I'll have a go at defending the usefulness of the concept of low GI.
Personally I don't pay any attention to it, as I learned early on that anything with any carbs in it had a very similar effect, and I certainly couldn't do porridge for example. It was just simpler and safer to assume that all carbs will be equally bad. Anyway, I like to understand stuff so I'll have a go...
I can only really think of one way in which it may be a useful concept: I think the current research suggests that blood glucose is possibly only 'toxic' over a certain level. I.e. I don't think that
any increase is
always bad - it may need to be an increase beyond a certain point. I don't think we know enough about this. Also, some research suggests kidney damage is more influenced by big swings in blood sugar levels rather than a constant high level for example.
There are of course studies which suggest that the GI can be ignored:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...people-without-diabetes-idUSKBN0JU2IR20141216
but then there are also studies that suggest keeping blood sugar at less than a certain level e.g. 7.8 at all times can greatly reduce the chances of complications.
So looking at the difference in the blood sugar 'curve' between a low-GI and high-GI food, yes a low GI food raises blood sugar for longer, but may never get it above a damaging level, whereas a high-GI food may take it into damaging territory for an hour or so, before things then return to safe levels.
I think the concept and research into GI has also been useful in showing us how we really can't assume that just because we take a reading at zero and 2 hours when eating, we really know what is going on. As I discovered recently, if I'd just looked at those readings when taking an OGTT, I could think I have 'impaired glucose tolerance' rather than being majorly diabetic. We really need to see the full curve to know how high we get and for how long, in order to properly assess what a meal is doing to us.
I'd say that we'd all be far more educated about the food we eat if we used continuous glucose monitors and logged the actual shape of the graph, or at least the starting point, high point and time-to-return-point rather than just a 2 hour measurement. In other words, if we all built our own GI chart of foods. It wouldn't exactly be the 'GI' as such, the main thing of interest would be the high point of the graph. And it would need to be our own chart, because one of the many flaws of the standard GI chart is that, in reality, we are all remarkably different in how we digest foods. I wish I could find it now but I saw an interesting chart where some people could flat-line while eating cookies but spike on a banana, and vice-versa.
So in summary I'd say that:
* It's not a bad concept
* We'd need to make our own personal charts for it to be useful
* The charts need to be based on whole meals that we eat, not individual ingredients
* It would take so much effort and time that it's probably better for most people just to play safe, and assume all carbs will affect them in the way the worst example they can find does