for the cracker to start to taste differently than when you first started
chewing. Go ahead and swallow it after you note the change. If you reach
thirty seconds, you can stop and swallow. Do it two more times and note
your average time. If you stopped the time at fourteen seconds or under, it
means you can tolerate more carbs, while thirty seconds means you can
tolerate fewer carbs. The middle area is, well, the middle area. The test is a
proxy for identifying how your genes break down carbohydrates. While not
the be-all and end-all marker, it gives you some insight into the role carbs
should play in your diet.
TAKE A LOAD OFF
The glycemic index (GI) gauges how dramatically various foods raise
blood sugar. A low score means the food delivers glucose to the blood at a
slow, steady rate; a high one means it dumps its load of glucose into the
blood more immediately. It lets researchers compare how much your blood
sugar jumps when it gets 100 grams of one food versus the same amount of
another. But it’s not very helpful to the average person, since you might eat
100 grams of bread (one slice) but not of rocket (200 grams). So scientists
developed a related measure, the glycemic load, that takes into account the
serving size to get a real-world picture of what a normal portion will do to
blood sugar. Foods that score 10 or under are low GL foods (that’s good);
anything above 20 is considered high. Some examples:
Low GL Foods: Wholegrain bread, apples, steel-cut oatmeal, chickpeas,
wholegrain spaghetti, brown rice, Greek yoghurt
High GL Foods: Raisins, instant oatmeal, white spaghetti, white rice, low-
fat yoghurt
You can change the glycemic load in the way you prepare your foods. For
example, how potatoes are cooked matters. If you cool them after you cook
them, the glycemic index is reduced. Same goes for rice, especially when
cooked with a little coconut oil (the fat slows down the blitz of glucose). Al
dente pasta (which is firm) is processed more slowly than soft noodles.