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The Glycemic Index Food Chart

Many diabetics are looking for more natural ways to help keep their blood sugar levels under control, and some have discovered the Glycemic Index. The glycemic index is a food chart which rates the affect various foods have on your blood sugar levels. All glycemic index (GI) ratings are computated based on either standard white bread, or straight glucose. Because two methods are used, some GI charts will vary slightly based on which base food item was used for the computation.

Using the Glycemic Index, diabetics can get a general idea of how quickly their blood sugar levels might rise after eating certain foods. Anything with a GI rating of 54 or less is considered a low GI food, which means it will raise your blood sugar levels slowly. Very low GI foods have a rating of less than 39, medium GI rated foods range from 55 to 69, high GI foods are at 70 or above.

Glucose and white bread have a base rating of 100 on either type of GI food chart - which is high of course - and all other foods are compared against them. There are many foods with higher GI ratings, and many with lower ones.

But this rating system is where things can get confusing. If you try to eat foods based on their standard GI rating only, then you may find you're not having much success with controlling your blood sugar levels. You might also feel that some of the ratings make no sense at all. Many people mistakenly assume they're supposed to avoid everything with a GI rating of 70 or higher, and some even think they're supposed to avoid any foods which rate higher than 55. What they don't know is that the base food GI rating can change given different variables.

Not all oatmeal is the same for instance. Instant oatmeal has a higher GI rating than old fashioned cooked oats does. But that's not the most confusing part... sometimes how you cook your foods will change the GI rating too. Pasta for instance, that's eaten while still firm has a lower GI rating than fully cooked soft pasta does. And if you boil one inch cubes of potatoes, you'll have one GI rating, but simply mashing those cubes with your fork will increase the glycemic load of the very same potatoes.

Many fruits have low glycemic loads, but if you cook or chop those fruits, you're often increasing the glycemic load they'll produce. And some fruits are naturally high in glycemic load. Watermelon for instance, has a GI rating of 72.

So glycemic index charts are simply a starting point to use for controlling your blood sugar levels naturally.

The zone diet uses the principles of the glycemic index when recommending foods to lose weight and control blood sugar levels. You can get more information on the zone diet here.