Overweight people lost more weight on low GL (glycaemic load) diets than on high GL or other weight reduction diets and their cardiovascular risk marker profile improved according to a review in July 2007 carried out by the highly respected and independent Cochrane Collaboration.
Below we have gathered together foods which we consider good options for those aiming to keep their Glycaemic Load low. Here is a short explanation of the Glycaemic Load rationale, but you don't have to worry too much about the science, just select from the foods chosen and try to stick to a Glycaemic Load of around 80 a day for a low daily Glycaemic Load.
The Glycaemic Index tells us how quickly the sugar in the food raises the sugar in our blood, Glycaemic Load tells us just how much of that sugar is in the food we are eating making the GL measurement of food a more balanced indicator than just using GI. Eg. the GI of Mars bars is around 68 and is the same if you eat 1 or 21 Mars bars, the GI of watermelon is 72 as it contains fast releasing sugars but very little of them. GL would then take the weight of these sugars in the food consumed into the equasion and is more realistic. By using the GI and multiplying by the quantity of sugar in a serving (GI (%) x grams of carbohydrate per serving) we get the total glycemic response to a food or meal which is a very good indicator of the overall affect on our bodies. One unit of GL ~ glycemic effect of 1 gram glucose
In this way we can count GL in a similar way to the counting calories principle. A typical diet would have around 100 GL units per day (ie. 60-180) less than 80 being considered low GL, more than 120 would be high GL