In order to balance blood sugar, many people use the glycemic index to choose the type of carbohydrates to eat with their meals. However, there is a more useful, less well-known way to gauge how a food can affect your blood sugar – the insulin index!

Before we talk about the insulin index, it’s important to understand how insulin works. When we eat food and glucose enters the bloodstream, the pancreas secretes insulin, which tells the blood sugar (glucose) where to go. Insulin shuttles glucose to where it’s needed in the body, lowering blood sugar. Problems arise when people have insulin levels that are too high, though. Too much insulin can stress the pancreas, and over time this can cause the pancreas to stop releasing insulin as it should. Chronically high insulin levels can also lead to insulin resistance when our cells stop responding to insulin normally.

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