Glycemic Indexes (GI)

The Glycemic Index concept

Glycemic Index is an innovative criterion for classifying carbohydrates. It allows us to identify this food category so that we can choose our food wisely with the aim of preventing weight gain and losing weight.

Glycemic Index table ranked by foods

Following you will find two types of classification for Glycemic Indexes; each one suits a particular need:

The first Table ranks carbohydrates in an order of highest to lowest values. This allows us at a glance to have an idea of the food fitting into each of the three levels: High GIs, Intermediate GIs and Low GIs.

The second presentation is organized in alphabetical order. You just have to type the name of the food you are searching for and you will find the corresponding GI for each of its varieties and forms.

We advise you to view the article on warnings regarding widespread misinterpretations of GIs.

*Enhance your search results:

• use the singular
• separate words
• to increase the number of results, type few words or letters ("bea" will give results such as "black beans", "garbanzo beans", "mung beans", etc.)

Factors Which Modify Glycemic Indexes

Contrary to what many people believe, GIs for carbohydrates are not fixed values. They can vary depending on a number of factors. For cereal, for example, variation depends on the variety of cereal consumed and on its botanic origin. For fruit, GIs vary depending on where they come from, on the species variety, on form of thermal processing (heating, freezing), on hydration processes and the way they have been transformed  (grounding, conversion into flour...)

Michel Montignac : the Glycemic Index pioneer

Michel Montignac was the first nutritionist in the world to have proposed the GI concept for people wanting to lose weight.