Some foods high on the glycemic index include white bread, potatoes, and white rice. This is due to these foods containing a lot of starches, which are rapidly broken down by the body to cause a rise in blood glucose.

For this reason, many processed foods or soft drinks are also high on the GI. Glycemic Index Foundation. About the glycemic index. What is low GI? Atkinson FS, Foster-Powell K, Brand-Miller JC.

International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: Diabetes Care. The University of Sydney. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diabetes meal planning. Willett W, Liu S. Carbohydrate quality and health: distilling simple truths from complexity.

Am J Clin Nutr. Augustin LSA, Kendall CWC, Jenkins DJA, et al. Glycemic index, glycemic load and glycemic response: An International Scientific Consensus Summit from the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium ICQC.

Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. Glycemic Load. Oregon State University: Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center. Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.

American Diabetes Association. Carb counting and diabetes. Glycemic targets: Standards of medical care in diabetes— Harvard Health Publishing. A good guide to good carbs: The glycemic index. National Health Service NHS. What is the glycaemic index GI? Facilitating behavior change and well-being to improve health outcomes: standards of medical care in diabetes— Dia Care.

Shukla A, Iliescu R, Thomas C, Aronne L. Food order has a significant impact on postprandial glucose and insulin levels. By Debra Manzella, RN Debra Manzella, MS, RN, is a corporate clinical educator at Catholic Health System in New York with extensive experience in diabetes care.

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By Debra Manzella, RN. Medically reviewed by Chika Anekwe, MD. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. GI of Common Foods. Measuring Values. GL Values. GL of Common Foods. Testing a Food's Impact. Frequently Asked Questions.

Low-GI Foods 55 or Less Foods GI Apple 36 Apple juice 41 Banana 51 Barley 28 Carrots, boiled 39 Chapatti 52 Chickpeas 28 Chocolate 40 Dates 42 Ice cream 51 Kidney beans 24 Lentils 32 Mango 51 Orange 43 Orange juice 50 Peaches, canned 43 Plantain 55 Rice noodles 53 Rolled oats 55 Skim milk 37 Soya beans 16 Soy milk 34 Spaghetti, white 49 Spaghetti, whole grain 48 Specialty grain bread 53 Strawberry jam 49 Sweet corn 52 Taro, boiled 53 Udon noodles 55 Vegetable soup 48 Whole milk 39 Yogurt, fruit Medium-GI Foods 56 to 69 Foods GI Brown rice, boiled 68 Couscous 65 French fries 63 Millet porridge 67 Muesli 57 Pineapple 59 Popcorn 65 Potato chips 56 Pumpkin, boiled 64 Soda, non-diet 59 Sweet potato, boiled 63 Wheat flake biscuits cereal 69 Wheat roti High-GI Foods 70 to Foods GI Cornflakes 81 Instant oatmeal 79 Potato, boiled 78 Potatoes, instant mashed 87 Rice milk 86 Rice porridge 78 Rice crackers 87 Unleavened wheat bread 70 Watermelon 76 White rice, boiled 73 White bread wheat 75 Whole wheat bread Easy Low-Glycemic Index Dinner Ideas.

Low-GL Foods 10 or less Foods GL Apple 6 Carrots, boiled 1 Cashews 2 Kidney beans 8 Lentils, dried and boiled 7 Orange 5 Peanuts 1 Pear 4 Skim milk 4 Watermelon 8 White bread wheat Medium-GL Foods 11 to 19 Foods GL Banana 13 Pearled barely, boiled 11 Puffed rice cake 17 Spaghetti, whole wheat High-GL Foods 20 or more Foods GL Brown rice 20 Cornflakes 20 Dates 25 Potato, boiled 25 Spaghetti 20 White Rice What to Know About Blood Glucose Levels.

A Word From Verywell Paying attention to the glycemic index of foods can be a useful method to help avoid sudden spikes in blood sugar. Frequently Asked Questions Why are foods like meat and butter not on the glycemic index?

What are good low-GI foods to eat? What are some high-GI foods? Learn More: All High-Carb Foods Are Not the Same. Nikita Toshi BDS, Assistant Manager Medical Review , Dr. Living with diabetes can be mentally hard to deal with for some people. However, it need not be something to fear.

Diabetes, although chronic, can be effectively managed with little tweaks in our lifestyle and diet. But how do we know exactly what we should eat to manage our diabetes? However, many diabetics have gone on to live happy and healthy lives without compromising on the taste of their foods.

