How useful is the Glycemic Index to help me judge how many potatoes I should eat?
The Glycemic Index (GI) refers to how quickly a carbohydrate food is digested and how quickly it then increases blood sugar levels. A GI score of 0-100 is allocated to carbohydrate containing foods. Some foods are quickly digested and raise blood sugar levels sharply. Such foods are allocated a high GI score: 70 and over. Other foods take longer to digest and increase blood sugar levels very slowly and steadily. They get a low GI score – below 55. Low GI foods include beans, pulses, wholegrains and most fruit and vegetables. However, adding a protein or fat to a carbohydrate food automatically lowers the GI score, as the meal will take much longer to digest. And that’s why the practicality of using the index for meal planning is controversial. A GI score refers to the effect of eating one item of food, on its own, one at a time. In daily life we like to combine foods and potatoes are a good example of something we would serve as one part of a meal. Typically it’s accompanied by a prote
