Food contains sugar in simple glucose form and more complex forms like starch and fibre
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■ A food’s glycemic index (GI) rates how fast it raises glucose levels in your blood. Many things affect this. Sometimes food breaks down into small particles that are easier to absorb. If food contains glucose as an ingredient, that easily gets into blood. But food often contains starch instead, which is a long, chain-shaped molecule. The links in that chain can be sugars like glucose. These chains break down in different parts of our guts, releasing glucose more slowly. Foods also contain fibre, containing complex chains made of sugars like glucose that break down even more slowly in our guts.