What is glycemic load?

• A. glycemic index multiplied by the grams of carb in the food
• B. glycemic index divided by the grams of fat
• C. glycemic index added to fiber content
• D. glycemic load equals calories from carbohydrates

Answer: (A)

Glycemic load estimates how a real serving of food will affect blood sugar by combining two factors: how quickly the carbohydrate raises glucose (glycemic index) and how many grams of carbohydrate are in that serving. The idea is that both the quality of the carb (GI) and the quantity (grams of carb) influence the overall glucose response. In practice, you multiply the glycemic index by the carbohydrate grams in the serving and divide by 100 to get the GL value. For example, if a food has a GI of 60 and 30 g of carbohydrate per serving, the GL is (60 × 30) / 100 = 18. Foods with high GI and/or more carbohydrate per serving yield higher glycemic loads, meaning a larger blood glucose impact. The other descriptions don’t capture the combination of GI and carbohydrate quantity (and the scaling by 100), so they don’t describe GL correctly.