More than two million people have purchased Rick Gallop’s diet books, published in 23 countries in eight languages. The G.I. diet has bestowed worldly fame on him, but it is at his modest cottage on Lake of Bays where he feels most at home.

In plaid shorts with knee-high socks, sweeping grey hair and tiny eyes behind round glasses, Rick Gallop is undeniably British.

But the world renowned author of the G.I. diet books and former Heart and Stroke president is also a true Canadian, Torontonian and Muskokan.

“My Canadian soul is right here,” he says, sipping a beer on the dock of his Lake of Bays cottage.

Gallop first came to Muskoka shortly after arriving in Canada in 1964. “I took a girlfriend here canoeing for the weekend,” he says. “Thought it would be romantic, but I had no idea it was this brilliant.”

As he was paddling on Canoe Lake, a thought dawned on him.

“I remember thinking on that lake, if I had a camera and I could film what I see right now, I’d quadruple the number of Brits emigrating to Canada!”

It was then he realized the beauty of the area and started dreaming about having a summer home in Muskoka.

It was in Muskoka, at the traffic lights in Dorset, that Gallop got the idea that would sell him millions of books: red-, yellow- and green-light foods.

He had researched the concept of the glycemic index as a tool for weight loss. In short, it’s a scale for how slowly the body digests foods — the slower it takes, the longer you feel full, the less food you will eat.

But Gallop found that telling people low G.I. foods meant automatic weight loss was incorrect.

“Because there are foods that are high in calories but low in G.I.,” he says.

He needed a simple way to communicate which foods were great, which should be eaten on occasion and which should be avoided altogether.

“And it dawned on me at the lights in Dorset. It’s quite clear, really. It’s either a go or a no go situation.”

The grandfather of two is the first to admit that he is not a medical doctor, nor did he invent the concept of a glycemic index (G.I.). “I just made it simple, accessible and user-friendly.”

Before he was a world famous author, Gallop was the president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. When he arrived on the scene, the organization was a small, not-for-profit business struggling to survive.

“I had to instill in the volunteers that without money, without profit, we couldn’t possibly research or raise awareness.”

In his 16 years there, Gallop turned the organization into a $110-million operation, earning a profit of $750 million that was put towards research.

It was then he started to get involved with heart and stroke awareness, and started to question how to get people “to get off their butts, change their ways.”

After dislocating a spinal disc jogging around Lake Muskoka — the location of his then cottage — Gallop himself put on a fair amount of weight.

Once he healed, he looked for ways to get in shape.

“We couldn’t have a tubby Gallop telling people to care about their health,” he says. “I knew I had to walk the talk.”

He studied the glycemic index, dropped 30 pounds, and saw the diet’s potential.

Although his books have been wildly successful, especially in his native country, Gallop’s 97-year-old mom in Nottingham, England still has trouble believing it.

He says she calls him often after seeing one of his countless diet and recipe books on the shelves and says, in her very British grandma voice, “Is this you, Rick? Can people buy this?”

It’s a diet that is easy to fit into just about any lifestyle, he says from the deck perched high in the trees, overlooking the lake.

As he bites into his lunch — egg and tuna salads, whole grain bread and a waldorf salad — Gallop reflects on his success and his location.

“I know that being in Muskoka has given me a love of a certain lifestyle,” he adds. “I kayak, I jog daily. But you can be just about anywhere and be healthy, exercise and eat well.”