If you have diabetes, you will know all too well that when you eat carbohydrates, your blood sugar spikes. The overall amount of carbohydrates you eat at a meal or in a snack mainly determines what your blood sugar will do.
However the food itself also plays a big role. One serving of white rice has almost the same effect as eating pure table sugar — it delivers a quick, high spike in blood sugar. One serving of lentils has a slower and smaller effect.
Selecting good sources of carbohydrates can help you with controlling your blood sugar and your weight. Eating healthier carbohydrates may assist with preventing a host of chronic conditions, particularly diabetes, but it is also linked to a lessened risk of heart disease and particular cancers.
One way to select foods is with the glycaemic index (GI). This tool measures how much a food spikes blood sugar.
What Is The Glycaemic Index?
The glycaemic index (GI) is a scale from 1 to 100. Each food is allocated a score and the lower the score, the longer that food takes to raise a person’s blood sugar levels.
The GI indicates how quickly carbohydrate-containing foods increase blood sugar levels, compared with pure glucose.
The GI score for glucose, and white bread, is 100. Here is how the scale works:
- Low-GI foods score under 55,
- Medium-GI foods score 55–70, and
- High-GI foods score above 70
What Are The Factors Which Affect The GI Of A Food?
A number of different factors can affect the GI value of a food or meal, including the following.
The Type Of Sugar That It Contains
There’s a common misconception that all sugars have a high GI. The GI of sugar goes from as low as 23 for fructose and then to up to 105 for maltose. Therefore, the GI of a food partly is dependent on the kind of sugar it contains.
The Structure Of The Starch
Starch is a carb that consists of two molecules — amylose and amylopectin. Amylose may be challenging to digest, whereas amylopectin is digested easily. Foods that has a higher amylose content will definitely have a lower GI.
How Refined The Carb Is
Processing methodologies such as grinding and rolling will disrupt amylose and amylopectin molecules, so boosting the GI. Generally speaking, the more processed that a food is, the higher its GI will be.
Nutrient Composition
Including protein or fat to a meal that you eat while enjoying NZ online gambling or any other activity can slow digestion as well as assist with helping to reduce the glycaemic response to a meal.
Cooking Method
Preparation and cooking techniques may affect the GI as well. Usually, the longer a food is cooked, the quicker its sugars will be digested and absorbed so raising the GI.
Ripeness
Unripe fruit includes complex carbs which break down into sugars as the fruit ripens. The riper the fruit is the higher its GI. For instance, an unripe banana has a GI of 30, although an overripe banana has a GI of 48.
