Coursework questions to consider

1. Eggs are commonly used in many types of dishes in Singapore and they form important functions in food preparation and cooking. Create a variety of healthy and interesting dishes which illustrate different uses of eggs. Investigate the use of eggs in baked products.


2. Teenagers are not aware of the importance of having enough dietary fibre in their diet. Demonstrate how you can increase the fibre content of dishes in their diet. Investigate the factors causing the browning of fruits.

The 'GI' Hype

We have always seen food labels with low fat, low sugar, low salt or low cholesterol claims...How about low GI??? More and more food products will have the low GI claim in the years to come.

Have you ever seen these products in the supermarket before?

These products have one thing in common. Yes, low GI. So what is GI? Why is it written as “Healthy Eating with Low GI”? Read on…

The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Foods with a high GI are those which are rapidly digested and absorbed and result in marked fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Low-GI foods, by virtue of their slow digestion and absorption, produce gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels, and have proven benefits for health. Low GI diets have been shown to improve both glucose and lipid levels in people with diabetes (type 1 and type 2). They even have benefits for weight control too!

Refer to the graph below for the blood glucose response profile of a high and low GI food.

As you can see from the graph, a high GI meal will create a ‘sugar rush’ (elevated blood glucose levels), which causes your insulin level to shoot up in order to help these glucose enter the cells from the bloodstream, this elevated insulin levels are definitely not good for diabetic patients.

On the contrary, low GI foods will be digested slower, thus they can keep us full for a longer period of time as compared to high GI food, and therefore this reduces the chance of us overeating and can indirectly help in weight control.

Refer to the table below for GI classification.

Classification	GI range
Low GI	55 or less
Medium GI	56–69
High GI	70 and above

Do you think all low GI food is healthy then? Well it depends! This is because some high fat food is lower in GI as compared to their low fat counterparts! For instance, how about… plain white rice and rich butter rice? High fat food may have a lower GI because the fat can have the effect of delayed gastric emptying, thus the carbohydrate in this high fat food may be digested and absorbed at a slower rate, but do you think the lower GI butter rice is healthier?

Why should we not overcook pasta and why cook it to al dente (chewy)? This is because al dente (slightly uncooked) pasta contains physical entrapment of ungelatinised starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein (gluten) molecules in the pasta dough, these ungelatinised starch are digested very slowly or may even escape digestion! thus the increase in blood glucose rise will not be that sharp, causing the GI to be lower. Pasta is unique in this regard. As a result, pastas of any shape and size have a fairly low GI (30 to 60).

Of course, there are still many other benefits of low GI food and other factors affecting the GI value. Please refer to the website http://www.glycemicindex.com/index.php for more details! Hopefully you can share the GI knowledge with your students next time!