The Glycemic Index is a useful tool for monitoring daily intake of carbohydrates and related blood sugar, or glucose, levels. The relationship of carbohydrates and blood glucose is complex, and the GI can simplify food choices for diabetics.
History
The Glycemic Index is a relatively new tool for helping diabetics and others choose foods that help stabilize blood glucose levels. According to Johanna Burani, MS, RD, CDE in an article on DiabetesHealth, David Jenkins, MD, PhD and a team of nutrition researchers gathered data that eventually clarified prior assumptions about simple and complex carbs. Prior to 1994, diabetics were given a dietary exchange plan to help make food choices, based on grouping carb-loaded foods according to their chemical structure. Jenkins and his colleagues concluded that merely labeling a food as either "simple" or "complex" in terms of carbohydrates did not provide the most accurate picture of how foods are broken down and used by the body. The GI scale evolved and is now used by nutritionists and medical professionals to guide patients.
Significance
The GI scale can be used by anyone interested in a low glycemic diet, but is particularly helpful for diabetics who need to keep blood glucose levels within a normal range to avoid health complications. Diabetes is a condition in which the body doesn't utilize insulin optimally, resulting in a dangerous build-up of glucose in the blood. High levels of glucose are then circulated throughout the body, damaging organs. Diet is one way to help control diabetes.
Features
The Glycemic Index Foundation maintains a database of foods that have been tested and assigned a glycemic value on a scale of 0 to 100. The higher scale is broken down into low, medium, and high glycemic value. Foods that are assigned a value of 55 or below are considered "low." Those with values from 56 to 69 are "medium," and the range from 69 or higher is "high." Hundreds of food items have been tested so far and can be found on the free searchable database provided by the Glycemic Index Foundation.
Benefits
The Glycemic Index simplifies the task of making healthy food choices. There are numerous factors that contribute to a food's GI rank, including the amount of processing a food has undergone, the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, and how a food was cooked. For this reason, the GI database has rankings for specific prepared menu items, not just individual, uncooked ingredients.
Considerations
The American Diabetes Association suggests that diabetics use the glycemic index to "fine-tune" their blood glucose management, using the scale along with the more traditional carbohydrate counting food guidance plans. Also, a food's GI score should never be used as the sole indicator of a food's nutrition level, since some very healthy foods can actually test higher in the ranks than some very unhealthy foods. One of the best examples of this is that oatmeal -- an excellent food for stabilizing blood glucose effects -- has a higher GI than chocolate, which has trace amounts of nutrients at best.
