Glycemic Index 2500 Items

This is the definitive table for both the glycemic index and the glycemic load. I can reproduce it here courtesy of the author, Professor Jennie Brand-Miller of the University of Sydney. It is based on a table in a different format but no more foods were published in December 2008 in Diabetes Care.
GI of 55 is low; GL of 10 is low.

This table includes the glycemic index and glycemic load of more than 2,480 individual food items. Not all of them, however, are available in the United States. They represent a truly international effort of testing around the world.
The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI of 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.
Both GI and GL are listed here. The GI is of foods based on the glucose index–where glucose is set to equal 100. The other is the glycemic load, which is the glycemic index divided by 100 multiplied by its available carbohydrate content (i.e. carbohydrates minus fiber) in grams. (The “Serve size (g)” column is the serving size in grams for calculating the glycemic load; for simplicity of presentation I have left out an intermediate column that shows the available carbohydrates in the stated serving sizes.) Take, watermelon as an example of calculating glycemic load. Its glycemic index is pretty high, about 72. According to the calculations by the people at the University of Sydney’s Human Nutrition Unit, in a serving of 120 grams, it has 6 grams of available carbohydrate per serving, so its glycemic load is pretty low, 72/100*6=4.32, rounded to 4.

Glycemic Index & Glycemic Load Rating Chart

 

My previous glycemic index page, which this page supplants, was based on the 2002 table published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. That, in turn, supplanted my original glycemic lists page, which was based on the original 1995 publication of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

I know that some people would prefer the relative simplicity of a list of just the most common American foods. You can find such a list at http://www.mendosa.com/common_foods.htm.
If you are looking for a relatively simple description of the glycemic index, please see my article titled “The Glycemic Index” at http://www.mendosa.com/gidigest.htm.

Notice!

You can print out this file. But before printing, be sure to check if the last column is fully visible. On my computer, I needed to change the margins in Internet Explorer (with file, page setup) from 0.75 inches to 0.25 inches. You may need to make it even wider by changing the print setup orientation from the normal portrait to the landscape. Then, please first check if you’ve got it by printing just one page of the table.

Table of glycemic index and load values
The average GI of 62 common foods derived from multiple studies by different laboratories
High-carbohydrate foods	GI
White wheat bread*	75±2
Whole wheat/wholemeal bread	74±2
Specialty grain bread	53±2
Unleavened wheat bread*	70±5
Wheat roti	62±3
Chapatti	52±4
Corn tortilla	46±4
White rice, boiled*	73±4
Brown rice, boiled	68±4
Barley	28±2
Sweet corn	52±5
Spaghetti, white	49±2
Spaghetti, wholemeal	48±5
Rice noodles†	53±7
Udon noodles	55±7
Couscous†	65±4
Breakfast Cereals
Cornflakes	81±6
Wheat flake biscuits	69±2
Porridge rolled oats	55±2
Instant oat porridge	79±3
Rice porridge/congee	78±9
Millet porridge	67±5
Muesli	57±2
Fruit and fruit products
Apple, raw†	36±2
Orange, raw†	43±3
Banana, raw†	51±3
Pineapple, raw	59±8
Mango, raw†	51±5
Watermelon, raw	76±4
Dates, raw	42±4
Peaches, canned†	43±5
Strawberry jam/jelly	49±3
Apple juice	41±2
Orange juice	50±2
Vegetables
Potato, boiled	78±4
Potato, instant mashed	87±3
Potato, french fries	63±5
Carrots, boiled	39±4
Sweet potato, boiled	63±6
Pumpkin, boiled	64±7
Plantain/green banana	55±6
Taro, boiled	53±2
Vegetable soup	48±5
Dairy products and alternatives
Milk, full fat	39±3
Milk, skim	37±4
Ice cream	51±3
Yogurt, fruit	41±2
Soy milk	34±4
Rice milk	86±7
Legumes
Chickpeas	28±9
Kidney beans	24±4
Lentils	32±5
Soya beans	16±1
Snack products
Chocolate	40±3
Popcorn	65±5
Potato crisps	56±3
Soft drink/soda	59±3
Rice crackers/crisps	87±2
Sugars
Fructose	15±4
Sucrose	65±4
Glucose	103±3
Honey	61±3
Data are means. *Low-GI varieties were also identified. †Average of all available data.

The Glycemic Index
By David Mendosa
Last Update: October 26, 2009

________________________________________
The glycemic index ranks foods on how they affect our blood glucose levels. This index measures how much your blood glucose increases in the two or three hours after eating.
The glycemic index is about foods high in carbohydrates. Foods high in fat or protein don’t cause your blood glucose level to rise much.

The glycemic index is about the quality of the carbohydrates, not the quantity.
A lot of people still think that it is plain table sugar that people with diabetes need to avoid. The experts used to say that, but the glycemic index shows that complex carbohydrates, like baked potatoes, can be even worse.

When you make use of the glycemic index to prepare healthy meals, it helps to keep your blood glucose levels under control. This is especially important for people with diabetes, although athletes and people who are overweight also stand to benefit from knowing about this relatively new concept in good nutrition.
Recent studies of large numbers of people with diabetes show that those who keep their blood glucose under tight control best avoid the complications that this disease can lead to. Most experts agree that what works best for people with diabetes—and probably the rest of us as well—as regular exercise, little trans fat (partially hydrogenated oils), and a high-fiber diet.

The recommendations to exercise and eat fewer trans fats is excellent advice—as far as it goes. The real problem is carbohydrates. The official consensus remains that a high-carbohydrate diet is best for people with diabetes. However, some of the experts, led by endocrinologists like Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, recommend a low-carbohydrate diet, because carbohydrates can raise blood glucose to dangerous levels.
But not all carbohydrates act the same. Some are quickly broken down in the intestine, causing the blood glucose level to rise rapidly. These carbohydrates have a high glycemic index.

Please note, however, that a GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into glucose. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. Four extensions of the glycemic index concept noted in the bibliography below address this limitation.

Advanced Glycemic Load Data

A correspondent named Ralph Brown, who is an Excel expert took the new table of glycemic index and glycemic load values (at http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm) and added new dimensions to it. He calculated the glycemic load of all the foods per gram or ml and ounce. He also ranked the glycemic load of foods overall and within their categories. Along the way, he discovered nine internal inconsistencies in the new glycemic load calculations. Then I studied the data and found six more inconsistencies. I brought this information to the attention of the team at the University of Sydney in Australia that prepared the original table, and they corrected it. Subsequently, Hilary Ross added an index at the start to make it easier to navigate. Ralph’s advanced data with Hilary’s index is online at http://www.mendosa.com/GI_GL_Carb_data.xls.

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