Understanding glycemic load and the kinds of carbs you should eat

When you're fighting diabetes, an important aspect of diet is understanding carbohydrates and their relation to your blood glucose levels. Find out what glycemic load refers to and which carbs you should be eating most often.

What's the difference between mashed potatoes and spaghetti?

• The potatoes tend to send blood sugar up high in a hurry, while the pasta causes less of a stir — even if you were to eat the same amount of total carbohydrates in both cases.

Scientists have discovered that some types of carbs, once in the body, convert faster to glucose than others do.

Certain starchy foods, such as potatoes and cornflakes, raise blood sugar nearly as much as pure glucose does! This earns them a high glycemic index (GI) score.

One thing the GI doesn't take into account, though, is how much carbohydrates a serving of a food contains. You'd have to eat a heck of a lot of carrots to get 50 grams of carbs from them. The same goes for most vegetables and fruits.

• A better measure, then, is the glycemic load (GL), which corrects for this problem.

•  High-GL foods cause blood glucose levels to rise sharply, prompting the pancreas to secrete insulin to bring it back down.
• Low-GL foods create a smaller, more sustained rise in blood glucose and don't require as much insulin.

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, eating low GI food optimizes glycemic control for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

• Choosing low-GL foods means reaching for more fresh, non-starchy fruits and vegetables, nearly all of which fall very low on the GL scale. (Go easier on starchier vegetables including potatoes, parsnips, corn and peas.)
• Low-fat dairy foods also tend to be low-GI, along with most protein foods (that makes sense, since it's carbohydrates, not proteins, that raise blood sugar).
• Choose breakfast cereals with at least five grams of fibre per serving, and they will likely be fairly low GL.
• Opt for whole grains (such as brown rice, barley, bulgur, oatmeal and coarse whole wheat bread) over refined grains like white rice and white bread.
• Avoid foods made with white flour, such as most store-bought baked goods.

In general, the more finely ground the grain and the less fibre it contains, the faster it will be digested — and the faster blood sugar will rise. That's one reason oatmeal, which isn't ground, has a lower GL than most cold cereals.

• Instead of white potatoes or French fries, try sweet potatoes or fries made from sweet potatoes.
• Instead of white rice, try brown or converted rice, quinoa, bulgur, pearled barley or pasta cooked al dente.
• Instead of white bread, try coarse whole-grain bread, genuine sourdough bread or dense rye bread.
• Instead of cornflakes, rice cereal or instant cream of wheat, try bran cereal, oatmeal or regular cream of wheat.
• Instead of corn, try beans and lentils.
• Instead of chips, pretzels, rice cakes or jelly beans, try nuts.
• Instead of sugary beverages or juices, try low-fat or nonfat milk or tomato juice.

Nutritionists say "never say never." In other words, no foods are banned completely from a healthy diet. Handle high-GL foods by having them in moderation.

Once you understand glycemic load, you should be better able to control your diabetes with the right diet choices, including a regular preference for carbs with a low GL.