Glycemic Indexes and Glycemic Loads: you should know both

[RottenWillow]

Many fitness and diet conscious people these days are acquainted with the concept of the glycemic index, but far fewer people have even heard of a closely related idea, the glycemic load.

Very briefly, a glycemic index is a measure of the rate at which a food item triggers a rise in blood sugar. However, this measure alone does not describe the full impact of that food item on blood sugar levels. One also must consider the amount of carbohydrates in that food as well, right?

For example the GI rating of 60 for sweet corn is decent. Not great, but acceptable. (Generally, 50 or less is ideal) However, it's GL load is 20, which is on the high side. This is because corn has a lot of carbs. So the GL is a product of the GI and the amount of carbs in a given serving.

So use the link below to acquaint yourself with both the GI's and the GL's of your clean diet foods so you can get a full picture of their effect on your blood sugar.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

 

[trex74]

This is really interesting, but I am a little confused...So does this mean that a low GI and low GL is the best eating plan? Also, it lists sweet corn and carrots as having low GIs and GLs, but i thought they were no-nos? And sweet potatoes have medium GI and GL...Help!

 

[RottenWillow]

This is really interesting, but I am a little confused...So does this mean that a low GI and low GL is the best eating plan? Also, it lists sweet corn and carrots as having low GIs and GLs, but i thought they were no-nos? And sweet potatoes have medium GI and GL...Help!

Well if you want to lose body fat, then yes for sure low GI/GL foods would be ideal since spiking and plunging blood glucose would be antithetical to that goal.

Ok let's look at the raw carrot entry.

1621 Carrots, raw, diced (Australia) 35±5 80 2

Carrots have an actual GI between 30 and 40 and a total GL of 2 in a 2.8oz serving (80g). That is a great GI and a fantastic GL b/c carrots have relatively few carbs. Not sure why it's become fashion to exclude carrots from low GI diets, but the actual analysis of carrots show they're are in fact a prime low GI/GL food.

Now sweet potatoes are definitely good too, but have a far higher GL b/c they contain a lot more carbs. In practice you'd just want to ensure you don't eat as much sweet potato as carrots due to the difference in carb content.

 

[trex74]

You just made my day, thanks for clearing that up. I couldn't understand why carrots were not on the eating plans I've seen on the boards. I get it now...now i'll include them in salads again

 

[RottenWillow]

Many fitness and diet conscious people these days are acquainted with the concept of the glycemic index, but far fewer people have even heard of a closely related idea, the glycemic load.

Very briefly, a glycemic index is a measure of the rate at which a food item triggers a rise in blood sugar. However, this measure alone does not describe the full impact of that food item on blood sugar levels. One also must consider the amount of carbohydrates in that food as well, right?

For example the GI rating of 60 for sweet corn is decent. Not great, but acceptable. (Generally, 50 or less is ideal) However, it's GL load is 20, which is on the high side. This is because corn has a lot of carbs. So the GL is a product of the GI and the amount of carbs in a given serving.

So use the link below to acquaint yourself with both the GI's and the GL's of your clean diet foods so you can get a full picture of their effect on your blood sugar.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

bumping for new ladies. See link at bottom of above post.

 

[RottenWillow]

Many fitness and diet conscious people these days are acquainted with the concept of the glycemic index, but far fewer people have even heard of a closely related idea, the glycemic load.

Very briefly, a glycemic index is a measure of the rate at which a food item triggers a rise in blood sugar. However, this measure alone does not describe the full impact of that food item on blood sugar levels. One also must consider the amount of carbohydrates in that food as well, right?

For example the GI rating of 60 for sweet corn is decent. Not great, but acceptable. (Generally, 50 or less is ideal) However, it's GL load is 20, which is on the high side. This is because corn has a lot of carbs. So the GL is a product of the GI and the amount of carbs in a given serving.

So use the link below to acquaint yourself with both the GI's and the GL's of your clean diet foods so you can get a full picture of their effect on your blood sugar.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

bumping for our newer ladies. Give this a read.

 

[RottenWillow]

One stop nutritional info shopping!


Here's a site I've talked about in other threads, but never in the GI/GL thread.

Find foods by nutrient - NutritionData.com

This is an outstanding resource for finding just about any nutritional info, other than GI/GL values, on a very wide variety of food items.

 

[sbt2082]

I LOVE nutrition data!!