The glycaemic index changed my life. It provided the answer to a question I had been asking since childhood: why was I fat but the rest of my family - parents, three siblings, two sons, any number of cousins - were slim, well-proportioned and athletic. I didn't eat substantially different foods, or quantities of it, and I was just as active as they were, yet while they seemed to burn off calories without any effort, I began to suffocate under an ever thickening layer of blubber.
It seemed so unfair. I had a tiny frame and a huge backside. When I did lose weight over the years, which I frequently did, it always crept back on - the perennial dieter's complaint.
The GI index changed all that. Within about three months of eating nothing but foods that score low on the scale I had lost about 20lbs. Any nutritionist will agree that this is a healthy weight-loss rate for a woman of 5ft 5in. I started out weighing just under 13 stones and I'm now about 10st 3lbs - a good weight for my height.
I did it - and nearly two years on I'm still happily keeping it off - by eating healthy food and plenty of it. There is no fiddly calorie-counting and I only feel hungry when I should instead of craving a sugary snack after lunch to boost my flagging energy.
And this new way of eating didn't just make me lose weight - it altered my shape completely. Over time, I went from the standard British pear I had been since adolescence to someone whose hips no longer stuck out further than my shoulders. Most of the cellulite disappeared, as did the love handles. But the cherry on the low-glycaemic cake was that I suddenly began to feel fantastic. I had a new zest for life and still do. I had felt tired and sluggish for several years but suddenly seemed to enjoy access to vast reserves of energy. That felt so exciting.
It has been an astonishing transformation. According to GI theory, I can't process refined starch - bread (unless home-made and organic), potatoes, refined grains. It turns to sugar, which is then laid down as fat to be stored by the body just in case there's a famine. Which, of course, there never is. This is known as hyperinsulinism, or sometimes Syndrome X. I have it but no one else in my family does. That is why we could all eat more or less the same but I was the only one who got fat. I'm not a scientist but I have read the theory and as someone who has been eating this way for 18 months and never looked back, it makes perfect sense to me. But I don't care how it works - I just know that it does. Once you understand the principles and discover how easy it is to apply them, it really is no hardship to give up certain things, even if the nutrition experts tell you that they are good for you.
For example, you can't eat bananas (high on the scale) but you can scoff blueberries and raspberries. You can't eat bread, white rice, biscuits or cake - but you can eat the occasional chocolate as long as it's not less than 70% cocoa. You can't drink beer but you can have red wine with lunch or dinner - as long as it's not on an empty stomach.
Anyone used to relying on black coffee as a diet prop will have to get used to cutting that out - it interferes with blood sugar levels - and there are other anomalies to get to grips with too. Raw carrots are OK but not cooked, because the heating process increases the amount of sugar they contain. Another plus is that once you have lost weight and your system has stabilised to GI eating, you can pretty much eat anything you like as an occasional treat.
It was liberating to discover that once I understood how the GI works, and remembered what was OK and what wasn't, there was no need to follow any special diet. It is far simpler than counting calories. You never have to weigh anything. GI eating is not just food combining by a new fancy name - I know, I've tried that too - but if you can ignore the conventional wisdom that you must have a starch food alongside a protein on the plate and follow the simple, easy to digest GI rules, you will feel stronger, healthier, happier and lighter than ever before. I promise.
· Useful reading: Eat Yourself Slim and Stay Slim by Michel Montignac, published by Montignac Publishing UK. The X-Factor Diet by Leslie Kenton, published by Vermilion.
