What is the insulin index? The insulin index was developed to overcome some of the limitations of the glycemic index, which ranks different foods according to their effect on blood sugar levels. Normally, the carbohydrate in the food you eat is eventually broken down into sugar. As it enters the blood, the sugar triggers the release of the hormone insulin. Insulin helps to move nutrients from the blood into the cells of your body. Traditionally, nutritionists thought that a greater glycemic response means a greater insulin response. Because insulin (combined with excess calories) promotes the storage of nutrients such as carbohydrate or fat, a diet with a low glycemic index, in theory at least, is supposed to make weight loss faster and easier. However, while the link between the glycemic index and insulin holds true with some foods, it certainly isn't the case with all of them. When you eat a food high in protein (such as beef, for example), insulin levels will rise, even though blood sugar levels stay the same. So, scientists from the University of Sydney decided to develop the insulin index [10]. Foods are given a score based on the insulin response to a fixed amount (239 calories) of a test food. The list below shows you what happened to insulin levels for two hours following the... The rest of this report is available in the Members-Only Area. Subscribe to the Members-Only Area and you'll enjoy immediate access to a "secret vault" of expert knowledge and university-tested tips and tricks you can use to shed stubborn fat once and for all... get bigger biceps, broader shoulders, a bigger bench press... or strip away the fat from your belly to reveal a flat and attractive stomach. Click here now to join. Continues after ads  References & Resources The Insulin Index  measures the amount of insulin the body produces in response to a carbohydrate load getting into the body with a particular food. There's a study conducted by University of Sydney in Australia and published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1997,  66:1264-1276)  titled  "An Insulin Index of Foods: The Insulin Demand Generated by 1000-kJ Portions of Common Foods"  . The Australian researchers tested 38 foods and found that  "protein-rich foods and bakery products (rich in fat and refined carbohydrate) elicited insulin responses that were disproportionately higher than their glycemic responses." and that  the insulin index" food choice method is more realistic, and their method more thorough than the GI method." Consumption of large volumes of food with a high insulin index may play a role in the development of insulin resistance. High protein and high fat foods stimulate greater insulin responses than predicted by the level of carbohydrate load. The highest insulin responses can occur when people with insulin resistance consume high glycemic index foods. Thus an insulin index of foods may eventually be needed to supplement tables of GI (Holt et al. AJCN 1997; 66: 1264-76). Choosing foods with a low glycemic index and low insulin index can improve diabetic management and may possibly reduce the incidence of diabetes complications e.g. heart disease, renal disease. <> There are ways to improve insulin and glycemic profiles. For example, a study at the University of Sydney in 2004 with 12 healthy volunteers showed the addition of 6% acacia gum reduced crisp bread's glycemic index by 11.5% and its insulin index by 19%. In a study published in the journal "Appetite" (1992, 18,2:129-41) higher insulin indexes corresponded with lower satiety scores. Insulin index of the foods containing added sugars was not significantly different from that of foods containing naturally-occurring sugars ( British Journal of Nutrition,  73, Number 4, April 1995, pp. 613-623)