By Dr. Jane Smith · Published October 6, 2026 · 11 min read
A glycemic index food chart ranks carbohydrate foods by how quickly they raise your blood sugar compared with pure glucose, which scores 100. Foods at 55 or below are low GI, 56–69 are medium, and 70 or above are high. The chart below covers more than 60 everyday foods across all three bands — breads, grains, fruit, vegetables, legumes, dairy, snacks and sugars — plus the glycemic load numbers that show what a real portion does.
Every GI value comes from a single source, Table 1 of the International Tables of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Values published in Diabetes Care, so the numbers are directly comparable. If you only want the low end of the scale, our low glycemic index foods list goes deeper on 50 low-GI picks. And to see how many carbs your own meals carry, Caloria, the AI calorie tracker, breaks any plate down from a single photo.
Medical Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. If you take insulin or other glucose-lowering medication, talk to your doctor or dietitian before changing how you eat carbohydrates.
How to Read a Glycemic Index Food Chart
Read each number as a speed, not a quantity. GI is measured by feeding at least 10 healthy volunteers a portion containing 50 g of digestible carbohydrate and tracking their blood glucose for two hours. The area under that curve is compared with the same amount of pure glucose.
| GI band | Score | What happens to blood sugar |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 55 or less | Slow, gradual rise |
| Medium | 56–69 | Moderate rise |
| High | 70 or more | Fast, steep rise |
Two caveats before you use the chart. GI values are averages across studies, so the same food can vary by 5–10 points between brands, countries and test labs. And because every test uses 50 g of carbohydrate, GI says nothing about how much carbohydrate is in a normal serving — that's what glycemic load fixes, covered further down.
Glycemic Index Food Chart by Food Group
Each table is sorted from lowest to highest GI. Values are means from the international tables; where a food has a typical preparation (boiled, raw), it's listed.
1. Breads and Breakfast Cereals
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Corn tortilla | 46 | Low |
| Chapatti | 52 | Low |
| Specialty grain bread | 53 | Low |
| Porridge, rolled oats | 55 | Low |
| Muesli | 57 | Medium |
| Wheat roti | 62 | Medium |
| Millet porridge | 67 | Medium |
| Wheat flake biscuits | 69 | Medium |
| Unleavened wheat bread | 70 | High |
| Whole-wheat (whole-meal) bread | 74 | High |
| White wheat bread | 75 | High |
| Rice porridge (congee) | 78 | High |
| Instant oat porridge | 79 | High |
| Cornflakes | 81 | High |
The biggest surprise is that whole-meal bread (74) is barely lower than white bread (75). Fine milling makes both flours digest quickly; only breads with visible grains, seeds or a dense crumb drop into the low band.
2. Grains, Rice and Pasta
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Barley, boiled | 28 | Low |
| Spaghetti, whole-meal | 48 | Low |
| Spaghetti, white | 49 | Low |
| Rice noodles | 53 | Low |
| Udon noodles | 55 | Low |
| Couscous | 65 | Medium |
| Brown rice, boiled | 68 | Medium |
| White rice, boiled | 73 | High |
Pasta stays low even when it's made from white flour, because the dense, compressed dough slows starch digestion. Barley is the standout grain — at 28, it sits lower than most fruit. Our rice nutrition facts guide compares rice varieties in more detail.
3. Fruits and Fruit Products
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Apple, raw | 36 | Low |
| Apple juice | 41 | Low |
| Dates | 42 | Low |
| Orange, raw | 43 | Low |
| Peaches, canned | 43 | Low |
| Strawberry jam | 49 | Low |
| Orange juice | 50 | Low |
| Banana, raw | 51 | Low |
| Mango, raw | 51 | Low |
| Pineapple, raw | 59 | Medium |
| Watermelon, raw | 76 | High |
Most fruit is low GI because much of its sugar is fructose, which has a GI of only 15. Watermelon is the exception, though its glycemic load per cup is small (see below). Low-GI juice still lacks the fiber of whole fruit, so our sugar in fruit guide is worth a look before you swap one for the other.
4. Vegetables and Starchy Vegetables
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato, whole | 22 | Low |
| Carrots, boiled | 39 | Low |
| Vegetable soup | 48 | Low |
| Sweet corn | 52 | Low |
| Taro, boiled | 53 | Low |
| Plantain or green banana | 55 | Low |
| French fries | 63 | Medium |
| Sweet potato, boiled | 63 | Medium |
| Pumpkin, boiled | 64 | Medium |
| Potato, boiled | 78 | High |
| Potato, instant mashed | 87 | High |
The tomato value comes from the 2021 edition of the international tables, where it appeared for the first time. Leafy greens, broccoli and other non-starchy vegetables contain so little carbohydrate that most have never been formally tested.
5. Legumes
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Soybeans | 16 | Low |
| Kidney beans | 24 | Low |
| Chickpeas | 28 | Low |
| Lentils | 32 | Low |
Every legume tested lands firmly in the low band. Their combination of protein, resistant starch and soluble fiber slows digestion — our soluble fiber foods guide explains the mechanism.
6. Dairy and Milk Alternatives
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Soy milk | 34 | Low |
| Milk, skim | 37 | Low |
| Milk, full-fat | 39 | Low |
| Yogurt, fruit | 41 | Low |
| Ice cream | 51 | Low |
| Rice milk | 86 | High |
Dairy is low GI because lactose digests slowly and milk protein blunts the glucose response. Rice milk is the outlier at 86 — higher than white bread.
