If I recall correctly, carbohydrates alone can explain about 1/3 of the variability in postprandial glucose responses [1]. That's a lot, but not the whole story

If I recall correctly, carbohydrates alone can explain about 1/3 of the variability in postprandial glucose responses [1]. That's a lot, but not the whole story. Variability between individuals and also for the same meals at different times of the day or under different conditions is high. But overall, most of the recent nutritional research shows that grandma/mom was probably right in banning "junk food" and serving "natural" foods. We've invented highly processed foods before having fully adjusted to doing agriculture. At least my better meals (w.r.t the post-meal glucose response) were fairly self-composed whereas frozen pizza & co gave me the worst spikes. [1] source tomorrow, maybe