Glycemic Index Chart: How to use GI index effectively?

Glycemic index chart or GI value is a method to identify food which raises your blood glucose or blood sugar levels. Glycemic index is a very useful tool to plan your meals when fighting diabetes. It is specifically based on calculation of carbohydrates amount and rise in blood glucose level. According to glycemic index, high GI value food raises your blood glucose level more than a low GI value food.

Glycemic index helps us to understand how fast our body breaks down the particular carbohydrates in a food. And how much our blood glucose level rises after eating that particular food based on the carbohydrates.

Glycemic index is useful to create a diabetes diet plan based on food’s GI value. By using glycemic index you can create a well balanced meal which includes right amount and right type of of carbs which your body needs and at the same time, does not raise your blood glucose to high levels.
 
 

What is Glycemic Index or GI value?

Glycemic index or GI value is a ratio, measured by comparing the rise in blood glucose levels when eating a carbohydrate and the same amount of pure glucose.

For example: An average size apple has GI value of 38. It means if you eat 120 grams apple, your blood glucose level will be only rise 38 percent when comparing to same amount of pure glucose drinking.

Glycemic index is generally divided into three categories based on the GI values of foods:

Low GI: 55 or less

Medium GI: 56 to 69

High GI: 70 and above

Accuracy and limitation of Glycemic Index:

Glycemic index only represents a value for a single food. But the food can have various values based on its variety, ripeness, methods used for cooking, processing and storage.

For example:
More ripe fruits = contains more sugar which means High GI
Processed grains = no bran, less fiber and High GI

However, glycemic index values don’t take in account how the food is being eaten. When eating a food alone or eating with other food as well both values will be different. Other food nutrients like fiber, proteins and fats significantly decrease the digestion rate of carbohydrates. It means more time it takes to digest, lower your blood glucose will be, hence will create low GI.

That’s why, a low GI food converts into glucose slowly which helps maintaining after meal blood sugar test readings. While a high GI food converts into glucose comparatively fast and this raises your blood glucose readings after the meal.

Here it is very important to keep in mind that glycemic index does not take proteins and fats into account for its calculation. So, what other foods you eat with that particular carbohydrate rich food can change the GI value of the food as well.

So, glycemic index is not completely accurate, practically. But it gives a good general idea how a food will affect your blood glucose levels. As It is solely based on digestion of the carbohydrates and following rise in blood glucose level.

But, it is always better to stick to the Low to Medium GI foods as much as possible to maintain steady blood glucose levels and prevent spikes in blood sugar levels.

However, High GI foods can help you in a hypoglycemia situation when you require fast reacting carbohydrates to recover.

Here is the glycemic index list including some of the very common daily food types we consume:

Glycemic Index List

You might be wondering about the list. As you may not see some of your common foods. This may be due to the food may not contain enough carbohydrates to affect our blood glucose level.