The meal index · Drink · American

A 32 oz fountain cola

By GyroscopeNumber 12 of 248Updated November 15, 2026

A 32 oz fountain cola holds about 100 g of sugar, the biggest single item in the index, and a drink reaches the blood faster than food.

Digestible carbs

103 g

GI

59

Glycemic load

61

In cans of cola

2.7

Cola scores a middling 59 on the GI scale. Half of table sugar is fructose, which scores only 15. But a 32 oz cup holds about 100 g of sugar, so the load is huge.

Drinks are fast. A glucose drink in 15 healthy adults peaked about 29 minutes in. A 12 oz can is about a third of the load, and water or a diet soda is none of it.

What the hill looks like

Here's the meal next to its swap in our teaching model, drawn for a healthy adult from published averages. Your own curve will differ, but the gap between the two is the point.

What would flatten it

• Make it smaller. Half the starch is half the load, since the load is carbs times GI.
• Walk for 10 minutes after. In 41 adults with type 2 diabetes, 10-minute walks after each meal made the rise 12% smaller than one daily walk, and 22% smaller after dinner.
• Swap the drink. Any sweet drink on the side adds its whole load, and water adds none.

Run this meal in the simulator, switch on a walk or carbs last, and watch where the sugar goes.

What the numbers rest on

GI from the food tested on its own.

• Cola, 12 oz x 2.7: 102.6 g digestible carbs from USDA Nutritive Value of Foods, item 14, p. 14: Cola type, 12 fl oz (370 g). GI 59, Atkinson 2008 Table 1, Soft drink/soda.

This is about blood sugar for people without diabetes. If you take insulin or a sulfonylurea, your targets and meal plan come from your prescriber.

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