The meal index · Lunch · Italian

Two slices of cheese pizza

By GyroscopeNumber 119 of 248Updated November 15, 2026

Two slices of cheese pizza carry about 42 g of carbs. A pizza with cheese and ham tested at a GI of 56, so two slices make a medium hill.

Digestible carbs

42 g

GI

56

Glycemic load

24

In cans of cola

1.0

Pizza does better than its name on a single meal. A pizza with mozzarella and ham, tested whole in Lebanon, came in at a GI of 56.

It's the third slice and the soda next to it that build the hill. Three slices of pepperoni with a can of cola land in the top 20 of the index.

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.
• Eat the protein and vegetables first. The same meal with the carbs 10 minutes later lowered the peak by more than 40% in 15 people with prediabetes.
• 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 56 from the dish tested whole, no fiber listed, so total carbs.

• Cheese pizza, 1 slice x 2: 42 g digestible carbs from USDA Nutritive Value of Foods, item 851, p. 64: Cheese, 1 slice (63 g).
• The whole dish tested at a GI of 56: Sydney GI database, Pizza, wheat dough with tomato, onion, mozzarella and ham, baked (Lebanon 2008-2009).

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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