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confused by GI and sugar definitions!

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bangna63

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Can someone please explain this to me:

I just went to this site to look up some items for their GI rtating. http://www.montignac.com/en/search-for-a-specific-glycemic-index/#tab_high

When I look up beer it was given 110 as a rating (as I understand it there are 2 scales 0-100 and 0-115 which the academics split between) but with this comment:

"These foodstuffs, even though they have high GIs, their pure sugar content (pure glucid) is quite low (approximately 5%.) Consuming these foods should not significantly affect blood sugar levels."

I thought beer was full of sugar? However, is the point that it is the carbs in beer that are the problem as they will convert to sugar?

I am confused!
 
Bangna, what you need to understand is that sugar is just another carbohydrate, it's just a very refined one. Don't try and differentiaite between sugar and other carbs. A carb is a carb, it's just that some act quicker than others, hence tables about GI. Alcohol such as beer can confuse things, and I've never tried to look up it's GI; not sure you could really. With alcohol, sugars turn into alcohol as the product is brewed/distilled. The stronger the alcohol, the more sugars have been brewed out. So spirits have zero carbs, wine has a few, and beer a few more. HOWEVER, when you drink alcohol, the liver stops converting carbs into sugar in the blood while it deals with the "toxin" it has identified; the alcohol. Because of this, alcohol LOWERS your blood sugar levels, even though carbs are present. Evcen beer, with quite a lot of carbs, tends to lower BG although some people note a later rise. For info, Coors Light is a full strength beer with the lowest carbs just about of any beer if you're looking for that. You can buy it in bottles at supermarkets, and some bars sell it as draft.
 
Grazer said:
For info, Coors Light is a full strength beer with the lowest carbs just about of any beer if you're looking for that. You can buy it in bottles at supermarkets, and some bars sell it as draft.
Click to expand...

And its very refreshing too :D
 
I agree with Grazers comments on alcohol.
The GI of beer would be very variable, Montignac has done some testing of foods, perhaps the GI he states is from a French beer.
Sidney University has tested an Aussie beer ;Toohey's New, and found a GI of 66 . In that beer there were 8g carb in a 250g serving.

"These foodstuffs, even though they have high GIs, their pure sugar content (pure glucid) is quite low (approximately 5%.) Consuming these foods should not significantly affect blood sugar levels."
Click to expand...
If you look at some of the more normal (ie not alcohol) foods that have this asterick you'll note they are foods with fairly low amounts of carbs per 100g . A good example of this is watermelon. This has the same sort of GI as many industrially produced breads but has only 5g carb per 100 as compared with 50g carb per 100g in bread.

This is where the concept of Glycemic load becomes useful.
GL takes into account both the GI and the amount of carb in a food.
here's an explanation from the GI website
Your blood glucose rises and falls when you eat a meal containing carbs. How high it rises and how long it remains high depends on the quality of the carbs (the GI) and the quantity. Glycemic load or GL combines both the quality and quantity of carbohydrate in one 'number'. It's the best way to predict blood glucose values of different types and amounts of food. The formula is:
GL = (GI x the amount of carbohydrate) divided by 100.
Click to expand...
http://www.glycemicindex.com/faqsList.php#1

If we took the watermelon as an example
It has a GI of 72 and a say we ate a reasonable 120g portion. That only has 6g carbs
72 x 6/100 =4.32
Compare with that a portion of bread with the same GI
A 30g portion(about a slice) contains 15g carbs
72x 15/100 =10.8
To put it another way, though the bread and the watermelon have the same GI , you would have to eat 300g of watermelon to have the same glycemic load as one slice of bread.
 
Bagna 63.
GI is a measure of how quickly the sugar in some foods becomes available in the blood stream. Carb quantities are the amount of carb in the food. Sugars are simple carbs, starch is a more complex molecule. ALL starch and much sugar get turned to blood glucose.
Hana
 
OK, well I just did a quick review of a GI/GL combined list and some things clearly jumped out as regards my own issue - I am a recent diagnosis of type 2. I eat little processed or packaged food which seem loaded up on the GL, and nothing sweet at all. I currently live in Asia and am moving to Africa soon for work so fresh produce is always available for literally buttons. I eat pretty healthily but clearly for me, the issue is staples. The white and in fact all bread realistically has to go, as with the pasta; I do a lot of both. It was amazing to see some incredibly low GL's on what I am sure would be perceived by most as very bad for diabetics, but apparently not so.
 
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