The allocation of glycemic index (GI) values to food composition databases is fundamental for epidemiological research and clinical practice. This study aimed to describe the methods to assign GI values to all included foods in the Venezuelan food composition table. A previous systematic 6-step method was used for the assignment to the 624 food items arranged in 14 food groups. The most recent international tables of GI were used as a primary source. 196 foods (31.4%) were assigned a GI value = 0 because they had less than 2.5 g of carbohydrates. A direct match was made in 135 foods (21.6%), while 136 food items (21.8%) had a closely related assignment. Additionally, 30 mixed food items (4.8%) were calculated following the standard recipe. 48 foods (7.7%) were assigned a pre-established GI value for the subgroup to which they belong, and 9 foods (1.5%) were assigned a pre-established value of 50 for being carbohydrate contributors, whereas 70 foods (11.2%) were assigned a value of GI = 0 because they were not considered significant sources of carbohydrates. The average GI for all the groups was 51.6 ± 14.6. ‘Tubers and roots’ was the group with the highest percentage of foods with a high GI (50%). We provide the resulting database with the addition of GI values to Venezuelan foods that would be of great interest to healthcare professionals, students, and researchers in the area.
