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Glycemic Index: Foods
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The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure of how much -- and how quickly -- certain foods raise your blood sugar. And the Glycemic Load is an even more accurate way to measure the same thing.
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Some proponents of the Glycemic Index (including many diet books authors) would like you to believe that GI and GL are all that matters when selecting which foods to eat. In reality, diet is a more complex issue than that. ND agrees that the Glycemic Index is a marvelous tool for ranking carbohydrates (and much better than the old "simple" and "complex carbohydrate" designations). However, there are ... many limitations to GI and GL, which are explained in this section.
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The Glycemic Index (GI) is a ranking of foods, beverages and ingredients based on their immediate effect on blood glucose levels. The GI measures how much blood sugar increases over a period of two or three hours after a meal. Some scientists believe that selecting foods with a low GI helps in diabetes management.
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The Glycemic Impact Diet delves even further into the glycemic index, by taking into account Glycemic Load. This is a combination of the glycemic index of a food and the amount of carbohydrate the food has. A food such as a carrot is a common example: Carrots have a high GI - but a very low amount of carb per volume. The glycemic load of the carrot, in the end, is quite low - and is a great food to eat. You would have to eat a considerable amount of carrots in order to experience any large insulin response.
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The Glycemic Index gets even trickier when you take into account the changes in value that occur in response to differences in food preparation. Generally, any significant food processing, such as grinding or cooking, will elevate GI values for certain foods, because it makes those food quicker and easier to digest. This type of change is even seen with subtle alterations of the preparation, such as boiling pasta for 15 minutes instead of 10.
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The GI values listed in the revised table represent high-quality data published in refereed journals or unpublished values generated by Sydney University’s Glycemic Index Research Service, often as a result of contract research by industry. The foods have been described as unambiguously as possible by using descriptive data about the food given in the original publication. In some cases, descriptive details were extensive, including the species or variety of plant food, the brand name of the processed food, and the preparation and cooking methods. In other cases, the only description was a single word (eg, potatoes or apple). If the cooking method and cooking time were stated in the original reference, the details are given. The user should bear in mind that countries often have different names for the same food product or, alternatively, the same name for different items.
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