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They have different impact on blood glucose and insulin

• pkaye 7y ago
  According the the following, sucrose has a glycemic index of 65. Plantain has 55. Brown rice has 68. Does the glycemic index say anything about impact on blood glucose and insulin levels? https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/glycemic-index-and-glycemic-load-for-100-foods https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/glyce...
  • mikekchar 7y ago
    Keep in mind that food does not act in isolation. The actual glycemic index of the food you eat depends on the combination of food. So if you eat a combination of carbohydrates, fats and proteins it lowers the glycemic index. Famously, a Snicker's bar has a dramatically lower glycemic index than a slice of bread (though exactly what it is depends on what study you look at :-P ). Another way to look at this is that refined sugar is the sugar with all the other things that would have lowered the glycemic index taken away. If you add it back, the index will be lowered again. If I eat refined sugar from sugar beets and accompany it with the fiber, etc from the processing, the glycemic index will be the same as eating sugar beets. So it doesn't matter where the carbs are coming from, it only matters if you are mixing it with fibre, fat and protein.
    • pkaye 7y ago
      Then why does watermelon have a higher glycemic index (76) than sucrose (65)
      • mikekchar 7y ago
        I assume because it is composed of a high level of fructose mixed with water :-) I'm not saying that "natural" food has a low GI; quite the contrary. I'm saying that if you take some food with a low GI and take away all the stuff that makes it low GI you are essentially left with sugar. If you add all that stuff back in, then you get the same GI again. Your gut doesn't care that it's a slurry, essentially.