Glycaemic Load

Knowing the Glycaemic Load of food can be useful to people with Diabetes who are looking to maintain blood glucose levels or those looking for an alternative way of managing their weight rather then just calorie counting.

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 equation 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

Low GI = 55 or less Medium GI = 56 - 69 High GI = 70 or more
Low GL = 10 or less Medium GL = 11- 19 High GL = 20 or more