Reference

Glycemic index table,
with the load for a real serving.

The glycemic index is a property of a food, measured on a fixed 50 g carbohydrate test dose so that foods can be compared. It is not a description of a meal. The load is: index times the available carbohydrate in your portion, divided by 100. Both columns are below, because one without the other misleads.

How to read the two numbers

Glycemic index, per food

Low55 or below
Medium56 to 69
High70 or above

Glycemic load, per serving

Low10 or below
Medium11 to 19
High20 or above

Glycemic load = (glycemic index × available carbohydrate in grams) ÷ 100

The table

27 published values, grouped by food and by the form it was tested in. The form matters more than the food: the same potato runs from 49 to 84 depending on what was done to it.

Rice

Food and form	Index	Serving	Carbs	Load
Basmati, white	~57	150 g cooked	~40 g	~23
Long-grain, white	~60	–	–	–
Brown, average	~65	–	–	–
Short-grain / japonica	~72–76	–	–	–
White, general average	~73	150 g cooked	~40 g	~29
Jasmine / fragrant	~80–90	–	–	–
Sticky / glutinous	~85–98	–	–	–

Pasta

Food and form	Index	Serving	Carbs	Load
Spaghetti, white, boiled 5 min	~38	–	–	–
Spaghetti, wholemeal	~42–48	–	–	–
Fresh egg pasta	~40–55	–	–	–
Spaghetti, white, boiled 10–15 min	~49	180 g cooked	~44 g	~20
Spaghetti, white, boiled 20 min	~58–61	–	–	–
Gluten-free, maize or rice	~46–92	–	–	–

Oats

Food and form	Index	Serving	Carbs	Load
Steel-cut, coarse	~48–57	250 g cooked	~22 g	~12
Rolled, traditional porridge	~55–58	250 g cooked	~22 g	~13
Quick oats, thin rolled	~65	–	–	–
Instant packets	~79	–	–	–

Potatoes

Food and form	Index	Serving	Carbs	Load
Boiled, then chilled overnight	~49	150 g	~26 g	~13
French fries	~55–70	–	–	–
Boiled, eaten hot	~73	150 g	~26 g	~19
Mashed, regular	~79	150 g	~26 g	~21
Mashed, instant	~84	–	–	–

Fruit and legumes

Food and form	Index	Serving	Carbs	Load
Lentils, boiled	~32	150 g cooked	~24 g	~8
Banana, firm / under-ripe	~42	medium	~20 g	~8
Banana, ripe	~51	medium, 118 g	~24 g	~12
Banana, over-ripe	~48–57	–	–	–
Watermelon	~76	120 g	~6 g	~5

Index values from the international tables of glycemic index and the University of Sydney database (Foster-Powell 2002, Atkinson 2008/2021). Carbohydrate composition from USDA FoodData Central. Loads are calculated from those two figures.

What "low glycemic index" actually means

An index of 55 or below is conventionally low. But a low index does not make a serving low: watermelon is high on the index at about 76 and lands at a load of roughly 5, because there is very little carbohydrate in 120 g of it. Rice runs the other way. If you are choosing between foods at the same amount of carbohydrate, read the index. If you are deciding what is on the plate tonight, read the load.

What moves the index of a food

Preparation. Boiled potato is around 73, mashed 79, instant mash 84. Cooking and mashing gelatinise and break down the starch, and broken starch digests faster.
Cooling. The same potato boiled and then refrigerated overnight falls to about 49, because some of the starch retrogrades into a form that resists digestion.
Variety. Rice spans thirty points. Basmati averages about 57 while jasmine reaches into the eighties, and that gap is wider than the one between white and brown.
Ripeness. A firm banana is around 42 and a ripe one around 51: starch turning to sugar as the fruit ripens.
Milling. Steel-cut oats average about 52 and instant packets about 79, from the same grain.

What the table cannot tell you

These are published values measured on groups of people, and individual responses to identical meals vary substantially. They describe single foods tested alone, so nothing here accounts for the fat, protein and fibre that arrive with the rest of the plate and flatten the curve. Treat the table as a way to order your options, not as a prediction of what your body will do.

Compute the load for your own portion Where these values come from

Glycemic index table,with the load for a real serving.