Glycemic Index/Glycemic Load
 

Hi!

This question is for the Zone Coach, or anyone more knowledgeable that I am about what's currently happening in Zone land.

I know that the favorable carb lists are based on the glycemic index. With the introduction of the glycemic load concept by Dr. Willett at Harvard, has there been any though of revising the lists? Thanks!

beegee
172/105/105
Zone since 1998

Glycemic Load
 

Reference:

www.mendosa.com/gilists

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how fast a carbohydrate triggers a rise in circulating blood sugar—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.

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. Foods that have a low GI invariably have a low GL, while foods with an intermediate or high GI range from very low to very high GL. Therefore, you can reduce the GL of your diet by limiting foods that have both a high GI and a high carbohydrate content.

GL is calculated from the number of absorbable grams in a
"portion" X the GI.

Yes, I certainly agree that limiting hi carb/hi GI reduces overall gycemic load.....thank you for the concise explanation

I guess what surprised me was that a few of the carbs I normally associate with having high GI's had more reasonable GL's in the amounts (portions) one would normally eat--I'm thinking of chickpeas and popcorn, if I remember correctly--there may have been a couple of others.... I suppose it was a bit of wishful thinking that a few items like that might be moved around on the favorable/unfavorable lists.

I am pretty comfortable at this point knowing how various carbs affect me, so my question was more curiosity/academic than anything else.

Anyway, it's nice to "meet" you and the other Zoners here.

beegee
172/105/105
Zone since 1998

GI/GL
 

I forgot to mention, Dr. Sears recommends keeping the GL to less than 3000 per meal.

Also, you may have noticed some items moved from the favorable list to the unfavorable list ~ pineapple for instance... :(

Thank you for the info! 3000, eh? I'll have to do some tracking for fun.

And no, I was totally ignorant of any changes in the lists. That's what I get for living in my own "zone" I guess and not paying much attention to the websites.

Any more "good" news I need to know, lol. beegee