One of the most common challenges that people all over the world face is that of eating healthy and controlling our meal portions. Some of us struggle with it to help with weight issues, others have to keep an eye on their food intake for particular health conditions. Others just want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Whatever the motivations, one thing is true for Malaysians — and those with non-Western diets — it is a lot harder to find nutritional information, such as the glycaemic index, about local fare, as opposed to Western dishes.
A recent collaboration between two institutions — one in Malaysia and the other in Singapore — to chart the glycaemic index of Asian foods is the first step in rectifying this.
You’re about to bite into your favourite pandan chiffon cake, but you remember reading an article about the glycaemic index (GI) of foods, and how this affects your blood sugar level. “What is the GI for a chiffon cake?” you wonder. You quickly whip out your phone to google it, but nothing turns up.
