Thread: Glycemic Load

For those interested in what a glycemic load is...



What is the Glycemic Load?Glycemic Load builds on the GI to provide a measure of the total glycemic response to a food or meal. Glycemic Index states quality of a food while Glycemic Load, GL, implies quantity.

o Glycemic load = GI x amount of carbohydrate (grams) divided by 100
Example: 50 grams of Mexican peanut (GI = 23): (23 x 50 grams carbs) / 100 = ~1
o Each GL unit equals to glycemic response of 1 gram glucose
o A typical daily diet has almost 100 GL units (range 60 - 180)
Glycemic Load Range
10 or less 11-19 20 or moreo A typical daily diet has almost 100 GL units that equals to Glycemic Response of 100 grams glucose.
Glycemic Load Per Day
< 80 > 120

The infamous watermelon example....it's GI is high (72) but the GL is super low (8) since it's 98% water, meaning you'd have to eat tonnes of it to get an appreciable insulin reponse.

This is a good page for GI/GL and satiety explanations:
http://www.nutritiondata.com/glycemic-index.html