Is Managing Diabetes As Simple As Using The Glycemic Index?

I’ve been counselling people with diabetes for nearly 15 years and I continue to encounter a lot of confusion and misinformation about how best to manage diabetes with diet. Concepts like the glycemic index (GI) are no exception. People are routinely told [and confused] to eat foods with a lower a GI but what does that practically mean and is healthy eating as easy as assigning a number to a food?

What is the Gylcemic Index?

 

Simply put, the GI is a measure (or metric) of a food’s ability [specifically food that contains carbohydrate] to raise blood sugar: in theory, the higher the GI, the greater the impact. The GI of a food is ranked as high [>70], medium [56-69] or low [<55]. The GI was originally created for research purposes, where the goal was to try and determine how a food, eaten under special research conditions, would impact a person’s blood sugar level. It furthered our understanding of carbohydrate metabolism but in my opinion, it should never have become ‘mainstream’.

Is healthy eating as simple as a number?

 

As a strategy for healthy eating, diabetes and blood sugar management, many people with diabetes have been advised to avoid, or limit, foods with a high GI but can it really be that simple? The GI of parsnips (a nutritious vegetable) has a GI of 80 – 92 [high] but the GI of table sugar [no nutritional value] is 58 [medium]. Likewise most chocolate bars have a medium GI [56-69]. Using the GI alone, it’s easy to see how less healthy foods could be chosen over healthier options and I encounter this in my practice. Clients are almost afraid to eat carrots, parsnips or potatoes because they think they have too much sugar or will lead to weight gain but then are confused when they see charts listing ice cream as a presumably better option give than it has a lower GI. What’s going on?

Read more at http://www.curejoy.com/content/managing-diabetes-glycemic-index/

Related Article: Do We Control or Manage Diabetes?