Pumpkin seems to be on everybody’s minds and tables these days, especially during the fall and early winter months....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
It not only offers a pop of bright color but also boasts a delicious flavor and plenty of nutrients. Still, you may wonder whether pumpkin is suitable if you have diabetes.
If you live with this condition, it’s important to manage your blood sugar levels, as doing so can help prevent diabetes-related complications, such as nerve damage, heart disease, vision disturbances, skin infections, and kidney issues.
Accordig to healthline, understanding how certain foods like pumpkin affect blood sugar is especially important if you have diabetes.
This article will look at the effect of pumpkin on blood sugar.
Effect of pumpkin on blood sugar.
The glycemic load (GL) is a ranking system for carb-rich foods. It indicates the number of carbs in a serving of food and to what extent that food raises your blood sugar levels. A GL of less than 10 indicates that a food has a minimal impact on blood sugar.
On the other hand, the glycemic index (GI) is a scale from 0–100 that indicates to what extent a food may cause your blood sugar levels to rise. Higher numbers mean that a food will cause a larger blood sugar spike.
However, the GI doesn’t take the carb content of the food into account. Thus, the GL is a better assessment of how much a realistic serving of a particular food will affect your blood sugar.
Pumpkin has a high GI at 75, but a low GL at 3. This means that as long as you stick to eating a single portion of pumpkin, it shouldn’t significantly affect your blood sugar levels. However, eating a large amount of pumpkin could drastically increase your blood sugar.
As with any carb-rich food, portion control is key when managing blood sugar levels…CONTINUE READING>>
