Questions & Answers
from "On Ice Cream" featured in Dairy Foods magazine
and sourced from "On Ice Cream" technical short courses.

Glycemic Index:

Question: What is glycemic index (GI)?

Answer: GI describes a food’s overall effect on blood sugar as compared to glucose, which is arbitrarily set at 100.

Key to GI is the rate of digestion of the food. This may or may not have much to do with the amount or type of carbohydrates used. For example, conventional ice cream, including low-fat varieties, can have a moderately low GI (50-60) due to general composition (i.e., relatively slow digestion of milkfat and milk protein) and its form (whipped and frozen). This helps reduce digestion rates. The use of more digestion-resistant carbohydrates, which have low or ultra-low GI (some as low as 5), further reduces digestion rates, and help further reduce GI of finished ice cream.

Due to these and other factors, GI can only be determined with any accuracy through clinical studies. This does not mean one cannot develop a low carb ice cream.