Substituting your favourite foods with simple healthy swaps can help you manage your blood sugar as well as help your taste buds adapt to a palette that will benefit you in the long run. Doctors recommend diabetics should include foods that have a low glycemic index.

Having a glycemic index chart in place can help you choose what foods to include and what to limit in or eat in limited portions in your diabetic diet.

Understanding the glycemic index of foods helps you assess how much each food affects your blood sugar levels. Once you have that knowledge, it is easier to plan your meal accordingly.

The glycemic index not only helps you be aware of what you are putting in your body but also helps in maintaining your weight loss journey and keeping your cholesterol in check. So let us take a detailed look into what glycemic index is, how it affects our diet and how it helps us control our sugar levels?

Written by. Reviewed by. The Glycemic Index is a rating tool or a measuring system that gives you an idea about how much a particular food can increase your blood sugar levels.

It is used to promote healthy eating habits and help diabetic patients increase awareness of what to eat in order to keep their weight, cholesterol and blood sugar levels under control. The glycemic index of a food is determined based on various factors such as nutritive composition, ripeness of the food, how processed it is, sugar content and its cooking time and method.

Foods are generally rated from 0 — and are called low, medium or high glycemic food based on their ratings. For better understanding, the lower the glycemic rating, the longer the food takes to digest, bringing a slower rise in your blood sugar levels.

Foods with a high glycemic index are usually digested quickly which makes you hungry sooner. If you eat more high glycemic foods, you will end up eating more unhealthy foods which would result in weight gain and high blood sugar levels.

While the Glycemic index is used to determine how much a particular food increases your blood sugar levels, it does not reflect on the quantity of the food. For this purpose, researchers came up with the idea of a Glycemic load. A Glycemic Load shows the number of calories you will be consuming, in a serving of that particular food.

This helps you determine how much to eat in a serving in order to maintain your blood sugars. In a Nutshell A Glycemic index is a rating tool or a measuring system that gives you an idea about how much a particular food can increase your blood sugar levels. So you know what to eat in order to keep your blood sugar levels in check.

The lower the glycemic rating, the longer the food takes to digest, bringing a slower rise in your blood sugar levels. A Glycemic Load shows the number of calories you will be consuming in a serving of that particular food.

Think you may be experiencing symptoms of diabetes? Book a test on PharmEasy to rule out your diagnosis today! Book Now Glycemic Index and Diabetes Benefits of Low GI Foods For Diabetes One of the most crucial ways to control diabetes is by monitoring your blood sugar levels.

Only if you are mindful of what you eat and how much of it you eat, will you be able to control and maintain your weight, blood sugar levels and a number of other health complications that arise with diabetes.

And ultimately, the only way to be mindful of your meals is by calculating the Glycemic index and load of each meal. Foods with a low glycemic index often keep you full for a longer period of time since they take a longer time to digest. These foods are high in fibre and protein while high GI foods consist of hidden sugars and refined carbohydrates.

Recent studies have suggested that a low GI diet plan has improved blood sugar levels in diabetic patients and has also helped them understand the process of carbohydrate counting.

Keeping your blood sugar levels under control is absolutely crucial for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes since uncontrolled levels give rise to many health concerns like kidney and nerve damage, loss of eyesight, hearing impairment and cardiovascular diseases.

Speeds up weight loss. The idea of the Glycemic index is to help people control their blood sugar levels. And when blood sugar is controlled by eating low GI foods, weight is bound to drop. As mentioned earlier, low GI foods tend to take longer to digest, which means you feel fuller for longer and can refrain from binge eating.

A low GI diet plan can be useful for a diabetic person but it is not certain that it is better than other low-carb or low-fat diets followed by healthy individuals.

High blood sugar levels directly affect cholesterol levels which are also called Very Low-Density Lipoprotein VLDL. Generally, High-Density Lipoprotein HDL is considered good cholesterols and Low-density Lipoprotein are considered bad cholesterols.

HDL carries cholesterol to the liver where it is removed appropriately, whereas LDL develops fatty deposits in your blood vessels. Eventually, VLDL can lead to too many fat deposits in the arteries, making it difficult for blood to flow normally.

This results in blood clots, heart attacks and or heart disease. Therefore, it is absolutely vital to keep your blood sugar levels under control in order to regulate healthy cholesterol levels and this is ultimately done by following a low glycemic index food chart plan.

