Description
Everything you need to know in support of your low carb lifestyle.
The GI, or glycemic index, is a tracking system that measures a food’s ability to raise blood glucose levels.
Foods receive a score on a 100-point scale; a food that scores high on the GI will raise blood glucose more than a low or medium ranged GI food will.
- Low/Moderate GI → 55 or less
- High GI → 70 or more
Carbohydrates are classified as simple or complex, and this classification is largely based on the number of simple sugars in the molecule.
- Simple carbs are those made of one or two simple sugars, like sucrose in table sugar, galactose in milk or fructose in fruit
- While complex carbs, or starches such as bread, rice and corn, are those made of long chains of the simple sugar glucose, hence the name complex.
The GI scale was developed in order to more specifically rank carbs, and how each will affect blood glucose levels after intake as is relevant to the referent carb of pure glucose.
- Low GI carbohydrates slowly trickle glucose into your blood stream, while high GI foods flood your blood with glucose, causing erratic blood sugar spikes.
- A GI score of any food is based on how rapidly a food product converts into sugar inside the body and how quickly those sugars flood the blood stream calling upon insulin to be released to remove this glucose from the blood stream.
For this reason, high GI foods are referred as insulin triggers.
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