Thank you Woo for helping us understand but I didn't quite get this part:



When you say multiply by total amount consumed do you mean by the weight of the amount consumed or do you mean by its calories? I hope others will forgive me if this is a stupid question.

Hi, I mean by its net carbs. For example, if a gram of carb has a GI of 45 (when glucose = 100, 45 is a high-moderate ranking), but you are consuming 40 grams of that 45 GI carb, the glycemic impact is in effect astronomical.

GI diets are ridiculous. They'd sooner have you eating "whole grain" breads and pasta (with a moderate-high GI, but very high glycemic impact due to their high carb counts) but eschewing carrots (which are very low glycemic impact due to their low net carbs, but high glycemic index).

What everyone doesn't want to admit or needs to figure out is that blood sugar impact is a 2 factored equation: GI AND carb count both come into play. Most of the time, total carb count is even more important than glycemic index, due to the nature of our diets (which are overloaded with carb dense starchy food). The study controlled carbs equally in both groups, so it was flawed from the start (the only tested variable then was GI, so of course low GI is gonna look wonderful compared to high GI). No one doubts that if you are going to eat lots of carbs it is better to select the low GI ones.

If you want to minimize damage low GI is the best way to go. However, what really needs to be discovered is the absolute best diet. Is it a high carb low GI one? Or is it a low carb low GI diet? No one wants to test it and compare, they want so bad for high carb low GI to be the answer that low carb isn't even being given the time of day. I am, however, entirely certain that the low carb low GI diet is the best in so far as blood sugar control is concerned.

Basically, what I'm saying is that eating a low-moderate GI diet isn't going to give you the maximum benefit if you are still consuming hundreds of carbs a day. All low GI diets tend to emphasize "whole grains" and starchy veggies and other foods which may be moderate GI but contain tons of carbs. Calories aside, just by eating that many carbs you are going to be spiking your blood sugar, even if you are careful to consume only the low GI carbs. Like I said earlier, a tablespoon of vodka has less of an effect on blood alcohol than a quart of Budweiser. Portion size matters just as much as per-unit potency.

They make it so complex, but it's not. There's no need to do any complicated math or anything. You don't need to memorize hundreds of values and stuff. Just remember that the higher the carbs, and the higher the GI, the less you should eat. After awhile it becomes innate... you'll start to figure out that stuff like Splenda and carrots, despite having a very high GI, have a very low GL because they contain so few carbs, and stuff like whole grain bread, though it has a lower GI, has a much higher GL because it contains so many carbs. Stay away from high carb foods, and eat more frequently from the low carb low GI foods (minimizing the low carb high gi foods, or higher carb foods), you'll be OK.

Now I understand. Thanks.