The Insulin Index is a measure used to quantify the typical insulin

Insulin

Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....

 response to various foods. The index is similar to the Glycemic Index

Glycemic index

The glycemic index, glycaemic index, or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more...

 and Glycemic Load

Glycemic load

The glycemic load is a ranking system for carbohydrate content in food portions based on their glycemic index and a standardized portion size of 100g. Glycemic load or GL combines both the quality and quantity of carbohydrate in one number. It is the best way to predict blood glucose values of...

, but rather than relying on blood glucose levels, the Insulin Index is based upon blood insulin levels. This measure can be more useful than either the Glycemic Index or the Glycemic Load because certain foods (e.g., lean meats and proteins) cause an insulin response despite there being no carbohydrate

Carbohydrate

A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

s present, and some foods cause a disproportionate insulin response relative to their carbohydrate load.

Holt et al. have noted that the glucose and insulin scores of most foods are highly correlated, but high-protein foods and bakery products that are rich in fat and refined carbohydrates "elicit insulin responses that were disproportionately higher than their glycemic responses." They also conclude that insulin indices may be useful for dietary management and avoidance of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia.

Explanation of Index

The insulin index shows how much insulin is present in people's blood as a result of a particular food, the glucose index shows how much glucose is present in the blood as a result of a particular food, and the satiety index shows how much a particular food decreases one's propensity to eat more.

Glucose (glycemic) and insulin scores were determined by feeding 1000 kilojoules (239 kilocalories) of the food to the participants and recording the area under the glucose/insulin curve for 120 minutes then dividing by the area under the glucose/insulin curve for white bread. The result being that all scores are relative to white bread. The satiety score was determined by comparing how much food was eaten by participants at a buffet after being fed a fixed number of calories of a particular food while blindfolded (to ensure food appearance was not a factor), then dividing that number by the amount eaten by participants after eating white bread.
White bread serves as the baseline of 100. In other words, foods scoring higher than 100 are more satisfying than white bread and those under 100 are less satisfying.

+/- indicate uncertainty in the data. For example 60 +/- 12 means that there's a 95% chance the score is between 60-12 (48) and 60+12 (72), 60 being the highest probability assuming a bell curve. In practice this means that if two foods have large uncertainty and have values close together then you don't really know which score is the higher.

Mean average glucose, insulin and satiety scores

Food	Food Type	Glucose score	Insulin score	Satiety score
All-Bran	Breakfast Cereal	40 ± 7	32 ± 4	151
Porridge	Breakfast Cereal	60 ± 12	40 ± 4	209
Muesli	Breakfast Cereal	43 ± 7	46 ± 5	100
Special K Special K Special K is a lightly toasted breakfast cereal manufactured by the Kellogg Company. The cereal was introduced to the United States in 1956. It is made primarily from rice and wheat....	Breakfast Cereal	70 ± 9	66 ± 5	116
Honeysmacks Honey Smacks Honey Smacks is a sweetened puffed wheat breakfast cereal made by Kellogg's.-Naming:Introduced in 1953, the cereal has undergone several name changes. It started out as Sugar Smacks. In the 1980s, it was renamed Honey Smacks...	Breakfast Cereal	60 ± 7	67 ± 6	132
Sustain	Breakfast Cereal	66 ± 6	71 ± 6	112
Cornflakes	Breakfast Cereal	76 ± 11	75 ± 8	118
Average:	Breakfast Cereal	59 ± 3	57 ± 3
White bread(baseline)	Carbohydrate-rich	100 ± 0	100 ± 0	100
White Pasta	Carbohydrate-rich	46 ± 10	40 ± 5	119
Brown pasta	Carbohydrate-rich	68 ± 10	40 ± 5	188
Grain breadRye bread containing 47% kibbled rye, Holt et al.	Carbohydrate-rich	60 ± 12	56 ± 6	154
Brown rice	Carbohydrate-rich	104 ± 18	62 ± 11	132
French fries	Carbohydrate-rich	71 ± 16	74 ± 12	116
White rice	Carbohydrate-rich	110 ± 15	79 ± 12	138
Whole-meal breadBread made from whole-meal wheat flour, Holt et al.	Carbohydrate-rich	97 ± 17	96 ± 12	157
Potatoes	Carbohydrate-rich	141 ± 35	121 ± 11	323
Average:	Carbohydrate-rich	88 ± 6	74 ± 8
Eggs	Protein-rich	42 ± 16	31 ± 6	150
Cheese	Protein-rich	55 ± 18	45 ± 13	146
Beef	Protein-rich	21 ± 8	51 ± 16	176
Lentils	Protein-rich	62 ± 22	58 ± 12	133
Fish	Protein-rich	28 ± 13	59 ± 18	225
Baked beans	Protein-rich	114 ± 18	120 ± 19	168
Average:	Protein-rich	54 ± 7	61 ± 7
Apples	Fruit	50 ± 6	59 ± 4	197
Oranges	Fruit	39 ± 7	60 ± 3	202
Bananas	Fruit	79 ± 10	81 ± 5	118
Grapes	Fruit	74 ± 9	82 ± 6	162
Average:	Fruit	61 ± 5	71 ± 3
Peanuts	Snack/confectionery	12 ± 4	20 ± 5	84
Popcorn	Snack/confectionery	62 ± 16	54 ± 9	154
Potato chips	Snack/confectionery	52 ± 9	61 ± 14	91
Ice cream Ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...	Snack/confectionery	70 ± 19	89 ± 13	96
Yoghurt Yoghurt Yoghurt, yogurt or yogourt is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yoghurt are known as "yoghurt cultures"...	Snack/confectionery	62 ± 15	115 ± 13	88
Mars Bars Mars Bar Mars is a chocolate bar manufactured by Mars, Incorporated. It was first manufactured in Slough, Berkshire in the United Kingdom in 1932 as a sweeter version of the US Milky Way bar which Mars, Inc. produced...	Snack/confectionery	79 ± 13	122 ± 15	70
Jellybeans Jelly bean Jelly beans are a small bean-shaped type of confectionery with a hard candy shell and a gummy interior which come in a wide variety of flavors. The confection is primarily made of sugar.-History:...	Snack/confectionery	118 ± 18	160 ± 16	118the authors of the satiety study [Holt et al.,1995] stated that the amount of jellybeans consumed tended to make participants nauseated which may have produced an erroneous satiety score.
Average:	Snack/confectionery	65 ± 6	89 ± 7
Doughnuts	Bakery product	63 ± 12	74 ± 9	68
Croissants	Bakery product	74 ± 9	79 ± 14	47
Cake	Bakery product	56 ± 14	82 ± 12	65
Crackers	Bakery product	118 ± 24	87 ± 12	127
Cookies	Bakery product	74 ± 11	92 ± 15	120
Average:	Bakery product	77 ± 7	83 ± 5
Average:	Average	±	±
Average:	ALL	±	±
Food	Food Type	Glucose score	Insulin score	Satiety score