The Glycaemic Index (GI) is a way of rating carbohydrate in foods (between 0 and 100) based on their effects on blood glucose which means sugar levels.
Food that is found to have high GI contain carbohydrates that are digested and absorbed quickly and cause a rapid in blood glucose levels.
Foods with a low GI contain carbohydrates that are digested and absorbed more slowly which have a lesser impact on blood glucose levels.
Health and GI:
Research shows that including some low GI food as part of a healthy eating may benefit you.
If you have any of these conditions it will be of benefit:
• Diabetes or at risk of developing it.
• Raised blood cholesterol levels, poor insulin response
• Risk of heart disease
• Weight control problem
GI may also be useful if you are an athlete as it has shown that by eating low GI food before working out will enhance your performance. Also after working out by eating high GI food within 24 hours helps replenish your muscle fuel stores.
List of some foods which have a low and high GI factor:
Low GI Foods (55 or less) | Moderate GI foods (56-69) | High GI foods (70 or more) | | Apples, oranges, cherries, peaches and bananas | Apricot, rockmelon and pineapple | Watermelon
| | Dried apricots, dried apples | Raisins and sultanas | Dried dates | | Barley, semolina | Basmati and Doongara rice | Calrose white rice brown rice | | Mixed grain bread, fruit loaf | Rye bread, crumpets | White bread, cornflakes, rice bubbles | | Pasta eg: spaghetti, macaroni, noodles | Gnocchi, couscous | Rice pasta | | Lentils and most legumes eg: baked beans | Sweet corn | Broad beans | | Chickpeas, sweet potato, peas carrots, taro | New, boiled or canned potato | Baked, pale skin potato, pumpkin | | Milk, Sanitarium so good soymilk | Sweetened condensed milk low-fat yoghurt, custard | Yoghurt drink, Vitari |
Some tips:
When having your meal, if it is made up of several different foods, it will have an overall GI that is a combination of the GI contributed by each food, and so it will lower the GI in a meal, if you add low GI food to the meal. There are allowances for high and moderate GI foods in a good balanced diet. These foods provide important sources of nutrition. It is a good idea to include a wide range of foods in your diet for good health.
A good way to check the GI of the carbohydrate foods you are buying is to contact the manufacturer or look on the label to see whether it has been tested. There is a website you can checkout too: www.glycemicindex.com.
It is important to remember to not only make food choices from food that has been marked with GI Factor, not to forget other nutrition principles. Check the nutrition contents of products and that they are low in saturated fat, salt and sugar (if possible) also provide fibre and include a wide variety of foods in your diet everyday.
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