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Help with GI & GL foods

Mummyofthree

Mummyofthree

Member
Messages
17
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, I've been type 2 for about a month & my DN told me to get a book about GI foods. Am I supposed to eat foods that are low GI or GL. Some foods have a low GI but high GL like spaghetti? Also when I'm looking at at the nutritional value of food, is it the carbohydrates that are sugars or just carbohydrates? How low should the food be? As you can tell I haven't had much advice or help from my DN. Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
 
The body breaks down Carbohydrates into simple sugar as part of the digestion process, so Carbohydrates are in effect 'Sugars'. You should aim to reduce ALL sugar intake whether it be directly mentioned on food labels or hidden somewhere in the description.
Many Low Fat foods are loaded with sugar to compensate for the lack of taste.
Gi and GL are basically the same thing, it's a relative measurement as to how the average human's blood glucose level will rise in relationship to absolute pure sugar (Glucose) which has a Gi rating of 100. This means that Gi ratings below 30 are generally preferential to those higher than 70.
Publications are readily available on the internet and even here on this site. A good book on the subject that comes to mind is one called 'Carbs and Cals' which itemised a whole range of items and shows each item as a portion.
This is where the GL comes into being, as its actually a Gi based item but simplified to being a realistic portion size. If you look up the Gi for instant of Mellon you will usually find it rated above 70 but in the GL rating system (which I believe to be the better option) it's considered as 'Low' and can be freely eaten.
Hope this info helps - All the best with controlling your diabetes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
On this forum a very number of members have found the best option is to cut total carbohydrate intake to as close to zero as is practical and save any Carbohydrate for special treats. For many less than 5% Carbohydrate content is generally OK, 10% in smaller quantities, any food with a higher carbohydrate content and you have be very careful with to control the portion size and total carbohydrate intake for the day.


As a rule of thumb this means cutting out root vegetables and anything made any type of cereal, fruit jucies or tropical or semi-tropical fruit.
 
Sirmione said:
On this forum a very number of members have found the best option is to cut total carbohydrate intake to as close to zero as is practical and save any Carbohydrate for special treats. For many less than 5% Carbohydrate content is generally OK, 10% in smaller quantities, any food with a higher carbohydrate content and you have be very careful with to control the portion size and total carbohydrate intake for the day.


As a rule of thumb this means cutting out root vegetables and anything made any type of cereal, fruit jucies or tropical or semi-tropical fruit.
Click to expand...
Another approach is to set yourself a daily total for carbs and you choose what you have within that. A max of, say, 150gm/day is a start point but many try to go down below 100gm and a lot below.
 
Thanks, it seems all trial & error at the mo. I'm lucky as I've still got my meter from when I was pregnant but my GP wasn't going to give me one. I had no idea before I came on this site that lots of carbs were bad.
 
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