The steadiest meals are built from things with little or no starch: meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables and olive oil. 24 meals here carry almost no available carbs at all. After those come beans, lentils, whole fruit and small portions of slow carbs. Drinks stay off this list.
The 100 that raise it most · About the index · Watch any meal in the simulator
100 meals shown
Fat and protein, nearly no carbs.
Almost no carbs, so almost no hill.
Without the rice it is meat and vegetables.
No bun, no fries, almost no carbs.
Tomatoes and cheese.
Cheese and vegetables, little starch.
A few croutons are the only starch.
Meat and fat.
Eggs, meat, avocado and greens: almost no available carbs.
Vegetables, cheese, olive oil and chicken.
No starch at all.
Fish, a green vegetable and olive oil.
Avocado is fat and fiber.
Vegetables and chicken.
Swap the rice for greens and the hill nearly disappears.
Fish and broth.
Cauliflower in place of rice.
Meat and a green vegetable.
Grilled chicken and yogurt.
No bread, so no hill to speak of.
Meat and tomatoes, no starch.
No carbs.
Eggs and vegetables: almost no available carbs.
Hummus is one of the lowest foods ever tested.
Chia is mostly fiber and fat.
Chicken and vegetables.
A little fruit next to meat and vegetables.
A cup of strawberries is low in sugar.
Drop the rice and the beans are the only carbs.
Chocolate is GI 40, and two squares is a small dose.
Lots of protein and half a cup of fruit.
Whole fruit with its fiber, GI 43.
Beans keep it slow.
Only the glaze carries sugar.
Barley is one of the lowest grains ever tested, GI 28.
Beans are slow carbs, and the meat adds protein.
Low sugar, lots of fiber.
Protein-heavy yogurt and a cup of berries.
Mostly broth, with a few noodles.
An apple is GI 36, and peanut butter slows it more.
A little bulgur in a parsley salad.
Eggs in tomato sauce with one slice.
Lentils digest slowly, so a big bowl makes a small hill.
Vegetable soup with a little pasta, GI 48.
Mostly cream cheese, so fewer carbs than cake.
A small burrito with beans.
Protein first and one slice of bread.
A small bowl is a modest load.
A few potatoes in a big salad.
A modest scoop of quinoa next to fish.
The fat keeps chocolate low, GI 40.
Tortilla, beans and meat.
A big wrap is about two small tortillas.
Dried grapes, concentrated sugar.
One tablespoon of honey on protein-heavy yogurt.
Meat-filled dumplings tested low, GI 28.
Lots of fat and protein, and only about 24 g of carbs.
Puffed rice is near the top of the table, GI 82, but they are small.
The least processed oats, GI 52, with nuts to slow them further.
A buttery croissant tests lower than you would think.
The fried shell is most of the carbs.
Nuts slow the raisins and chocolate.
Chickpeas and tahini barely move it, GI 15.
Sweet but GI 42, about 28 g of sugar.
Grainy bread scores 53, and the avocado fat slows it.
Grainy bread with seeds you can see scores 53.
Sweetened oats in a small bar.
A medium banana, GI 51.
About 35 g of carbs in a large square.
About 26 g of sugar in a cup.
Sourdough tests lower than ordinary white bread, and the egg adds protein.
Mixed fruit, a moderate load.
Eight crackers and cheese.
Two handfuls of fried corn chips.
A flat corn shell with beans.
Quinoa sits mid-table and chickpeas very low.
Fried wrappers, GI 50.
Potatoes and carrots in a meaty stew.
Corn tortillas and beans are both on the lower side of the table.
Corn tortillas and grilled fish.
High GI, 76, but mostly water, so a modest load.
Lentils are one of the lowest foods on the table, GI 32.
Corn chips are fried, which keeps their GI lower than you would think.
Caramel and nougat, GI 62.
Flour tortillas tested low in Mexico, GI 30.
Fried potato, GI 56.
About 34 g of carbs per cup.
One bun.
Whole rolled flakes digest slower than instant, and nuts add fat.
A half cup of rice inside the peppers.
The fat in ice cream keeps its GI at 51.
Whole wheat bread is GI 74, but the portion is small and the peanut butter adds fat.
Cheese and spinach with one flatbread.
Fried potato carries the carbs here.
Two slices of white bread.
Two slices of white bread are the only carbs.
A white corn arepa tested at GI 55.
Butter in the dough slows the croissant, the jam is quick sugar.
A Sri Lankan rice meal with lentil curry tested at GI 43.
Batter and a sweet dressing, not much else.
Blood sugar after a meal follows mostly how much sugar and starch you eat, and second, how fast it gets into your blood. The glycemic load puts both in one number: the food's glycemic index times the grams of carbs you digest in the serving, divided by 100.
The carbs for every meal come from the USDA's Nutritive Value of Foods, by item number, with the fiber taken out. The GI comes from the international tables (Atkinson 2008) or from the University of Sydney's GI database, with the study each value came from. When a dish was tested whole, like salmon sushi or chicken biryani, the index uses that number. Otherwise each carb food on the plate brings its own load, and the loads add up. Open "What it rests on" on any row to see the rows behind it.
Some foods have no GI test of their own, like a burger bun or a waffle. Those borrow the GI of the closest tested food and carry an "est." mark. Working out a meal from its parts tends to run high: in a study of 30 people, three meals with chicken, vegetables and sauce came out 22 to 50% lower when tested whole than the parts predicted. Meals with protein and fat probably make smaller hills than their load says.
The "in colas" column uses a 12 oz can of cola as the yardstick, a load of 22. People also differ a lot. In 800 people eating the same meals, the hills came out very different. The order is still a good guide to which meals push hardest, and a sensor worn for two weeks shows your own.
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