#255 Defining Diabetes: Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load
Defining Diabetes: Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load
Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE define the terms at the center of your type 1 diabetes care
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Scott Benner 0:00
Defining diabetes is made possible by Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before becoming bold with insulin or making any changes to your medical plan.
Jenny, what is the glycemic index?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 0:24
How do we explain Oh, glycaemic index, that's a excellent one. So it's essentially a number from zero to 10. That's assigned to a food with pure glucose being represented as 100. Right. And it represents the relative rise in glucose level within two hours after eating or taking that food in. And the index being from zero to 100, or 100, being pure glucose, the higher the foods number, like watermelon, watermelon has a GI or glycemic index of 72. So it's close to 100, it's considered a high gi food, the higher the number, the faster and more more profound, the impact is going to be on blood sugar. The lower the glycemic index, you know, down in like, you know, less than 55 is considered low glycemic index. Those should have slower lower impact on blood sugar in the aftermath of eating.
Scott Benner 1:25
Other Are there any foods with carbs that have no impact? Where is that person to person? Because you just ironically said watermelon, which doesn't touch Arden at all?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:37
Well, that may be another definition. It might be glycemic load. That's the difference there.
Scott Benner 1:43
Right? Why don't we combine the two of them go ahead glycemic load, keep going?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:46
Okay. So glycemic load is essentially, it takes glycaemic index one step further, glycemic load talks about the amount of food eaten at a time. So let's say you had, you know, a half a cup of watermelon, despite it having a high glycemic index, the half a cup load amount that you're eating might be very low. And so the impact in the aftermath of eating is also going to be very low, it's the same thing. Like if you eat a bucket of white rice versus a half a cup of white rice, the glycemic index is the same. But your the impact it has on your blood sugar should be lower and less dramatic, because you're not eating this gigantic portion of it.
Scott Benner 2:32
So load is more about amount.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:35
load is more about amount. So you know, in terms of like carb impact, carbs are not the enemy. Most of what the problem is timing of insulin, and then also the amount that people choose to eat. Right.
Scott Benner 2:54
In moderation, I guess. Right? Correct. are manageable. Okay, so I have to try to go through this in my head, because I want to make sure I understand because this is this is one that's beyond me a little bit. glycemic index is like literally a scoring system. And there are certain foods that fall into certain ranges of index high, I guess there, is there a medium and a low? Is that how it is
Unknown Speaker 3:16
moderate? and low?
Scott Benner 3:17
Yep. And so that is, first of all, I guess, where do they find that? Is that like, Is there like a magic Genie that's in charge of the glycemic index? Is that something the government does? Where's that?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:30
That's interesting. So and then one point of I guess, reference, we talk about glycemic index is the fact that glycemic index was established for foods in a digest alone setting, right, so when they took apples or watermelon, or grapes, or whatever they were, it was looked at as impact only be being digested as that one food, it wasn't like grapes on top of meat lovers cheese pizza, right? You know that that kind of takes it as a one point in time. This is what the impact and low and this is what the impact should be. This is what you should expect from this food fast, moderate or slow. So
Scott Benner 4:12
so when I tell you the people, some foods like hit, they punch above their weight, like that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about work index, like it's okay. So I guess that you have, like, I guess there's a way that you would look at a food and maybe apply something to it that you think is true, that might not be true, but there's actually a scoring system somewhere called the glycemic index, maybe I'll try to find a link and put it in here for people, and they can see what these foods are supposed to, you know how they're supposed to hit. And then from there, glycemic load is the idea of how much of this food you eat, and how for how big of an impact for how long it's gonna have. Correct right. So like, in a very simplistic way, I used to say to my wife Never forget the first time like we gave Arden a lollipop and we like bolused for it, and then realize that she didn't really need the insulin for the lollipop because the sugar like hit her really fast, but then it sort of just went away again. I realized Now look, I realize now looking back, it didn't go away. She was MDI, and she was probably at too much basal insulin. So sure, so we were feeding the bazel with the lollipop because it felt like it went in and went away. But now I realized that in a perfectly balanced system, where ardens bazel is right, that lollipop does have an impact on her,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:32
and would need insulin to cover it and we need insulin to
Scott Benner 5:35
cover it. Jenny Smith is not just a delightful voice you hear on the Juicebox Podcast. She's also a real live person with a job and she works at integrated diabetes. If you'd like Jenny to help you in your personal journey with Type One Diabetes, go to integrated diabetes comm find Jenny's profile and send her an email. There's also links right here in the show notes about you know how you can do that. I think there's actually even a link there to her email. And there's a brief description of her you know, Bona Fie days, why it is you might want to give Jenny a ring. Thanks so much to the sponsors Dexcom. On the pod and dancing for diabetes, there are links in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com, where you can find out more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, figure out what's going on at dancing for diabetes.com. and order a free no obligation pod experience get That's right, a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod. Before I go, I just want to thank everyone who downloaded and shared the show because the other day it reached 1 million downloads. Absolutely amazing. took a couple years to get there. But one of the exciting part because of you guys and how you share the show. I'm pretty certain that 2 million downloads will be here this time next year. Is that amazing? Your good words and sharing or how the show grows. So thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. Go out spend the rest of your weekend being bold. Do it with your insulin, do it in your personal life do in your professional life. Just be bold. If you can't remember to be bold, go to Juicebox podcast.com. Scroll down the merchandise you can buy a shirt right there. That'll remind you just look in the mirror. You're like oh yeah, I'm supposed to be bold. Alright, well, that was weird, but please buy a shirt.
About Jenny Smith
Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Registered (and Licensed) Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, and Certified Trainer on most makes/models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems. You can reach Jenny at jennifer@integrateddiabetes.com
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