The Banana Myth

#2 The banana myth. Bananas are high in sugar and make you fat?
Bananas are fruit, and fruit is healthier than candy, sweets, or high fatty meals. The glycemic index (GI) of a bananas changes the riper they are. The riper the banana, the higher the GI. Oh, for those of you who do not know of the GI, here it is. The GI is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.
However, glycemic load is a little different. The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.
For best fitness results if you are trying to lose weight, choose foods that are low in GI and GL. The only time a person wants some high GL and GI food is after a good exercise session. The body needs to replenish the fuel that was just used. Ha! And you thought this was only going be about bananas.