Episode 41: Boost Your Energy with Low GI

Glycemic Index Chart (Canada Diabetes, 2025)

Welcome to the Beauty of Better podcast, where we help moms thrive in health and faith.

Good morning, mamas. We're so glad that you've joined us today. We've got a fun topic that we're bringing you this morning.

You know, all of us as moms, we just, we wanna have energy to keep going and showing up where we're needed. And today we're gonna talk particularly about the topic of glycemic index. And so maybe you've heard of that.

I know it's kind of a buzzword right now of just monitoring blood sugar levels. But we just wanna simplify that a little bit for you today.

Also bring some science around it, so that you know how to make these simple changes in your diet to help stabilize your blood sugar, and make sure that you're getting the nutrition that you need.

But also, you're gonna notice changes as you make these little changes over time. You know, I taught in Northern Ireland, I taught classes on eating in a low glycemic way, and I really saw people change in their energy levels, even myself.

I recognized for the first time in my life, I grew up as an athlete, doing all sorts of sports. And once I started finding these tools of eating in a low glycemic way, I was shocked. And I was like, I wish I knew these tools my whole life.

So we're just gonna open it up for conversation today, and help describe what glycemic index is, and just give you some tools to help you out in this. So Kelsey, if you wanna jump in.

Yes, yes. So just to define the term to start, glycemic index is basically a ranking system for carbohydrates. And it's telling us how quickly and how much they raise our blood glucose or blood sugar levels after we eat.

And it's doing that by comparing foods to pure glucose, which has a glycemic index or GI of 100. So there's different foods that have different levels of glycemic index.

And basically, if it's got a higher glycemic index, this is going to make your blood sugar go up quickly and then drop. And that's going to make you feel more tired or hungry again relatively soon.

And if it's got a lower glycemic index, that's going to make your blood sugar rise slow and steady, kind of like a turtle. So like high GI is like a rabbit, low GI is like a turtle, gives you longer lasting energy.

And so high GI foods are really kind of like giving you this big burst of energy all at once. And then typically there's a crash later.

Lower GI foods, think of it as like adding fuel slowly, you're giving yourself steady energy for work, errands, your kids, all those things. And there is some medium GI things as well.

Christiana is going to talk a little bit about the different levels that exist, and how we measure those, and what numbers are associated with that.

And then we're going to also talk about some foods that are associated with different blood sugar levels, and how we can kind of maximize that as moms.

Yeah, thanks Kelsey. It makes me think of pacing, right? You know, Kathleen's talking about being an athlete, and I think we all probably dabbled a bit in different sports.

So it's just like the lower GIs are kind of more pacing that sugar levels. So the numbers I'm going to give you are going to talk about just how fast that body converts that carbohydrate into glucose.

So the first range is 1 to 55, and that's considered any food that's tested for its glycemic index would fall into the low range if it's valued at a 1 to 55. And we'll talk about examples of that.

And then medium is 56 to 69, would be a medium glycemic index. And then anything that's 70 to 100 would be that high glycemic index. And your body does need glucose.

So we do need to take that carbohydrate to convert it to glucose. But we don't need a flood of it all at once.

And so we do need, sometimes we need a boost, but we also want to know how to regulate that and stabilize our blood sugar, and control that rise rather than high rises and high falls.

And our body does make hormones to help regulate that, which I don't think we're going to get into those details necessarily today. But in two foods, just one thing kind of add to this, two foods with the same amount of carbohydrate.

I know we have a carbohydrate podcast that maybe you've listened to. But if they have the same amount of carbohydrate, they could actually have different GI numbers too.

So just because you see carbohydrate in something doesn't necessarily mean that because they have equivalent numbers of carbohydrate, that they're going to have equivalent GIs. So some food labels will actually put on there what the GI index is.

So look for that and see if you're eating something that's low, medium, or high, and knowing that that's going to have a big impact on your short-term and long-term energy and expectations with that.

That's so good. I remember when I first learned about this in school, and I was so confused because I just thought, oh, shouldn't this be more natural?

Like, this type of carb has a high GI, and this one has a low because it's more processed, and it doesn't always follow that pattern.

This is actually one of those things that you usually have to look up, and it's not as well known just off the top of your head or following patterns. So it's also really important when people have diabetes.

Again, as Cristiana mentioned, we're looking at carbs in foods.

A lot of people with diabetes will stay away from high carbs, but just because something is low carbs, the carbohydrates don't tell you whether or not they're going to be absorbed quickly into your bloodstream. That's what a GI index will do.

So I'm just going to give some examples of foods, and we're actually going to post some charts on our social media.

We'll also link them in our website, because I feel like this is one of those things where if you have a visual and you can look at a checklist, you can look at a chart, it's a lot easier to understand.

So we'll just go through a few examples today, and hopefully that's super helpful. So instead of giving exact numbers, I'll let you look at those on the charts. I'm going to give categories of low, medium, high.

