Diabetics Can Use the Glycemic Index List to Help With Meal Planning

Oh yeah! The glycemic index list is another thing to worry about, in addition to the exchange list if you are diabetic.

Anyone who says they really love to be doing math every time they go to eat their food is not telling the truth. For lunch, 4 servings (60 grams) of carbs, 1 serving of meat, etc...

Compare the freedom you get when you say, I'll have that nice baked potato over there, and let me have two of my favorite vege-burgers this time...

Freedom. Health. We value those, but when diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, or arthritis come our way, both our freedom and health are (in some way) compromised.

Experts believe that those who wish to lose weight, and especially diabetics, will benefit if they keep a low glycemic food list.

The numbers associated with each food can help us decide which items to put on our plates, depending on what level of blood sugar control we want to have.

The numbers associated with each food can help us decide which items to put on our plates, depending on what level of blood sugar control we want to have.

Glycemic Index List - Do the math then eat

David Mendosa has a glycemic index list at his website that includes 750 foods. Although you will never eat all the food items on that list, it is a great reference, when you need it.

You can find a database of values at an authoritative resource affiliated (or owned) by the University of Sydney, Australia.

The GI database web access allows you to type the name of a food and get the GI value of related food products.

I like the Mendosa list. You can tell it was put together by someone who understands (firsthand) the concerns of a diabetic. Check it, and do the math before you eat.

Glycemic Index & Diabetes Diet

People with diabetes and those who are on a weightloss program can benefit from the use of the glycemic index lists. In fact, you can compile your own by including only the the foods you eat.

Notice that the GI values may vary widely between types of the same foods. For example, Canadian carrots have GI value of 92 (very high), whereas Romanian carrots have GI = 16 (low). This seems to suggest that the Romanian carrot is better for people with diabetes.

There is one piece of the puzzle we have to grasp here...

How much (what amount) of the food are we talking about? Suppose we eat 15 grams of Canadian carrots, will this cause a spike in blood glucose level?

Glycemic Load Values

So the glycemic index of a food tells us how quickly our digestive process converts the carbohydrates in the food into glucose in our blood but gives no indication of how much of the "quick action" we get per serving of the food.

Experts have added another metric - another number for us to be concerned about - the Glycemic Load (GL). Actually the GL is a better measure of how a food will impact our blood glucose level because it takes into account the amount of the food producing the effect we are trying to measure.

Both the Australian GI database and Mendosa's glycemic index list give GL values. By using the GL values you are also considering serving size and so the carb counting chore makes more sense.

But I Still Have Questions...

What would be the net effect if I ate a food with low GI (or GL) value together with another with a high GI (or GL) value? How does the combination of different foods affect my blood glucose level?

Notice that the glycemic index lists give individual food values, not the values for the whole menu you have at dinner, for example. What is the net result?

For example, consider the following typical values for foods I regularly eat on my anti-diabetes diet:

Foods	GI	Serving Size	GL
Soy beans	14	150	1
Whole wheat bread	67	30	8

Whenever I combine these foods in the same meal, what is the measurable net effect on my glucose level?

Does it depend on which I eat first? Further, for a meal consisting of 3 servings of raw vegetables, brown rice, curried tofu with beans, for example...

Would there be a difference in by blood glucose level response depending on whether I eat the vegetable salad first then the rice? What is the effect of the bulk vegetable fiber on the net GL?

And does this depend on how hungry I am at the moment?

I realize that I may never find answers to all these questions, but one thing seems clear...

If I choose foods that are low on the glycemic index list or that have low glycemic load values I can avoid having those blood glucose spikes and keep my blood glucose level under control.

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