Should You Worry About the Glycemic Index or Load?

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Explained

The glycemic index (GI) is a measure of how much, and how fast, the sugar in a food raises the level of sugar in your blood. A high or fast rise in blood sugar leads to high blood insulin levels, contributing to weight-control problems and possibly even increasing your risk of diabetes over time. So, in theory at least, a high glycemic index is a bad thing.

But the measure has very important limitations. For one thing, it is based on comparing foods directly to one another to determine which raise blood sugar more. These comparisons are based on an equivalent "dose" of sugar in each food in an effort to be fair. To make the dose of sugar in carrots equivalent to the dose of sugar in ice cream, however, calls for the comparison of a tiny dish of ice cream to a bushel of carrots. Of course, the carrots will have the higher glycemic index.

Another limitation of the GI is that it is based on the effects of just one food, eaten alone. In real life, of course, the foods we eat interact with each other to determine blood sugar levels. High-fiber cereal at breakfast, for example, will blunt the rise in blood sugar from eating high GI foods at lunch.

A newer measure, called the glycemic load, accounts for both how fast the sugar in a food is converted to blood sugar and the dose of sugar in the food. Whereas the glycemic index of soda is similar to that of carrots, the glycemic load of the soda is fully 10 times higher than that of carrots.

Should you worry about the glycemic index or load of the foods you eat? That's one for your doctor to answer. If you have diabetes or are prone to blood sugar swings and weight gain, being aware of the impact of food on your blood sugar is important. But for most of us, a healthy diet probably precludes the need to track these measurements.

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