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Glycemic Load Explorer

Build a meal from everyday servings and watch its glycemic load, and the shape of the response it tends to produce, update as you go. Then see which single swap changes the curve most. Glycemic load beats glycemic index because it counts the portion, not just the food.

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meal glycemic load

Add servings below to draw the meal's shape.

Rice, bread and staples

  • White rice

    1 cooked cup ~GL 30

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  • Basmati rice

    1 cooked cup ~GL 18

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  • Brown rice

    1 cooked cup ~GL 16

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  • White bread

    2 slices ~GL 20

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  • Wholemeal bread

    2 slices ~GL 13

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  • White pasta

    a cooked portion ~GL 22

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  • Wholewheat pasta

    a cooked portion ~GL 15

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  • French fries

    a portion ~GL 22

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  • Boiled potatoes

    a portion ~GL 14

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  • Sweet potato

    a medium one, boiled ~GL 11

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Breakfast

  • Cornflakes

    a bowl ~GL 21

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  • Porridge oats

    a cooked bowl ~GL 9

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Legumes

  • Dal (lentils)

    a generous ladle ~GL 5

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  • Red beans

    half a cup, cooked ~GL 7

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  • Chickpeas

    half a cup, cooked ~GL 8

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Fruit

  • Banana

    a medium one ~GL 12

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  • Mango

    half a fruit ~GL 8

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  • Apple

    a medium one ~GL 6

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  • Orange, whole

    a medium one ~GL 4

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  • Watermelon

    a thick slice ~GL 4

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  • Litchis

    a small bowl, fresh ~GL 9

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Drinks

  • Soft drink

    a 330ml can ~GL 16

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  • Orange juice

    a glass ~GL 12

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  • Milk

    a glass ~GL 4

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Snacks and extras

  • Sweet biscuits

    2 biscuits ~GL 10

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  • Plain yoghurt

    a pot ~GL 5

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  • Nuts

    a small handful ~GL 1

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  • Dark chocolate

    2 squares ~GL 5

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Reading this meal

Build a meal above and its reading appears here, with the swaps that flatten it most.

Sources

  1. GI Search: the international glycemic index database University of SydneyThe reference database this tool's approximate values are rounded from.
  2. International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values 2021 Atkinson FS et al, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2021
  3. Glycemic index and glycemic load for 100+ foods Harvard Health PublishingSource of the low / medium / high per-serving conventions used for the bands.

Last reviewed: 2026-07-16

Keep the curve flat after eating

A short walk is the cheapest glucose tool there is: time it with the Post-Meal Walk Planner. Curious what your own curves look like? Continuous glucose monitors such as the Sibionics GS series are available in the group's shop at shop.healthspan.mu.

Why load beats index

The glycemic index ranks foods by how fast their carbohydrate raises blood glucose, but it ignores how much of that carbohydrate a real serving contains. Watermelon is the classic trap: a high index, yet so little carbohydrate per slice that its load is trivial. Glycemic load multiplies the index by the actual carbohydrate in the portion, which is why it predicts the size of the rise far better than the index alone.

The bigger lesson this explorer teaches is that meals, not foods, produce glucose curves. Dal next to white rice, vegetables before the starch, protein and fat alongside it, and a short walk afterwards all flatten the same plate. That is also why the curve shown here is a teaching shape rather than a prediction: continuous glucose monitors show that two people can eat the same meal and draw two different lines.