IF YOU CAN PUT VEGAN AND VEGETARIAN ON LABELS YOU CAN SLAP THE GI NUMBER ON THERE TOO!
I started a petition to help get GI labels put on our food in the UK in stores and restaurants to help make life easier for people with diabetes and insulin resistance in the UK.
I am part of the 1 in 10 women in the UK who have PCOS and a lot of us struggle with our weight (whether we can’t lose it or gain it) because of problems with our insulin. Food is seen as our medicine and only when that fails are we told to go on to drugs to help it.
I’m Hyperglycemic which means when I eat something high GI I get ill. It can cause me to vomit, shake, get migraines and suffer from chronic fatigue which meant before my diagnosis I spent about 70% of my life asleep. I’ve done okay on the diet so far, but life is still very much a guessing game. I once ate something that was on the low GI list given to me by the NHS but the brand I bought made it with a lot of sugar… my bathroom was covered in vomit from it and it lead to sugar induced heart palpitations. Hyperglycemic Insulin Resistance can damage the capillaries in your eyes, legs, brain and kidneys and leads to Type 2 diabetes and in some cases heart disease in later life.
The NHS provide those of us who need to rely on this diet as much information as they can but it’s not enough. Food needs to be labelled in stores and even in restaurants (mad as it sounds, chronically ill people still like to eat out with their friends,
you know?)
Bellow is a screen-shot taken from Glycemic Index Foundation that literally states that GI levels cannot be guessed from the food packaging we already have.
According to Diabetes UK statistics, 3.7 million people were diagnosed with diabetes last year and if nothing changes it will have risen to 5 million by 2025. Some countries, such as Australia already have Low GI labels and their diabetes diagnosis rate is significantly lower than ours (1.2 million to be exact).
So, what have I done about it? I wrote to my local councillor at home, Bridget Phillipson, and where I go to university, Preet Kaur Gill MP, to ask them to make a change. I also discussed it highly with the charity Cysters – Women’s Support and Awareness Group who all agree it would make life easier.
Please support the cause, not only will this help improve the lives of those who have diabetes, you will also help to improve the lives of those fighting to never let diabetes take them.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/225047
Photocredit: Ella Olsen – Vegetables and fruit
