The beauty about GL is that it is a single number which tells you how food is affecting your blood sugar level. Unlike GI, the more you eat, the bigger the GL and so a limit to the GL per meal, or the GL you consume per day can be set.
At a single eating occasion, a GL of 10g or less will have a minimal effect on blood sugar level. So eating 3 meals a day and allowing 5g twice a day for snacks, you come up with 40g as a daily total for a serene and stable blood sugar level.
At this level, and without any other restrictions on diet, Patrick Holford at The Institute of Optimum Nutrition found that overweight people lost weight and the weight stayed off. This is the basis of "The Holford Diet", published January 2005, which gives plenty of suggestions for meals that stay within the 40g per day allowance.
The good thing about the GL diet is that you can eat carbohydrates, as most nutritionists recommend, but to keep the GL low you must choose good carbs, i.e. those low on the Glycemic Index. So the general rules of GL dieting are the same as those recommended in GI diets. Avoid the white stuff: white bread, potatoes, rice, sugar, cakes and confectionary. In their place you should eat plenty of green vegetables, wholegrains and pulses.
What you can do with GL, which you couldn't with GI, is very simply add up the GL contribution from each ingredient to get the total GL of the meal. So, for example, typical breakfasts can be added up like this: