glycæmia Physiol.
(glaɪˈsiːmɪə)
Also glycemia.
[f. glyco- + Gr. αἷµα blood: see -ia1.]
The presence of sugar in the blood; the blood-sugar level. (Rare, except in translations.) Cf. glycohaemia (s.v. glyco-). Hence glyˈcaemic a.
| 1901 Index-Catal. Surg.-Gen. U.S. 2nd Ser. VI. 266/1 (heading) Glycaemia. See Blood (Sugar in); Diabetes (Blood in). 1913 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. CIV. i. 923 The injection of adrenaline can induce perturbations in the glycæmia of an animal. 1923 Archives Internal Med. XXXI. 242 The term blood sugar curve is here applied to any glycemic reaction obtained in a tolerance test. 1936 Glycæmic [see glycotropic s.v. glyco-]. 1946 Nature 26 Oct. 589/1 Both groups of dogs show the known glycæmic response to the alloxan. 1966 Canad. Jrnl. Physiol. & Pharmacol. XLIV. 615 (heading) Glycemia and consecutive passive transfers of an anaphylactoid reaction inducing factor in rats. |
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▸ glycaemic index n. Physiol. and Med. a number representing the ability of a food, relative to that of glucose (or sometimes of white bread), to increase the level of glucose in the blood, a high figure being believed to indicate the potentially adverse effects of the food in question on glucose and lipid metabolism.
| 1981 D. J. A. Jenkins et al. in Amer. Jrnl. Clin. Nutrition 34 363/1 The area under the 2-h glucose curve was expressed as a percentage of the appropriate mean GTT [= glucose tolerance test] value. This value was defined as the ‘*glycemic index’. 1983 Science 15 July 214/1 The flatter the postprandial blood glucose response to a particular food relative to pure glucose, the lower the glycemic index. 1994 Vogue Jan. 102/1 The worst carbohydrate is maltose, found in beer; its glycemic index is 110. 2002 New Scientist 18 Mar. 31/2 Although gram for gram grapes contain more glucose than a soft drink, they have a much lower glycaemic index, because you digest them far more slowly. |