Health Canada evaluation

With respect to the third issue, Health Canada claims that the GI is not congruent with national nutritional policies and guidelines, implying that the GI would be used in isolation, irrespective of other important attributes such as saturated fat, fibre and whole grain content. We agree that the GI should not override sound dietary advice. However, this concern relates to any dietary claim, including ‘low fat’ and ‘high fibre’. Of note, Health Canada’s concern is inconsistent with their earlier statement that ‘low-GI diets have attributes of generally recognized healthy eating patterns’(1). However, to address their concern that the composition of a low-GI food may not always be congruent with nutritional guidelines, our suggestion would be to consider a GI claim in conjunction with a healthy food profile. Programmes such as the GI symbol in Australia require the fulfilment of strict nutritional criteria that are consistent with dietary guidelines in order for a food to be eligible to use the certified GI logo.