Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

Not all carbohydrate foods are created equal.

The higher the Glycemic Index, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a smaller rise, while a high GI food will trigger a greater rise. A list of some common foods with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI of 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

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 better picture than the glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate is converted 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. Watermelon, for example, has a high GI, but it doesn't contain much carbohydrate, so its glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

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