Glycemic Index Pros and Cons

The glycemic index (GI) is a nutrition measurement tool which categorizes food by how fast it breaks down into glucose (blood sugar). This measurement is important for health because if a food breaks down too fast, it can cause spikes in blood sugar levels. This isn’t good because it will cause the pancreas to produce more insulin to help store the excess glucose as fat. The extra glucose and insulin can cause extra stress in the body which may lead to chemical imbalance. Having to many chemical imbalances in the body may lead to other health problems. The glycemic index is classified into three classes, low GI, medium GI and high GI. Food that is in the low and medium GI category is considered good for the body. Most fruits, vegetables and whole grains fall into the low and medium GI category. Junk food and food with little or no fiber usually fall into the high GI category.

Many nutritionists and food manufacturers have adopted the GI tool but they don’t realize that it has major flaws. The glycemic index was designed to measure the effect of a single food. Therefore, it is only useful if a person eats one food per meal. During a meal, most people eat more than one type of food. Depending on how much fiber, enzymes, protein and fat each food contains, it can drastically throw off its GI value. Another major flaw of the glycemic index is that it doesn’t accurately predict how much insulin the body will produce from eating the food. As a result, the GI tool can have strange results. For example, the GI value of baked potato is higher than fried potato. This doesn’t make sense because baked potato is healthier than fried potato. Because of these flaws, you shouldn’t rely on the glycemic index to make the decision, but use it as a tool to help you make better decision.

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• What is the Glycemic Index?
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