Internationally recognised for her work on the glycemic index of food (GI index), Professor Jennie Brand Miller spoke recently at a Women in Science & Technology event at Freehills. The event was an opportunity for Freehills’ intellectual property team to meet with their clients and promote a professional network for those working in science and technology. Professor Brand Miller addressed a packed room about her career and life journey.
Professor Brand Miller has had an accomplished career and what makes it even more noteworthy is how she has overcome deafness using two cochlear implants. ‘The cochlear implants were literally jump leads,’ said Professor Brand Miller. ‘They acted like jump leads on a flat battery.’
Career history
Professor Brand Miller stood before the crowd as a nutrition teacher of over 30 years. Today she holds a Personal Chair in Human Nutrition in the School of Microbial Biosciences at the University of Sydney. At the university she directs the GI testing service for the food industry. In addition, Professor Brand Miller is the President of the Glycemic Index Foundation, which administers a GI certification program for consumers. In tandem with her academic life, Professor Brand Miller has written the worldwide bestselling series of books called the New Glucose Revolution. So far two million copies have sold. Her books have had a direct impact on the reduction of diabetes through people using her non-medical steps to better health.
Our declining health and the need for the GI index
The message from the professor was clear: the prevalence of obesity and diabetes is rising. ‘These days food is absorbed quickly into the bloodstream,’ said Professor Brand Miller. ‘Over the last 200 years the starches in our food have become more and more easily digested. It’s because the food industry is trying to give you what you want—soft foods that are easy to chew and ready to eat. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our rates of obesity and our rates of diabetes have tripled in the last 25 years. Tripled. And it’s not sugar. In fact, sugar intake in Australia has declined by about 25 per cent over the last 25 years. We have to make our starches more slowly digestible. We have to get back to what nature created in the first place which is starches that take longer to digest. They will stay longer in your gut and you will feel fuller for longer and that means you won’t have the urge to eat so much.’
A prime mover behind the development of the GI index, Professor Brand Miller continued on the work of Dr David Jenkins who suffered ridicule for his work in Canada. ‘Here in Australia, I was isolated from that criticism. It’s also because I was deaf and I couldn’t hear what was being said behind my back!’ joked Professor Brand Miller.
‘I truly believe that the concept of low glycemic index foods and their ability to protect us from the development of several diseases, not just diabetes, has something in it,’ said Professor Brand Miller. ‘The food industry didn't go out deliberately to raise the GI, it just happened coincidentally. So when they made porridge into instant porridge or when they made rice into instant rice, they're increasing the glycemic index. Our natural, native diet didn't include high GI foods. So if we revert to the old, wild, uncultivated varieties of cereals and potatoes—all low GI products—we will be better off.’
Proudest moment
In 2003 Professor Brand Miller received the Clunies Ross Medal for contributions to science and technology in Australia, which she described as her proudest achievement. ‘It meant so much because, until then, I had felt that most people thought that what Jennie was doing was not very important. It was not hi tech; it was diet and this GI stuff was a little on the fringe. Getting this medal meant suddenly everybody, even all the sceptics, were suddenly persuaded that there must be something in the GI after all.’ Professor Graeme Clark, inventor of the cochlear implant, was Professor Brand Miller’s inspiration. ‘I live by the insights of Graeme, namely that you ignore the critics, challenge the dogma and question authority. I tell my students that too. That is the way you make progress. You challenge authority. So women in science—don’t do it alone!’
More information
For more information regarding the Women in Science & Technology networking forum please contact