If you want to try a low-glycemic-index diet, you need to know what foods to eat and which ones to avoid. A glycemic index table can help you determine high- and low-glycemic foods, but reading a table can be confusing. A glycemic index table may rank some healthy foods the same as it ranks some junk food. For example, a carrot and a pound cake may have similar scores on a glycemic index table -- only their glycemic index is ranked, not their overall health value.

To help alleviate this confusion, researchers have created the glycemic load, which takes a food's carbohydrates into account. The amount of carbohydrates affects how fast and how high your blood glucose level rises after you eat. To calculate the glycemic load, you multiply the glycemic index of a food by the number of carbohydrates per grams found in a single serving of that food. Then you divide the total by 100 [source: Higdon].

The table below provides some examples of the glycemic index versus the glycemic load of certain foods.

[source: Foster-Powell]

To prevent your low-glycemic-index diet from negatively impacting your skin, you need to maintain a nutritional balance. This means you need to consider both the glycemic load and the glycemic index level of the foods you eat, and you need to make sure you're getting the necessary vitamins and minerals in your diet as well. To get the most from a low-glycemic-index diet, consult a doctor, dietician or nutritionist.

For more information on the glycemic index, see the links on the following page.