Carbohydrates Glycemic Index vs Glycemic Load

The human body is designed to take in healthy fat and convert it to the sugars (glucose) it can metabolize. The human body is NOT designed to handle the high sugar and carb content of the Standard American Diet (calorie-rich and nutrient-poor). Since a high sugar and carb diet promotes the development of cancer, consider a Low Glycemic Load/Index diet amongst your prevention strategies.

The Glycemic Index

Glycemic Index (GI) refers to how fast a carbohydrate breaks down and impacts blood sugar levels. The index is on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is pure glucose (sugar). The lower a food’s GI, the slower blood sugar rises after consumption. Typically, more processed foods have higher GIs, while foods with higher fiber or fat content have lower GIs.

High glycemic foods elevate blood sugar and insulin levels, stimulate fat-storage, worsen hyperactivity, reduce sports performance and increase the risk of Type II diabetes.

Low glycemic foods help maintain more stable blood sugar levels to reduce the food-craving hormones which can cause chemically triggered cravings for food and uncontrolled eating binges.

Glycemic Index vs Glycemic Load

While the Glycemic Index depicts how quickly a food’s carbohydrates will impact blood sugar, Glycemic Load (GL) depicts how much glucose a food’s carbohydrate content delivers to the bloodstream. So while it may be helpful to know how quickly one’s blood sugar will rise from eating a food to manage blood sugar spikes, it may be more important to know by how much blood sugar levels may rise via the GL.

Watermelon has a GI near 80, but its GL is only 8.

The Glycemic Load

Glycemic load accounts for carbohydrate content and how much each gram of carbohydrate converts to blood glucose levels. Glycemic load is determined by multiplying the grams of carbohydrate in the food by its glycemic index and then dividing by 100.

Simplifying things, the American Diabetes Associations suggests managing one’s daily intake of carbohydrates rather than focusing on GI and GL for overall weight, health and diabetes management.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Lists

There are many Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Lists on the internet, including:

Mendosa.com

DiabetesJournals.org

by Tirza Derflinger
Founder, Author, Lead Educator, Speaker, CTT, MBA
Better Breast Health – For Life!™
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