by Lynda Kohn

Created on: January 07, 2011

What is the glycemic index?  One basic definition of the glycemic index is a measurement of how fast a food breaks down into the bloodstream, post ingesting it.  The GI measures by weight and by gram.  When the GI is high it means that the result will be the blood glucose with quickly rise.  When the GI is moderate or low, the blood glucose will be raised much slower.  The lower the GI the slower the food will be raised.   There are three levels of GI.  They are high,  medium or moderate and low.  Anything above sixty is considered high.  Between 59 and 41 is moderate.  40 and below is seen as a low GI.   The GI was invented to discover what foods are to be eaten to ensure a good healthy blood sugar level.

Basically the glycemic index is the measurement of the rate of the rise in blood sugar in one hour after the food is eaten.   The slower the rise the lower the glycemic index will be.  The goal is to do your  best to try to eat foods that measure low on the glycemic index.  There are books that rate each food for their glycemic index.  The GI deals mostly with carbohydrates.

Okay what is the definition of a carbohydrate?  A carbohydrate or carb for short is a type of food.   There are three main major nutrients.  Proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Carbs are divided into two types, simple and complex.   If one is to eat a carb it is best to eat one that is complex.  The reason for this is a complex carb has real nutrition.  A simple carb  is basically sugar and possesses empty, non nutritious calories.  Rice, potatos, noodles, any pasta, fruits, vegetables are complex carbohydrates. Cereals and grains are complex carbs too. As are legumes and other beans. Honey is 3/4th sugars, especially glucose, sucrose.    Any kind of pastry, ice cream, frozen yogurt are examples of the  empty type. Complex carbohydrates are considered complex because they are composed of complex sugars.  A simple carbohydrate is made up of simple sugars. Complex carbs are better for you because they are nutritious  Simple carbs are merely empty calories.   It isn't necessarily because of the rate of the rise in blood sugar.  Please see below for more information.  A carbohydrate has four calories.  

One needs to ingest carbohydrates because they are the source of energy. They are quite important

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