| The Glycemic Index is a rating system for foods | | | | blood sugar levels differently and that they have |
| where any type of carbohydrate has a numerical | | | | many different degrees of being simple and complex, |
| value assigned to it based on its components and | | | | good or bad. |
| how each food affects the body's sugar levels. | | | | Basically, as food breaks down in our digestive |
| Dr. David Jenkins, a Canadian professor and scientist | | | | system, many of the food's components, like sugar |
| from the University of Toronto developed the | | | | or vitamins and minerals are absorbed into our blood |
| concept of a rating index in March of 1981. He felt | | | | stream and immediately affect our system. Foods |
| that a better system needed to be developed due | | | | that break down quickly and have high glucose or |
| to the popularity of certain diets like Atkins and | | | | sugar levels will give us a "spiked" feeling of energy |
| South Beach that vilified all carbohydrates and many | | | | and euphoria. This feeling is commonly referred to as |
| fats. He wanted to show that it was too | | | | a "sugar high". Other foods break down more slowly |
| oversimplified to categorize carbohydrates as "simple" | | | | and release their sugars, starches and nutrients over |
| and "complex" or even worse, as "good carbs" and | | | | a longer period of time, which avoids any sudden |
| "bad carbs". Most carbohydrates are too complex to | | | | increases to our sugar levels and keeps our insulin |
| label them in this manner. | | | | levels low. Later in this report, we will explain exactly |
| He wanted to show the scientific community and | | | | what glucose and insulin are and how they affect our |
| thereby, the world that all foods affect our bodies' | | | | bodies and our health. |