Illustration by Michela Buttignol for Verywell Health
What Is Glycemic Index?
GI is a numerical way of describing how carbohydrates in foods affect blood sugar levels.
The GI ranges from 0 to 100, with pure glucose being given a value of 100.
Illustration by Michela Buttignol for Verywell Health
GI is categorized as follows:
What Is Glycemic Load?
It gives a fuller picture than GI alone.
Thats where glycemic load comes into play.
GI is a significant factor in GL.
The lower a food’s GI, the slower blood sugar rises after eating that food.
In general, foods that are higher in carbs and contain more processed ingredients have a higher GI.
On the other hand, foods high in fiber or fat have lower GIs.
GL represents the quantity and quality of carbohydrates in the overall diet and their interactions in the body.
This is why GL is widely regarded as a more reliable tool than the glycemic index alone.
Sample Low Glycemic Load Menu
Glycemic load offers information about how foods affect blood sugar and insulin.
Here is a GL reference list with many common foods based on their GL reference range.
Studies show that carbohydrates are not bad in and of themselves.
Rather, diets that are too high or too low in carbohydrates can be problematic.
However, the study was limited by recall bias due to its observational study design.
More follow-up studies are needed to verify these results.
Both of these tools are valuable in blood sugar management and diet planning.
2021;114(5):1625-1632. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqab233
Harvard Health.The lowdown on glycemic index and glycemic load.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.Glycemic index.
