain bread. All provide supernutrients that mimic oestrogen, the hormone that keeps us interested in sex.
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So, pay attention to the vitamins and minerals in your low-GI diet and you could find your energy levels soaring. This will also have a positive effect on your mood.
Quick-fix energy-boosters
Caffeine This is a natural stimulant that can help to overcome the natural energy low you may experience about mid-afternoon. The less caffeine you consume, the greater the effect when you do indulge.
Omega-3 fats Oily fish, hemp and flax seeds are all a source of these important fats. They keep blood flowing smoothly, which delivers oxygen, energising cells and boosting your libido.
Antioxidants Found in cherries, blackcurrants, cranberries, blackberries, black grapes, blueberries, raspberries, aubergines, radishes and tea, these encourage good blood flow.
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To check on the progress of the readers following the diet, and to add your own comments, visit www.timesonline.co.uk/gidiet