More on the Glycemic Index

I want to clarify the difference between Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load. The Glycemic Index is a system which measures how much the blood sugar will rise from a specific carbohydrate. Some very fatty foods may have a low glycemic index, but that does not mean they are good for you. Glycemic Index only relates to the rise in blood sugar from a carbohydrate.

Glycemic Load takes into account the portion size of the carbohydrate while Glycemic Index only looks at how quickly the carbohydrate turns to sugar in your body.

Some of the high Glycemic Index foods that you want to limit in your diet are processed white flour products, potatoes, and sugary cereals. I've talked about bananas before, but here is the reason I personally don't eat them any more and recommend that my dieting clients not eat them as well as my diabetics. The difference between an apple and a banana (you obviously can tell the difference by looking!) , but in the Glycemic Index world, the apple is 34 and the banana is 54. The problem here is that there is more of a rise in blood sugar with the banana and that rise stays there for a longer period of time.