What’s so Hard about the Glycemic Index?

Maybe the glycemic index was easier to understand when there were only a few foods to keep in mind. Now we know the GI of more than 750 foods.

Only carbohydrates trigger a rise in our blood glucose levels. And the only carbohydrates that do this are starches and sugars; while fiber is technically considered a carbohydrate in the U.S., it doesn’t affect our blood glucose. The first problem that some people seem to have in understanding the glycemic index is that they don’t know what carbohydrates are. All I can say to that is that they better find out one way or another if they want to have any chance of living a long life with diabetes.

We can’t avoid all starches and sugars, but we can eat less of those that work the fastest to raise our blood glucose levels. Even this is not hard to figure out.

It surprises many people that some starchy foods are worse culprits than sugars. For example, consider the second and third foods on the list.

Banana cake made with sugar has a GI of 47. Banana cake made without sugar has a GI of 54. Why? Almost certainly because the sugarless banana cake has a high proportion of starch.

The worst starches are most potatoes, wheat flour, and most rice. The worst sugars are glucose and maltose.

If you can just remember to eat less of those starches and sugars, you are well on the way to following the glycemic index. It’s that simple.

You don’t even have to give up potatoes, bread and pastry, and rice dishes entirely. Just eat less of them. It has taken me a dozen years, but at this point in my life I have finally lost my cravings for these starchy foods and eat almost none of them.

I probably shouldn’t be surprised that a few people don’t understand what I have written about the glycemic index. More people read my main web pages about the glycemic index than any of the 800 or so other articles that I have written about diabetes and have on my site.

By far the most popular page on my site has for years been the “Revised International Table of Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) Values—2002”. Last month, for example that page go 64,208 pageviews, according to Google Analytics.

My longest analysis of the “Glycemic Index” gets almost as many pageviews. In July there were 53,009. The third most active page on my site also is about the glycemic index, “Glycemic Values of Common American Foods”. It got 25,701 pageviews last month.

Following the glycemic index is not only easy and logical. It is also the moderate way to eat in comparison with the low carb or high carb diets that some people continue to push. By avoiding those extremes the glycemic index is something that you can follow for the rest of your life.