Remember, we're trying to aim for as many low as possible, because that helps stabilize our blood sugar as we're eating and our energy after, as opposed to a shock of a high GI food and sugar rush.

So when we're looking at grains and starches, I'm going to go by food categories. And you guys feel free to jump in with other examples as well as I'm talking here. So when we look at grains and starches, we have things like brand cereal.

Actually, pastas are considered in the low category. Like that wouldn't have been natural for me to think of. I would think pasta, high glycemic index, but it's not.

It's a lower one. And it's especially low if you have a whole wheat pasta. When we get into rices and even whole wheat bread, those tend to be around a more medium or moderate category.

Then when we get into oatmeal, baked potatoes, white bread, white bagels are higher than sugar itself. They're at 103. So those are high, high categories.

So if you eat those foods, you know you're going to get a sugar rush right after. One category I really love is vegetables.

And almost all vegetables, you guys correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of vegetables are in the low glycemic index category. So I feel like you almost can't go wrong with that because they're just so great for you.

So always go for all your vegetables. That includes like asparagus, broccoli, cucumber, lettuce, pepper, spinach, tomatoes, and so on.

So even things like sweet potatoes too. I know, Danielle, you said potatoes are high GI, and they are white potatoes are potatoes.

Yes.

Yes. A sweet potato is a much lower GI option, which is it's a moderate.

Yeah.

Yes. Yes. I'm sorry.

Moderate.

Yeah, no, that's good to note.

Yes.

And it's helpful to have this guide, because as you follow these principles over time, when I taught this course in Northern Ireland, this was in specific to weight loss that I was teaching these low GI principles.

But people over time found recipes, they found things that would fit in their normal every day, and they already knew the glycemic index of it because they had researched it, looked it up.

So it may feel like tedious in the beginning of having to look these things up, but over time, you'll learn to understand which things are lower GI, which things are higher GI.

Something I wanted to mention is, I always think of breakfast and break fast. You're breaking the fast of going all night without food. And a lot of times in America, we have sweet foods, we wake up with pancakes or waffles.

And I hear people a lot, they're like, I just can't break that habit for sweet foods in the morning.

And I remember when I first learned about low GI eating and started eating that way more myself, I was starting breakfast with like eggs and some sauteed spinach and tomatoes.

And at first, I was like, this is the worst, I don't want this with my coffee. I have such a bad attitude towards it. But then I remembered how I felt so much better when I started my day with fiber from those veggies and also the protein.

My energy was sustained so much more because growing up, I would have just had a bagel all the time. And I still have that because I still love it from time to time.

But learning to start my day with protein, and you may be seeing that around places of people starting their day with protein.

But that's because that helps slow that release of any carbohydrates that we have into our bloodstream, that glucose from that. And that can kind of help stabilize us from the beginning of the day.

And so that's why we can encourage having something less sweet, like a high glycemic food for breakfast, and trying to focus on these foods that have more fiber and more protein in them in the morning.

But definitely looking at the glycemic index of maybe the foods that you already eat regularly and recognizing, oh, okay, that's why I'm getting that afternoon slump.

It's because I'm having a big bowl of maybe white rice and something at lunchtime, and you're like, okay, that's why I want to take a nap mid-afternoon.

So just learning how to make those little swaps maybe to brown rice or adding in some fibrous foods like sweet potato or some protein into there.

Finding these little swaps, that's gonna help balance out those blood sugar levels and keep you going throughout the day. So I just wanted to share that.

No, that's so great. And speaking of breakfast, the next category I was gonna go through was dairy. And I just feel like yogurt is such a great breakfast.

It has one of the lowest GI's. So if you have that plain yogurt for breakfast, you're getting a ton of protein, it's low GI, it's gonna be absorbed slowly. Most of the milk categories are lower GI, and cheeses as well.

When we look at proteins, another great category, most like beans, nuts, meats are also very low.

So again, it sounds like we're kind of repeating some episodes that we've had, but it's just so true that the more whole foods you eat, the better they are for you.

And this is just proving it in another way with another metric looking at glycemic index. Another one I wanted us to bring up and just talk through is the category of fruit.

There are some fruits that have lower GI, like grapefruit, apple, oranges, grapes. And then there's some more in the medium category, like bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and then watermelon is technically considered high. But we love all fruits.

We love the vitamins. We love the fiber from them. And I would not suggest cutting out fruits just because they're considered a high GI.

We just want to be aware of what that is. So I don't know if we want to speak to that at all.

And just because I feel like a lot of people cut out fruits when they're trying to like cut carbs, and it's like, no, you're missing the fiber and the vitamins, and we need these. So I don't know if we want to land there for a second.

Yeah, I think when we talk about fruits, like, and just food in general, we're not supposed to just only eat one thing, right?

So we probably will have a predominant amount of low to medium, but it's okay to have some high because we know that the other things that are in those fruits like the antioxidants and all of the fiber and other things, like that's worth the cost of

having a little bit. We can balance the blood sugar by having a diverse amount of GI things, but just leaning on the lower end to medium end of the spectrum.

