Understanding diabetes: Glycemic index vs. glycemic load

Diabetes is all about your blood sugar. You may hear the terms glycemic index and glycemic load and want to know more about them. Here is a brief summary of what each one is and what it tells you about the foods you eat.

• Glycemic index is a measure of how much and how fast the sugar in a food raises the level of sugar in your blood.
• A high or fast rise in blood sugar leads to high blood insulin levels, contributing to weight-control problems and possibly even increasing your risk of diabetes over time.
• So, in theory, a high glycemic index is a bad thing. But the measure has important limitations.
• For one thing, it compares foods directly to one another to determine which raises blood sugar more.
• In order to compare apples to apples, so to speak, these comparisons are based on an equivalent "dose" of sugar in each food.
• For example, to make the dose of sugar in carrots equivalent to the dose of sugar in ice cream, the index calls for the comparison of a tiny bowl of ice cream to a bushel of carrots.
• Of course, the carrots will have the higher glycemic index.
• The GI is also based on the effects of just one food, eaten alone.
• In real life, the foods we eat interact with each other to determine our blood sugar levels.
• Eating high-fibre cereal at breakfast, for example, will blunt the rise in blood sugar you would see if you eat high GI foods at lunch.

• A newer measure, the glycemic load, accounts for both how fast the sugar in a food is converted to blood sugar and the amount of sugar in the food.
• Whereas the glycemic index of a soft drink is similar to that of carrots, the glycemic load of the soft drink is ten times higher than that of carrots because the sugar in the carrots, which are higher in fibre, takes much longer to convert to blood sugar.
• Should you worry about the glycemic index or glycemic load of the foods you eat? That's one for your doctor to answer.
• If you have diabetes or are prone to blood sugar swings and weight gain, being aware of the impact the foods you eat have on your blood sugar is important.
• But for those of us eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, there probably won't be a need to track these measurements.