Glycaemic load: summary table

Glycaemic index and glycaemic load

The glycaemic index (GI) is a measure developed by doctors in the 1980s to evaluate the effect of foods on blood sugar levels, as part of efforts to combat diabetes. Basically, the more a food makes blood sugar levels rise, the higher its glycaemic index (1).

This device allowed doctors to understand that not all carbohydrates are necessarily bad for diabetics: some carbohydrates (such as glucose and sucrose) are worse than others (such as fructose and starch).

With this knowledge, they were able to categorise foods according to their GI:

• below 55, a food is classed as low GI ;
• between 55 and 69, it is moderate GI;
• above 70, it is high GI.

However, there are two factors not taken into account by the glycaemic index:

• the amount of carbohydrates a food contains;
• the the serving size normally consumed of that food.

Because of this, we now have the glycaemic load: a new measure which allows a more precise evaluation of a food’s impact on blood sugar(2).

Glycaemic load formula

To determine a food’s glycaemic load, you multiply its glycaemic index by the amount of carbohydrates in an average serving of the food, then divide that by 100.

Let’s take the example of cornflakes:

• they have a GI of 80 ;
• a normal 30g serving contains around 25g of carbohydrates, so their glycaemic load will be (25 x 80)/100 = 20.

What’s an appropriate daily glycaemic load?

It is generally accepted that the daily glycaemic load should be somewhere between 80 and 120. Anything above that is considered too high.

To arrive at this figure, you simply add together the glycaemic load of all the different foods consumed during the day (using the amount actually consumed rather than that ‘normally’ consumed).

Glycaemic index and glycaemic load table

To help you, we’ve put together this table of the glycaemic load and index of 50 common foods. As you’ll see, it’s the freshest, least refined and least processed foods which have the lowest glycaemic load (3).

Controlling your blood sugar

If you want to control your weight or indeed lose weight, it’s essential to monitor your blood sugar levels: the metabolism of glucose is a factor in weight gain, and especially fat mass gain.

This is because foods with a high glycaemic load produce a spike in insulin, and insulin allows glucose to enter cells. Any excess glucose generated is then metabolised into fat cells called adipocytes.

The good news is there are several plants and natural remedies that can help to normalise the metabolism of sugars and thus regulate glycaemia. The main ones are:

• banaba, a tropical shrub containing corosolic acid, a pentacyclic triterpene which transports glucose across the cell membrane (4-5) ;
• barberry, a semi-tropical shrub containing berberine, an alkaloid which promotes glucose metabolism and helps maintain normal glycaemia (6) ;
• Gymnema sylvestris, an Ayurvedic plant containing gymnemic acid, which is believed to delay the absorption of glucose into the blood, thus helping to normalise sugar metabolism (7-8).