Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load w/Lists

**ironlurker** · Posted On: 5/22/2007 11:41am

I found some interesting material on this over the past few days. Most people are familiar with the glycemic index -"the potential of foods to raise blood glucose". I wasn't familiar with the many of the details of GI besides hearing about it constantly on commercials, etc. so I decided to read up and found out about the difference between GI and GL. Glycemic load is a measurement which is at least as important- the glycemic index multiplied by the amount of carbohydrates per serving.

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers—the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.
The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

In the only other post I could find specifically on this issue, Judah addressed how carrots and potatoes may both have a high GI, but the GL of each differs significantly. For nutritional noobs I think such info is really useful, especially where glycemic index is a commercial buzzword. Watermelon, for example, as cited above has a high GI but a low GL, while cornflakes are apparently t3h d3adly. The Linus Pauling Institute table shows that a donut and a baked potato have the same GI -disturbing enough- but the potato actually has a higher GL, making it even "worse". Most of the sites mentioned that lists of GL values are harder to find then GI values, so I'm including some.

LP Institute- gives GI, serving size, carbs, and GL:
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocente...ains/gigl.html

Nutrition Data- same columns as the above
http://www.nutritiondata.com/topics/glycemic-index

Harvard- Huge list with just serving size and GL:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newswe..._100_foods.htm

Mendosa Diabetes Resource- Enromous (750+) list with brands and studies cited
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Same site, but an interesting table with GI on one axis and GL on the other-
http://www.mendosa.com/common_foods.htm