From Wikipedia: "The glycemic index, or glycaemic index, (GI) provides a measure of how quickly blood sugar levels (i.e., levels of glucose in the blood) rise after eating a particular type of food. The effects that different foods have on blood sugar levels vary considerably. The glycemic index estimates how much each gram of available carbohydrate (total carbohydrate minus fiber) in a food raises a person's blood glucose level following consumption of the food, relative to consumption of pure glucose.[1] Glucose has a glycemic index of 100.
A practical limitation of the glycemic index is that it does not take into account the amount of carbohydrate actually consumed. A related measure, the glycemic load, factors this in by multiplying the glycemic index of the food in question by the carbohydrate content of the actual serving."
And what then is the glycemic load?
Also from Wikipedia: "The glycemic load (GL) of food is a number that estimates how much the food will raise a person's blood glucose level after eating it. One unit of glycemic load approximates the effect of consuming one gram of glucose.[1] Glycemic load accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food and how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels. Glycemic load is based on the glycemic index (GI), and is defined as the grams of available carbohydrate in the food times the food's GI and divided by 100."
So, how do these two things relate to each other? Rather than read a long description, I found a video that explains it really well. It is from RealFitTV:
To see more videos, like this--click the link in the lower right side bar.
If you'd rather read, here's some of it in writing:
Again, from Wikipedia: "Glycemic load estimates the impact of carbohydrate consumption using the glycemic index while taking into account the amount of carbohydrate that is consumed. GL is a GI-weighted measure of carbohydrate content.
For instance, watermelon has a high GI, but a typical serving of watermelon does not contain much carbohydrate, so the glycemic load of eating it is low. Whereas glycemic index is defined for each type of food, glycemic load can be calculated for any size serving of a food, an entire meal, or an entire day's meals.
For one serving of a food, a GL greater than 20 is considered high, a GL of 11-19 is considered medium, and a GL of 10 or less is considered low. Foods that have a low GL in a typical serving size almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL in a typical serving size range from a very low to very high GI."
Therefore, all foods with a high GI, aren't necessary bad. You have to look at serving sizes. I found this food chart on PopSugar.com that might help:
"Looking at some food's values may help you understand the two better. So read more.
| Food | GI | GL |
| 1 medium apple | 38 | 6 |
| 1 small banana | 47 | 8 |
| 10 baby carrots | 35 | 2 |
| 1 medium baked potato with skin | 76 | 23 |
| 1 medium orange | 42 | 5 |
| 1 medium pear | 38 | 4 |
| 1 cup white rice | 64 | 23 |
| 1 cup brown rice | 55 | 18 |
| 1 cup regular pasta | 44 | 18 |
| 1 cup whole wheat pasta | 37 | 14 |
| 1 cup skim milk | 32 | 4 |
| 1 oz. cashews | 22 | 2 |
| 1 oz. peanuts | 14 | 1 |
| 1 oz. jelly beans | 78 | 22 |
| 2 tsp sugar | 68 | 7 |
| 1 cup lentils | 29 | 5 |
| 1 cup kidney beans | 28 | 7 |
| 1 cup barley | 25 | 11 |
If you don't see a specific food on this chart, then go to nutriondata.com, enter the name of a food, and it'll tell you the GL."
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