What is Glycaemic Index (GI)?
The GL was devised in 2001 by the highly respected Professor Walter Willett, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School as an improvement over GI. Harvard is renowned for nutritional research having carried out the longest running nutritional studies in the world. Although the GI of a food is helpful information, it is only part of the story, because the effect of eating a food on blood glucose and insulin levels depends on both the amount of carbohydrate and the GI of that carbohydrate. For this reason the concept of the ‘Glycaemic Load’ or GL has been developed. This is the amount of carbohydrate in a food multiplied by the Glycaemic Index of that carbohydrate. The GL better reflects a food’s effect on your body’s biochemistry than either the amount of carbohydrate or the GI alone. Professor Walter Willett, Harvard Medical School The increasing prevalence of diabetes has huge social and financial implications for developed countries. With increasing incidence of conditions such
