Glycemic index and glycemic load offer information about how foods afglycemix loadfect blood sugar and insulin.
The lower a food’s glycemic index or glycemic load, the less it affects blood sugar and insulin levels. The glycemic index is a scientifically calculated number that was found by researchers via clinical trials. A scale of 0-100 is used to determine how rapidly the carbohydrates in a food will turn into sugar in the human body. Pure sugar, for instance, has a glycemic index of 100.
The glycemic load simply multiplies that number by the amount of carbohydrates that is in a food and that is then divided by 100. This makes it possible for a food like watermelon to have a high glycemic index but low glycemic load. These numbers can be impacted by the amount of fat or fiber that is in a food, and they can be impacted further still by the size of the portion consumed.
