Glycaemic Index

Everyone needs to eat carbohydrates at every meal to give energy to your brain and muscles. All carbohydrate foods break down into sugar in your stomach but they do so at different speeds – some slow, some fast.  The Glycaemic Index (GI) is a measure of how a carbohydrate food affects the sugar in your blood.

Choosing slow acting carbohydrates in medium serves is better for your overall health.

-        Slow acting Carbohydrates = Low GI food

o    More slowly broken down and has less impact on blood glucose levels

-        Quick acting Carbohydrates = High GI food

o    More quickly broken down and causes higher blood glucose levels

Glycaemic Index of common foods:

	LOWER GI Best choice	MEDIUM GI Good choice	HIGH GI Limit intake
Breads	Wholegrain bread, Burgen® breads, Soy and Linseed, oat-bran based breads, Country grain, Bakers Delight® Low-GI white bread	Rye bread, light rye bread, crumpets, pita breads, mountain bread wraps	White and wholemeal bread, bagel, gluten free bread
Breakfast Cereals	All bran® fruit and oats, All bran®, Guardian®, Porridge, Traditional Oats, Sustain®, Weet-Bix®, Natural Muesli	Untoasted Muesli, Just Right®, Special K®, Fruity Bix®, Vita Brits®	Sultana Bran®, Bran Flakes®, Coco Pops®, Rice Bubbles®, CornFlakes®
Grains	Pasta, wheat noodles, bulgar, Moolgiri Rice (freedom foods®)	Basmati Rice, Doongara rice, Couscous, Quinoa, Gnocchi	Jasmine rice, brown rice, glutinous rice, short grain rice
Legumes	All beans (e.g. kidney, baked),  chickpeas and lentils		Broad beans
Starchy Vegetables	Corn, butternut pumpkin, parsnip, green peas	Sweet potato, Beetroot	White Potato (Nicola or almera, hot chips
Note: Most vegetables contain very little carbohydrate so do not affect blood sugar levels. Aim to eat at least 3 cups of non-starchy vegetables every day.
Fruit	Apple, pear, orange, plums, peach, nectarine, kiwi fruit, grapes, mango, banana (firm)	Rockmelon, pineapple, cherries, sultanas, apricots	Watermelon, dates, banana (ripe), most dried fruit
Low Fat Dairy	All varieties of cow and sow milk, yoghurt, custard. Yoplait le-rice
Savoury Biscuits	Vita weat®, Ryvita®	Rice-corn cakes	Water crackers, Sao®, Savoys®, Sakata®, Cheds
Sweet Biscuits	Oatmeal biscuits,  Snack Right Fruit Slice®	Digestives, Milk arrowroot	Tim tams®, Oreo®, Choc Chip cookies, Wafer biscuits

Meat, chicken, fish, nuts, eggs and cheese do not contain any carbohydrate and will not increase your blood sugar levels. But these foods are high in fats so should not be eaten in excess