In the previous post we discuss the Glycemic Index and its short comings. Of course when a flaw is found with a system an alternative is proposed that fixes these problems.  Walla!! the Glycemic Load Index or GL.  Lets see if this hold the answers to what foods we should be choosing for those ripped abs and tight butts.  First things first though. What exactly is the GL?

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low. Many foods that were previously shunned because of their high GI, were found to have a relatively low GL. Some examples of these foods are carrots, parsnips,  broad beans and pumpkin. Even rice, that would certainly be considered high GI, has a very low GL when a reasonable serving size of 75g is considered.

I think the GL is a far better gauge of a food than the GI. That being said, basing your food choices on the GL does not seem to solve all of your fat loss problems.  A year long study done at Tufts University that compared high GL to low GL diets, showed no significant bodyweight or bodyfat difference at the end of the study between the two groups. I would venture to say that if eating low GL food provided no difference over high GL food, arguing the effectiveness of the GL over the GI is probably a moot point.  Perhaps there is more to fat loss than just how a food affects or blood sugar and insulin levels? Maybe the ultimate answer is staring us right in the face but we can’t see it because of all the indexes, charts and graphs?  Next time I will look past all of these distractions and show what truly matters when losing bodyfat is your goal.

kevin@kevinweiss.com