Managing blood sugar levels: Why Is Glycemic Load Important?

“For people who need to watch their blood glucose, aka blood sugar, sweet and high-carbohydrate foods can be problematic, especially for those with diabetes. Many of them rely on information about a food’s glycemic index (GI), which measures how much a food will spike blood glucose, to help them make healthy choices. Foods with a high glycemic index, which is ranked from 1 to 100, will make blood sugar rise quickly. Those with a lower glycemic index cause blood sugar to rise at a steadier, safer pace.”***

If you or someone you love lives with the challenge of managing glycemic load you know that maintaining a healthy diet can be daunting. We’re not going to pretend to provide sweeping advice about meeting this challenge. What we can do is tell you a few things we’ve learned about glycemic load and glycemic index and how LIVA date sugar can help sweeten your life.

Everything in moderation!

Whether it is date sugar or brown sugar or any other type of sweetener - natural or artificial - too much of anything isn’t good for us. With that said, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a sweet treat from time to time. The secret is to find a sweetener that delivers both the flavour sensation you’re after AND a low glycemic load.

What Is The Glycemic Load?

Let’s look at the glycemic load issue for a moment. Glycemic load is a measure that takes into account the amount of carbohydrate in a portion of food together with how quickly it raises blood glucose levels.

Glycemic index vs. glycemic load

The glycemic index (GI) assigns a numeric score to a food based on how drastically it makes your blood sugar rise. Foods are ranked on a scale of 0 to 100, with pure glucose (sugar) given a value of 100. The lower a food's glycemic index, the slower blood sugar rises after eating that food.

The glycemic index tells just part of the story.

To understand a food's complete effect on blood sugar, you need to know both how quickly it makes glucose enter the bloodstream and how much glucose per serving it can deliver. A separate measure called the glycemic load does both. Watermelon, for example, has a high glycemic index (80). But a serving of watermelon has so little carbohydrate that its glycemic load is only 5.*

A Few Facts

The University of Sydney, Australia** defines low, medium and Glycemic loads as follows:

Low Glycemic load (low GL): 0 to 10
Medium Glycemic load (med GL): 11 to 19
High Glycemic load (high GL): 20 and over

Based on a serving size of 4 grams (approximately 1 teaspoon) the Glycemic load of LIVA date sugar is 1.3 or low. Here’s how that compares to other common sweeteners.

LIVA date sugar can be a part of your life.

Let’s just go back to our first point about everything in moderation. When you use sweeteners it only makes sense to choose one that delivers more than a sweet surge of short-term energy. As well as its low glycemic load, LIVA date sugar delivers (per 100 g) high levels of Selenium, Copper, Potassium, and Magnesium. It also will provide moderate levels of Manganese, Iron, Phosphorous and Iron. So you can enjoy your life in health including all of the sweet moments we deserve.

If you want to try something right now we’ve got a terrific recipe for our Chunky Chocolate Nuggets. We almost named these Nobody-Is-Ever-Going-To-Believe-You cookies because they are vegan, gluten free, nut free and dairy free. Why not try a batch and see if anyone believes you?

The following sources were reviewed in preparing this blog. You might find more useful information on these sites as well.

Sources:
***https://www.fromthegrapevine.com
*https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-lowdown-on-glycemic-index-and-glycemic-load
**www.diabetes.co.uk

Disclaimer: LIVA Foods, Inc. services and products are not presented as a medical treatment for any specific disease or condition. Anyone with troublesome or persistent symptoms should work closely with a physician whose responsibility it is to provide diagnoses and recommend treatment.