Q: My friend told me to avoid carrots while I'm trying to lose weight. I know they don't contain a lot of calories, so why should I cut them out?

A: You shouldn't. Your friend was probably alluding to the fact that carrots contain a bit more sugar than other vegetables. This means that they are ranked higher on the glycemic index, a measure of how rapidly a carbohydrate-containing food increases your levels of blood sugar. Foods that increase blood sugar faster tend to leave you hungrier later, so they're not the best choices when it comes to weight loss.

What your friend may not know is that the glycemic index is old-school. The more recent glycemic load is a more accurate measure of food's effect on blood sugar. That's because it takes into account the amount of a specific food you would typically eat, whereas the glycemic index ranks food by a standardized amount of carbohydrate contained in the food. In the case of carrots, the standardized portion is far more than the typical portion we would eat in one sitting, so even though carrots are high on the glycemic index, they're low as far as their glycemic load.

If you want to avoid foods that spike your blood sugar, give carrots a break and focus on the real offenders — regular soda, candy, cookies, cake, and other refined carbohydrates like white bread, bagels, and rolls.