With uncontrolled blood sugar levels, blood with high glucose travels all over the body damaging vital organs like the kidney and blood vessels. Damage to these vital organs gives rise to high blood pressure thus, increasing the risk of many other health complications.

A glycemic index and glycemic load diet is likely to improve blood pressure because it subsequently helps reduce blood sugar levels. Therefore, it is evident that controlling your blood sugar ultimately controls a variety of other serious ailments that are likely to occur when a person has diabetes.

This is where a GI and GL diet comes into handy. If you or anyone you know is at risk of developing type 1 or 2 diabetes, it is highly beneficial to swap to a diabetes diet plan to avoid further complications in the future. Order your doctor-prescribed medicines on PharmEasy in just a click and manage diabetes with ease!

Order Now Low Glycemic Index vs High Glycemic Index What is the difference and how to identify it in my food? What are the primary differences between High GI and Low GI?

The primary difference between high and low GI food is their GI rating. The higher the rating, the easier it is to digest and spike up your blood sugar levels. The lower the rating, the longer it takes to break down, resulting in a gradual release of glucose in your bloodstream.

It is important to have a steady increase and decrease in blood sugar levels especially if you are diabetic. A high GI diet will contribute to an uncontrolled, unhealthy and unsteady rise in blood sugar levels, even with proper medication and insulin therapy.

A good glycemic index chart will assist you in differentiating good carbs from bad carbs so you can accurately count your calories and keep fit and healthy. Packaged foods tend to be more processed and rank high in the Glycemic index charts. This is because packaged food contains a lot of hidden sugars and sodium.

The higher the carbohydrate content, the higher the glycemic index of the food package. Fibre content — Fibres are usually included in the carbohydrate count but since the body cannot digest it, it does not contribute to calories and does not increase your blood sugar levels.

Fibres include both soluble and insoluble fibres. Therefore, consuming calorie high fibre food will reduce appetite and keep you full for longer.

Fat and Protein content — Fat and protein have very little effect on your blood sugar levels. If the fat and protein content is higher than the carbohydrate content, the food is generally considered low GI.

Similarly, consuming a good portion of protein with a high GI food can reduce the over glycemic index of the meal. Depending on some factors, a low GI food can turn into a high GI food. This happens in the following cases:.

The ripeness of food — Unripe fruits and vegetables contain complex carbs that break down as sugars when it ripens. During the ripening process, the resistant starch content decreases to a large extent. This decrease leads to fruits with a high glycemic index making them unfit for diabetic patients.

The way it is prepared — The longer a particular food is cooked, the quicker its glucose will be digested and absorbed by our bodies. Foods that are digested quickly are usually high GI foods.

Other foods are eaten together — Sometimes, a combination of two foods increases the GI value of the dish. For example, cheese is a low GI food but a simple pizza with parmesan cheese and tomato sauces has a very high GI.

Similarly, a pizza with a wheat base, mozzarella cheese and vegetable fixings has a low GI. Swapping from high GI food to low GI food only needs determination. If you are diabetic or at risk of developing the condition, it is advisable to stick to foods with a low glycemic index for people with diabetes to keep your blood sugar low.

To do this you may:. Research and educate yourself on the many low glycemic index food meals and snacks that will keep your blood sugar low and also taste great. Monitor your sugar levels on the go from the comfort of your home!

Buy a home glucometer kit on PharmEasy today! Buy Now Glycemic Index Food Chart For Diabetes What to eat and what to avoid What happens when you eat food with High GI? Foods with a high glycemic index digest quicker and cause rapid changes in blood sugars.

In order to keep blood sugar levels under control, it is extremely vital to ensure that your blood sugar and insulin levels rise in a steady manner. This is only possible when you follow a low glycemic index diet where the body breaks down glucose from complex carbs slowly and then converts it into energy.

Consuming a high GI diet regularly, especially with diabetes can lead to serious health complications. This is because blood with high glucose levels travels throughout the body and damages important organs in the process. This includes kidney disease , nerve damage, diabetic eye problems like retinopathy, heart diseases, high blood pressure and hearing impairment.

Now that you understand what is the glycemic index of foods and how to identify GI in foods, here are some of the low, medium and high GI rated foods in a Glycemic index food chart:. Certain foods with a very low or no GI value can also be consumed as part of a low GI diet plan.

These foods include:. Seafood — Tuna, sardines, shrimps, salmon, mackerel, kingfish, crab.