Many popular diet books give a list of foods on the glycemic index, and recommend avoiding all foods that are high glycemic index.
When you eat a meal, your blood sugar in the blood rises. The food that raises the blood sugar level higher pure table sugar. Therefore, glycemic index is a ratio of how foods high blood sugar increases compared to the way table sugar high can raise levels of blood sugar. Foods whose carbohydrates break down slowly release glucose into the bloodstream slowly, so that levels of blood sugar do not rise high and therefore, these foods have low glycemic index ratings. Those that break down quickly cause a large increase in blood sugar and have a high glycemic index.
Most beans, whole grains and non-starchy vegetables have low glycemic index, while sugars, refined grains made from flour, fruits and root vegetables have a high glycemic index.
If you look at the glycemic index food lists, you’ll see things that should bother a smart person. A carrot has almost the same glycemic index as sugar does. That’s ridiculous. You know that a carrot is far safer for diabetics than table sugar. Therefore, the nutritional scientists developed a new measure to rank foods called glycemic load. It tells the amount of sugar in foods, not just how high it raises blood sugar levels in the blood. To calculate the glycemic load, which multiply the grams of carbohydrate in a food ration those glycemic index foods? (more…)