GLOSSARY

Glycemic Response is the blood-glucose change over time after food, drink or another specified stimulus. It forms a curve whose rise, peak timing or area can be assessed, rather than being identical to one isolated reading.

Glycaemia is a concentration, expressed for example in milligrams per decilitre or millimoles per litre, so its unit must accompany the number. 'Postprandial' identifies the period after eating, not one universal measurement time. Baseline, peak timing and response duration each describe different aspects of a curve.

Glucose responses depend on portion size, previous meals, recent activity, measurement timing and individual characteristics. Two people may respond differently to similar food. A transient peak alone does not rate the whole diet, diagnose disease or quantify glycogen stores; context and reproducibility matter when interpreting the observation.

Fat, protein, fibre, acidity and food structure can modify the post-meal response. A mixed meal does not behave exactly like an isolated ingredient, and adding paper-based indices cannot determine the actual curve with certainty. Sporting decisions also require total carbohydrate and time before activity alongside these properties.