The glycemic index, or GI, of a food with carbohydrates indicates the potential of that food to cause rapid spikes in your blood sugar levels, causing your body to release insulin. If you follow a GI diet, you make food choices based on their GI values, so you need to know which foods have a high or low GI. The GI does not consider factors such as calories or nutrient content, so talk to a nutritionist if you need help developing a healthy diet plan.
High-GI
High-GI foods include candy, refined breakfast cereals, refined grains, such as white bread or rice, and pastries, such as doughnuts or cake. Other high-GI foods include watermelon, carrots and baked potatoes. These foods have the most potential to spike your blood sugar levels and are typically more refined, processed or cooked. You may lower your risk for type 2 diabetes if you limit your intake of high-GI foods to lower your risk for type 2 diabetes.
Moderate-GI
Moderate-GI foods include brown rice, cooked pasta, grapes, oranges, peas and bran cereal. Moderate-GI foods are often high in calorie-providing carbohydrates, and they may have more fiber, fat or protein than high-GI foods. For example, potato chips, which have oil in them, are moderate-GI, while boiled potatoes are high-GI. After a hard workout, eat about 25 to 100g of carbohydrates from a moderate or high-GI food to speed up muscle recovery.
Low-GI
A GI diet is most likely to emphasize low-glycemic foods. These include a variety of beans, such as kidney, butter or garbanzo beans, lentils, peanuts, soybeans, dairy products, such as full-fat or fat-free milk, and some whole grains, such as barley and whole-wheat spaghetti. Pears and apples are also low-GI. Low-GI foods can help you maintain more stable blood sugar levels, and they are good choices before a workout, because they provide lasting energy.
Considerations
A limitation with using GI food lists is that they may not include the exact brand of food or information on the way it is prepared. Another limitation is that the GI does not consider the nutritional value of the food. A candy bar with chocolate and nuts may have a low-GI, but may be high in saturated fat and sugar, while carrots, which provide vitamin A and dietary fiber, have a high GI.
References
- Iowa State University Extension; Eat to Compete: Glycemic Indexes of Common Foods; 2006
- Iowa State University Extension; Eat to Compete: Carbohydrate; 2006
- Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center: Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load; Jane Higdon; December 2005
- Mayo Clinic: Glycemic Index Diet: Losing Weight with Blood Sugar Control; November 2009
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