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Glycaemic glucose equivalents: response to Wolever

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 59, pages 1097–1098 (2005)Cite this article

The glycaemic glucose equivalent (GGE) expresses the glycaemic impact of a quantity of food as grams of glucose that would cause an equal response (Monro, 2003). It was developed because the carbohydrate-weighted glycaemic index (GIcarb) being widely adopted was not designed to guide food choices outside equicarbohydrate exchange categories, whereas in nature food choices are made within and across food groupings that vary simultaneously in portion size and carbohydrate content. GGE is measured directly as the blood glucose response to a relevant amount of food, relative to the response to an amount of glucose in the same region of the GGE dose–response plot.

GGE is not measured as GIcarb, which is the effect of an equicarbohydrate food portion relative to that of 50 g glucose. However, as there are few directly measured GGE values available, and there is a mass of data on glycaemic effects of foods that is carbohydrate-weighted to obtain GIcarb values, one may calculate an estimate of GGE intake from GIcarb, carbohydrate content and food intake, with attendant errors.

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References

  • Liu P, Perry T & Monro JA (2003): Glycaemic glucose equivalents: validation as a predictive measure of the relative glycaemic impact of foods. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 57, 1141–1149.

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  • Wolever T (2004): Comment on validity of glycaemic glucose equivalent. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 58, 1672–1673.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research Limited, Palmerston North, Private Bag 11 600, New Zealand

    J A Monro & D Hedderley

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  1. J A Monro
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  2. D Hedderley
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Monro, J., Hedderley, D. Glycaemic glucose equivalents: response to Wolever. Eur J Clin Nutr 59, 1097–1098 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602217

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