You have probably read here on Dcomedieta or elsewhere the definitions of glycemic index , glycemic load , insulin index and insulin load and how these things relate, broadly speaking, to excess body fat and increased risk of metabolic syndrome and disease.

GLYCEMIC PEAK, INSULIN PEAK, BODY WEIGHT AND HEALTH

A meal with a high glycemic load leads to an excessive rise in insulin, but a meal that is too high in protein can also give us this result.

We therefore speak of glycemic peak, in English “blood sugar peak” as the post-prandial glycemic peak that is observed within one hour / two hours from a meal containing carbohydrates.

However, it has been found that identical meals taken at different times of the day give different glycemic peaks.

Therefore it is not strictly correct to say that the glycemic peak depends exclusively on the quality of the meal. But for example in the morning, a meal rich in carbohydrates can give a higher glycemic and insulin spike. This is because insulin is likely low upon awakening ( source ), so the body is more sensitive to a meal with a high insulin and glycemic index.

This already makes us understand one thing.
That the concept of glycemic load is not necessarily predictive of a subject’s glycemic and insulin peak .
It can vary for example based on what we did before eating and based on our body composition.

We speak of insulin peak, in English, as the moment in which the insulin in the blood reaches its maximum concentrations, always following a meal. We know that insulin rises both following the ingestion of carbohydrates and following the digestion of foods rich in proteins, especially cheeses and dairy products and then meat. This depends on the type of amino acids, which affect insulin production (Holt, 1997).

Later, it was also found that other foods could cause an insulin spike – for example, the sweetener Acesulfame K. But without affecting blood sugar.

Speaking a lot in general, we can say that high glycemic and insulin spikes are correlated with increased health risks and metabolic syndrome.
I say in general, because another data is relevant as a risk of metabolic syndrome, and is also related to a greater risk of diabetes: the so-called lipemic peak.