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Old 06-09-2006, 02:31 PM
EricT EricT is offline
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But a good understanding of glycemic index and glycemic load will help you make better food choices and assist in healthier meal-planning, as well as weight control.
Since the article doesn't explain what Glycemic Load is I thought I'd go ahead and post this one.

What is Glycemic Load?
"Glycemic Index" Based on 50 Grams of Useable Carbs
Glycemic Load is the application of the glycemic index to a standard serving of food. Remember, the glycemic index (GI) of a food is not based on commonly consumed portion-sizes of foods. Instead, GI is measured by giving volunteers a portion size sufficient to contain 50g of useable carbs. Therefore the portion size of each GI-tested food will vary according to how much carbohydrate it contains. For example, carrots contain only about 7 percent carbs, so the test-portion of carrots eaten by the test-volunteer will be huge - about 1.5 pounds. Serving sizes of foods (like bread) which contain a higher percentage of carbs, will be smaller.

The Drawback of the Glycemic Index
As explained above, glycemic index tests are not performed on typical portion sizes. So, by using the Glycemic Index alone, the glycemic effects of foods containing a small percentage of carbs are likely to be overstated, while the glycemic effects of foods containing a high percentage of carbs are likely to be understated. For example, foods that are mostly water or air will not cause a surge in your blood sugar levels even if their glycemic index is high.

This is why scientists developed the idea of Glycemic Load. It ranks foods according to actual carb content (eg. in a typical portion-size), not how fast a 50g amount of carbs raises blood sugar levels.

Glycemic Load - How is it Measured
Glycemic load tells you how much carbohydrate is in a standard serving size of food. To calculate glycemic load in a typical serving of food, divide the GI of that food by 100 and multiply this by the useable carbohydrate content (in grams) in the serving size. For example, the glycemic index of carrots is about 47. Carrots contain about 7 grams of carbohydrate per 100g of carrots. So, to calculate the glycemic load for a standard 50g serving of carrots, divide 47 by 100 (0.47) and multiply by 3.5. The glycemic load (GL) of carrots is therefore 1.6.

Glycemic Load More Accurate Than Carb Content
Although a low-carb food typically has a lower-GI value than a high carbohydrate food, choosing foods purely on the basis of the amount of carbohydrates they contain is less beneficial for blood glucose control and general health than relying on their glycemic load (GL). Don't forget, the glycemic load of a food is its GI value per serving, and the GI value of a food is the definitive guide to its effect on glucose metabolism and thus blood sugar levels. Bottom line: choose what carbs to eat on the basis of their GL, not simply their carbohydrate content. In fact, low GI diets have now superceded low carb diets, as the latter are regarded by most dietitians as less healthy and less easy to comply with than GI weight loss plans.

Article from here

And:

David Mendosa
What about Portion Size? And how is GI Determined?

The glycemic index is about the quality of the carbohydrates, not the quantity. Obviously, quantity matters too—and that is the reason for the glycemic load values—but the measurement of the glycemic index of a food is not related to portion size. It remains the same whether you eat 10 grams of it or 1000 grams. That's because to make a fair comparison tests of the glycemic indexes of food usually use 50 grams of available carbohydrate in each food. You can eat twice as many carbohydrates in a food that, for example, has a glycemic index of 50 than one that has a glycemic index of 100 and have the same blood glucose response.

Basically, test foods are fed to various people, some with diabetes, others without, in portions that contain 50 grams of available carbohydrates. The 50 gram carbohydrate portion is specified in Dr. Wolever's methodology paper (see bibliography below) as 50 grams of available carbohydrates. "That means it excludes the fiber," Professor Brand-Miller writes me. "We have always used a 50 gram available carbohydrate portion and often relied on manufacturers to give us the composition data. I am aware of only one instance where we been given incorrect information and therefore inadvertently included the fiber in the 50 gram carbohydrate portion…but there may be some papers from developing countries where the data is not reliable."

For example, to test boiled spaghetti, the scientists give their subjects 200 grams of spaghetti, which according to standard food composition tables provide 50 grams of available carbohydrate. The scientists compare this response with the volunteer's response to a reference food, which may be either glucose or white bread. Both for the test and for the reference foods the volunteer's response over the next two or three hours is calculated. Rather than measuring a single point, they make the more precise measurement of the area under the curve. Then, they repeat the whole process on different days to reduce the effect of day-to-day variations.

Next, the area under the response curve for the test food is expressed as a percent of the mean value for the reference food for the same subject. Finally, these percentages from each subject are averaged together to obtain the GI for that food. For more information, see Wolever, Thomas M.S. et al. "The Glycemic Index: Methodology and Clinical Implications," listed in the bibliography below.
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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

Last edited by EricT; 06-11-2006 at 02:25 PM.
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