Low Glycemic Index Snacks for Diabetics & Hypoglycemics

What is a glycemic index? The glycemic index (GI Index) is a property of the carbohydrates in different foods, specifically the blood glucose raising ability of the digestible carbohydrates. It compares carbohydrates on a weight for weight basis in single foods or food items, in the physical state in which they are normally consumed.

Oh boy, that was a mouthful! What does it mean in regular English? The glycemic index is the measurement of blood sugar over a period of time after having eaten a food item. Make more sense?

Low GI load foods control blood sugar

What is low blood sugar? Simple sugars and food containing simple sugars (and there are many) tend to spike blood glucose, resulting in a sugar high, followed by a steep decline or sugar low. You can feel this as a spike of energy, followed by a feeling of fatigue. To combat this lack of energy, we eat more food to get that energy high again, and this starts a vicious circle.

Controlling blood sugar is important for everyone, but it is extremely important for diabetics. Foods containing simple sugars are so prominent in our North American diet, that blood sugar related health disorders are reaching near epidemic proportions.

As an example, the Canadian Diabetes Association suggests that,  based on a U.S. study, a North American child born in 2000 stands a one in three chance of being diagnosed with diabetes in his or her lifetime. Today, more than 9 million Canadians live with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Approximately 80% of people with diabetes will die as a result of heart disease or stroke and by 2020, it’s estimated that diabetes will cost the Canadian healthcare system $16.9 billion a year.

Consumers are starting to understand the importance of eating foods with a low GI index, or GI load. The glycemic index score is calculated from complex formulas, ultimately resulting in a GI classification, as follows:

• Low GI – 55 and below.
• Medium GI – 56 to 69.
• High GI – 70 and above.

Low GI foods sustain blood sugar and energy, instead of spiking energy highs and lows.

11 of our Taste of Nature bars were clinically tested by the Glycemic Index Laboratories, Inc., Toronto, Canada for their GI score. The results were phenomenal. Our bars came in at GI scores ranging from 21.3 to 51.7, well below the ‘low GI’ target of 55.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is looking at the Blood Glucose levels of the volunteers after eating white bread compared with the results after eating Taste of Nature bars (see chart below) . The Blood Glucose (mmol/L) (vertical line) measured in time (horizontal line) clearly shows that Taste of Nature bars provide sustained energy without a dramatic sugar spike.  The results were measured for 2 hours as illustrated in the chart below.  However, if the Blood Glucose levels were monitored beyond the 2 hours Taste of Nature would be expected to continue to provide sustained energy while the white bread result in dramatically reduced energy levels.