Science is always looking for ways to improve upon nature, but when it comes to diet, science has repeatedly failed. The human body is a highly complex organism. It was designed to eat foods that occur in nature so if we tamper with nature's delicate balance, it can result in negative consequences. The more we refine our foods or encourage diets that do not have a balance of naturally occurring nutrients and fibres, the worse our health becomes as a society. Balance is a key to wellness and so we need a 'balanced' diet. There are three basic dieting principles - low-fat, low calorie and low-carb – that people have been following for decades, yet still people in the U.S. and Australia are among the fattest in the world. It has become evident that taking account of the glycaemic-index of the foods we eat can have a very beneficial effect on both our weight and our health.

Glycaemic-Indexing is a method of measuring how much a given food raises your blood sugar. The rate at which your blood sugar rises after eating is extremely important, and until recently, has been ignored in the total equation of weight management. When you consume a food with a high-glycaemic index, it causes your insulin to rise. This increase of blood sugar has many negative effects above the obvious, such as abnormally increasing your appetite. Sharp sugar spikes result in sharp sugar drops which cause you to crave high-glycaemic, fattening foods. Although in a strict sense a kilojoule is a kilojoule, it must be understood that kilojoules do not reflect nutritional value, but rather energy. The nutritional value from 4000 kilojoules provided by vegetables and the nutritional value provided by 4000 kilojoules from confectionery are going to be vastly different. Just reducing kilojoules alone will not necessarily reduce your fat or contribute to a healthier body unless the kilojoules chosen are from the right foods.

There have been patients who, on low-kilojoule diets, had little or no success in fat loss because they were not choosing the right kilojoules. Clearly, starvation will eventually reduce anyone’s weight, but the low-kilojoule intake is insufficient to supply you with adequate nutrition and fails to provide enough energy for you to carry out your daily activities and exercise effectively. Therefore, reducing kilojoules without considering the glycaemic index will cause the body to burn muscle as food before it burns fat as food. You need to be aware of your total kilojoule intake, but more importantly, aware of the quality of the nutritional value of the foods you eat. Eating low-glycaemic foods will help you do this. The best way to lose weight long-term is by taking in less energy (kilojoules) than required for your basal metabolism. Women typically require 8400 kilojoules daily, whereas men require 11,300. Eating low-kilojoule, high-quality food is essential. Understanding how glycaemic indexing works will help you to lose fat and maintain a healthy balance.