Glycemic Load

Glycemic Load makes practical sense of G.I

Glycemic Load (GL) is a complimentary scale to the Glycemic Index (GI). It is a weight loss tool that rank’s carbohydrates foods based on their G.I per serving. It has been popularized by Dr Walter Miller and associates at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

Glycemic Load as a weight loss calculator is used to make the Glycemic Index more practical in designing a G.I based weight loss diet. The calculator that you would need to use with the raw G.I scale are quite length and literally impractical for day to day use by the general public. 

Just like Glycemic Index, GL is a numerical index, this time based on how much a carbohydrate food increases the level of glucose in the blood. The higher the carbohydrate increases it, the higher it’s G.I.

Glycemic Load Pictures:

G.I unfortunately is based on 50g of carbohydrates available in a food. 

Depending on the food this will vary the absolute or total amount of food. 

Foods with little carbohydrates need to be in large volumes to reach the 50g of digestible carbohydrates, while foods with huge amounts of carbohydrates are in little amounts to get the 50 grams. This makes G.I complicated for the lay person. 

Enter Glycemic Load; you can use glycemic load to plan your diet based on their G.I. 

This is because glycemic load is represented as G.I per serving. A food serving is a standardized portion of food. 

It considers the amount of a food than on adult individual takes at one time. 

For example two slices of bread are considered a serving. At times object are used to give an idea of what a serving is.

For example vegetables or fruits the size of a tennis ball is considered a serving. 

Unfortunately different sources consider food servings differently introducing inconsistencies. Once you pick a source or scale of food serving, stick with it for consistency.

Calculating the Glycemic Load 

To calculate the glycemic load of a food, its G.I should be known. Multiply the G.I with the quantity of carbohydrate in the serving and divide by 100.

Glyceric load = G.I. x Carbohydrate in serving / 100

Studies are showing that weight loss diets based on a low glycemic load lead to weight loss just as effectively as Low Carb, High Protein diets. Similarly the low glycemic load diets have the advantages of reducing the risk of cardio vascular disease. 

However unlike the high protein diets it is not associated with the suspected risk of consuming a lot of protein over a long period of time. This advantage has made G.I diets very popular and they seem to be replacing low carb diets like Atkins. 

Glycemic load is principally affected by portion size. The larger the food portions the higher its glycemic load. This interaction of glycemic load and G.I makes foods that would be considered unadvisable using G.I only to be included as healthy in moderate amounts. 

For example popcorns that are of a high G.I of 79 end up having a low glycemic load of 4. This is because they are mainly made up of air and you really need to eat a lot of popcorn to spike your blood glucose. Similarly, potatoes that have a high G.I of 121 drops to a moderate glycemic load of 45. 

Related Pictures: Related Videos:

To learn more on Glycemic Load as well as related subjects use the links below.

Alternatively you can use the Google search tool further below.

 

 

Not satisfied? Try searching this website (Health-eMark.com) or
the entire web below

Custom Search