Many recent, popular carbohydrate diet books use glycemic index as a simple guide to making food choices.(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7,) Glycemic index is intended to measure how fast and high a specific food increases blood sugar. Although there are two similar methods for measuring glycemic index, there is no consensus among doctors or nutritionists that glycemic index is a reliable way to choose foods for weight loss or other diets.

The Glycemic index is a system of measurement that determines the effect that carbohydrate consumption has on glucose levels in the body. Glycemic index levels are not universal. More commonly occurring in adults, type II diabetes does not require insulin injections for management, but rather can be controlled by careful adherence to a low Glycemic index diet.

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The glycemic index is a number that indicates how rapidly a given food releases sugar into your bloodstream. A food with a high GI releases sugar into the blood quickly. Examples include sugar itself, white potatoes, many wheat flour products, and most cold cereals. Choosing low-glycemic-index foods will help prevent your blood sugar from rapidly rising and falling.

Glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the effect of the consumption of food on blood glucose levels. The GI ranks the blood glucose response of a food on a scale of 0 to 100. It is possible to have food with GIs above 100 when the blood glucose response of a food is greater than that of the control food. High glycemic index foods (70+) are those that are rapidly digested into small sugar molecules (mono and disaccharides) and rapidly raise blood glucose levels after eating.

According to Elaine, "..I have been following the work on glycemic index for years almost as long as the cholesterol in diet myth! The first report was about 10 years ago by (believe it or not) a husband and wife team, Drs. Crapo. I wrote to them and asked the question: you are determining the rate by which sugars and starches enter the bloodstream and the slower they enter the bloodstream, the better you judge them to be re raising the blood sugar levels slowly rather than erratically.

Traditionally, the glycemic index (GI) of a food is determined by feeding the food to test subjects. This is achieved by: 1) feeding a test food that provides 25 or 50 grams of total carbohydrate (includes all carbohydrates such as dietary fiber, sugar alcohols and sugars) and 2) feeding a control food (white bread or glucose) that provides 25 or 50 grams of carbohydrate after subtracting any fiber that may be present in the bread. Testing is done on separate days.

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a system that assigns a number to foods, particularly carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and potatoes, based on their ability to increase blood glucose. The practicality of the GI of individual foods in diet planning is controversial because combinations of foods can alter the total GI of a meal. In the case of potatoes, for example, common toppings such as cheese, broccoli, butter, salsa or vinegar may lower the combined GI.

All Extend Snack flavors have a low glycemic index (GI), and our Extendbar Delights and ExtendCrisps also have a low glycemic load (GL). The GI and GL provide good indicators of how much your blood sugar will increase within two hours of eating a particular food. This is very important to know when you're trying to manage your blood sugar levels -- whether your goal is to better control your diabetes or manage your weight.