7. Snacks, Sweets and Sugars
| Food | GI | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Fructose | 15 | Low |
| Chocolate | 40 | Low |
| Potato chips | 56 | Medium |
| Soft drink (soda) | 59 | Medium |
| Honey | 61 | Medium |
| Popcorn | 65 | Medium |
| Table sugar (sucrose) | 65 | Medium |
| Rice crackers | 87 | High |
| Glucose | 100 | High (reference) |
This is the section that shows why GI isn't a health score. Chocolate and chips score lower than boiled potatoes because their fat slows stomach emptying, not because they're better for you.
Foods With No Glycemic Index
Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, butter and oils have no GI value. GI can only be measured on foods that provide enough carbohydrate to reach a 50 g test portion, and these provide little or none.
That doesn't make them free foods — they still carry calories. But pairing them with a carbohydrate food lowers the glucose response of the whole meal, which is why a chart of single foods is a starting point rather than the full picture.
Same Food, Different GI: What Moves the Number
Processing and cooking can shift a food by 20 points or more. The table below shows how preparation alone changes the score for foods you probably eat every week.
| Food | Lower-GI version | Higher-GI version | Why it shifts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oats | Rolled oats porridge — 55 | Instant oat porridge — 79 | Thinner, pre-cooked flakes digest faster |
| Potato | French fries — 63 | Instant mashed — 87 | Fat slows digestion; flaking gelatinizes starch |
| Bread | Specialty grain bread — 53 | White bread — 75 | Intact grains resist digestion |
| Rice and grains | Barley — 28 | White rice — 73 | Beta-glucan fiber and a firmer grain |
| Corn | Sweet corn — 52 | Cornflakes — 81 | Puffing and flaking break the cell walls |
| Milk | Skim milk — 37 | Rice milk — 86 | Rice starch is broken down into sugars |
The same rules apply in your kitchen:
- Processing: the more finely a grain is ground, puffed or flaked, the faster it digests.
- Cooking time: al dente pasta and firm rice score lower than soft, overcooked versions.
- Ripeness: a green-tipped banana is lower than a spotty one, because starch turns into sugar as it ripens.
- Fat, protein and acid: adding cheese, eggs, yogurt or a vinegar dressing lowers the response to the meal.
- Cooling: cooked and chilled potatoes, rice and pasta form resistant starch, which modestly lowers their effect.
Glycemic Load: Adjusting for Real Portions
Glycemic load (GL) combines GI with the amount of carbohydrate you actually eat, so it predicts the real blood sugar impact of a serving. The formula is simple:
GL = GI × grams of available carbohydrate per serving ÷ 100
Available carbohydrate means total carbs minus fiber — the same idea behind net carbs vs. total carbs. A GL of 10 or less is low, 11–19 is medium, and 20 or more is high.
| Serving | GI | Available carbs | Glycemic load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watermelon, 1 cup diced | 76 | 11 g | 8 — low |
| Apple, 1 medium | 36 | 21 g | 7 — low |
| Lentils, 1 cup cooked | 32 | 24 g | 8 — low |
| Banana, 1 medium | 51 | 24 g | 12 — medium |
| Rolled oats, 1 cup cooked | 55 | 23 g | 13 — medium |
| White spaghetti, 1 cup cooked | 49 | 40 g | 20 — high |
| Soda, 12 fl oz can | 59 | 39 g | 23 — high |
| White rice, 1 cup cooked | 73 | 44 g | 32 — high |
GL values are our estimates, calculated from the GI values above and USDA carbohydrate and fiber data.
Two results stand out. Watermelon is high GI but low GL, because a cup is mostly water. White spaghetti is low GI but high GL, because a generous bowl carries a lot of carbohydrate. Portion size can outweigh the GI band.
How to Use the Chart Day to Day
Use the chart to choose between carbohydrate foods, not to rank everything you eat. These habits capture most of the benefit:
What the Research Shows
A 2021 meta-analysis in The BMJ of 29 trial comparisons in 1,617 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes found that low-GI or low-GL diets lowered HbA1c by 0.31 percentage points versus higher-GI diets, on top of medication. They also produced small improvements in LDL cholesterol, body weight and inflammation.
For a full eating plan built on these principles, see our diabetic meal plan.
Where the Glycemic Index Falls Short
GI is a useful filter, but it has real limits:
- People respond differently. Two people can have noticeably different glucose curves after the same food, depending on insulin sensitivity, sleep, activity and gut bacteria.
- Meals aren't single foods. Most charts test foods eaten alone, while real meals mix carbohydrate with protein and fat.
- It ignores nutrition. GI says nothing about fiber, vitamins, saturated fat or calories — which is why ice cream scores lower than boiled potatoes.
The practical takeaway: use GI to pick between similar carbohydrate foods, use GL to size your portions, and judge overall diet quality on everything else.
Track the Carbs Behind the Numbers
A glycemic index food chart tells you which carbohydrates are fast or slow; your portions decide how much they matter. Logging what you actually eat for a week shows where your biggest carbohydrate loads come from — usually a few staples, not the whole menu.
Caloria makes that easy: snap a photo of your meal and get calories, carbs, protein and fat in seconds, with a history that shows your patterns over time.