Monday, September 17, 2012

The Significance Of The Glycemic Load On The Human Body

By Jimmy Noble McDowell


The glycemic load is defined as a number that will estimate to what level a food will alter blood sugar. It approximates the effect of taking one gram of carbohydrate. This scientific concept takes into account every gram of carbohydrate and its impact on blood glucose level. The measure is based on the concept of glycemic index

The Index was discovered in 1981 by Dr Thomas Wolever and Dr David Jenkins. It is a measure of how rapidly a meal containing twenty five or fifty grams of carbohydrate elevates blood-sugar levels. Since several foods usually contain low carbohydrate researchers from Harvard came up with the estimate, which accounts for the quantity of carbohydrates in a certain portion of a food.

The figure estimates the impact of carbohydrate taken using the related index which gives an account of the amount of carbohydrate utilized. The carbohydrate content is measured by the glycemic load while the associated index is specific for every kind of food. For instance the melon fruit has a high index while a normal serving of the fruit does not actually contain much carbohydrate and therefore the load estimate is low.

For every serving of a food, a measure that is larger than twenty is taken to be high, twelve to eighteen is regarded as medium and as from ten downwards it is said to be low. Many researchers have said that this measure is very important when in cooperated in weight loosing programs.

The applicable index assesses the chances of a meal that has an equal amount of carbohydrate to elevate the blood sugar. Even so, the total carbohydrate ingested as well affects the responses associated with changes in the level of insulin. When calculating it you multiply the relevant index by the total carbohydrate in grams and then dividing the product by one hundred.

Eating high index meals causes a rapid rise in blood glucose thus people consuming such diets experience a quick change in their moods and mental energy. Such body responses are associated with high index meals and low index meals.

The human body functions well when the level of glucose levels are maintained constant. If sugar levels drop too low the body becomes weary, and if the blood sugar rises above normal the brain sends a signal to the pancreas to produce insulin which regulates blood glucose levels. It does this primarily by converting the excess sugars to fat which are stored in the body. However if the body experiences a higher rate of elevated blood sugar levels it tends to produce excess insulin which makes the blood sugar too low.

The most important purpose of the index is to decrease problems likely to be associated with blood sugar. This is done by identifying the various diets that cause a rise in the sugar levels and keeping away from them. However a rise in the glucose levels may be extremely necessary especially for a non-diabetic person for example after carrying out such strenuous activities like games. Therefore a high glycemic load is important.




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