And I think kind of what you were saying, like that fiber really does impact our glycemic index and the processing. So like, we're having a watermelon versus having a doughnut. Those are both in the high category.

Let's pick the watermelon probably, right? Maybe you're craving the doughnut, but you know, whenever you know, and then that's fine. But just being aware of like, hey, this is going to offer you more nutrient density.

And like, it's like an investment, right? Like you're paying calories to get something, and that's going to give you something in return more than something else in that high category.

One thing about bananas that I thought of when you were mentioning that is that bananas actually change GI indexes as they get sweet and riper. So like, my kids like it almost green.

So as it gets sweeter, like they're, I mean, they're less interested than we can turn it into banana bread, right? Or banana pancakes or whatever else. But yeah, that is one thing that things can go rogue and shift groups as they ripen as well too.

Well, I think it's helpful to think of, like, imagining you taking something in like a whole apple versus apple juice.

Just imagine that in your stomach. Like, your body has to break down that whole apple, like break down the fiber, break it all down before it can be released into your body for usable energy.

Whereas that juice is just like a straight shot, almost like an IV, just getting straight in there because there's no fiber, anything slowing it down.

So I say that to people sometimes just to help them understand even white bread versus a whole wheat grain bread.

Like that whole wheat bread, like a whole grain bread has more fiber in it, then that's going to slow down, that's going to take your body longer to digest that and to release that blood sugar, versus that white bread, which is lacking more of that

fiber. So sometimes if you just look at the sugar on a food label and you're missing out on the fiber, then that fiber component is what's going to help lower that glycemic index. So paying attention to that part as well is really important.

I was just going to jump in and talk about when it's actually really good to have a high GI food.

Yeah.

So for, this is for you, mama, because we know you love to exercise.

And if you have just finished a really hard workout, your muscles need to refill their energy stores with glycogen, and it's actually a good time to have a higher GI food right after you work out.

So like we were just talking about, bananas, having white rice with chicken, something like that after you work out is actually a really good time to have that.

Also, if you are finding yourself in need of having some type of, like you need energy and you need it fast, that would be a time when you might want to have a higher GI food.

If you feel like you are low on energy or you're even dizzy or something like that, your blood sugar is really low, that would be a moment where we would want to have a higher GI food to bring that blood sugar level back up.

And I know we mentioned diabetes, and this is a little bit more relevant, I think, for that population. But still, if you're like, man, I haven't eaten in several hours, and I'm really dizzy, and I need to have...

Sorry, you guys can hear my little guy with me right now. I think his GI is getting low.

We have a special guest.

Yeah, he needs some blood sugar raising right now. But yeah, those are just a couple opportunities when we might want to have higher GI.

Love that. That's really great. Yeah, I think also looking at how do we measure or even get a baseline for our own GI, like our GI foods.

And what I would really suggest is, we've talked about this before in other episodes, but using an app like MyFitnessPal, or even just some kind of free app where you just track your eating for like three days.

You don't have to consistently do it or have it be a burden.

But if you can just track what you eat for three days and then just set aside a half hour, it doesn't have to be super long and actually just take a moment to go through what you ate, look up the GI, and then you'll start to get to know, oh, my

regular foods are high GI or low GI or moderate, and just really looking at what's in your routine, and then where can you make swaps? And actually just carving out time to do that would be super, super helpful.

I love that. Well, and also, I just want to speak too of like, I once saw this thing, it was so funny. Someone, I think it was a T-shirt that said, cake happens.

And just realizing in real life, we never want this to be a space where moms feel that pressure that you get from culture that's like, okay, don't do this, don't do that.

It's like, reality of life is, is cake happens, learning to eat your cake and enjoy it too. You don't need to be fearful of high glycemic foods, but realizing like how it affects our body in the long run, if we make a pattern of that every day.

So we want our pattern to be, our regular pattern to be more on the low GI side. But then when you do have the birthday party where you have the cake, just realizing how maybe your body might respond to it differently.

And I know at least with diabetes patients, if they eat something that's like really high in sugar, sometimes they'll take a walk afterwards.

And that's how, I mean, you ladies could begin that with the sports thing, but how your muscles will release the sugar, and so then help bring you some balance again after that.

So, you know, or if you have a high glycemic food, pairing that with a low glycemic food, like adding some raw almonds or something to the side of your meal, or adding in a little bit of protein, you know, that can help balance out your blood sugar

if you've had a really high glycemic afternoon at a birthday party. So, learning how to just get back on track with that and not beating yourself up, because cake happens.

I love that. I feel like we need t-shirts that say that for better.

Meals will be coming.

Cake happens.

That's really awesome. Well, Mamas, you know, coming up, we have another episode that's going to talk about this more, and we're going to actually go into fiber as well, because that's so important.

We've got more fun things coming for you in future episodes, and even we're going to share some of our favorite healthy recipe swaps for the holidays. And so we're just excited for this upcoming season with you.

And we just really hope that you're blessed today and that you can take one small step to becoming better.

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