White Sugar Glycemic Index: GI of White, Brown Sugar and Honey

The glycemic index ranks carbohydrate foods on a scale of 1 to 100 by the rise they produce in blood glucose after a meal, and the University of Sydney, whose database this page uses, defines low as 55 or below and high as 70 or above. A value comes from a standard test: ten or more healthy volunteers are given a portion holding 50 g of available carbohydrate, their blood glucose is tracked for two hours, and the result is set against the same people's response to 50 g of pure glucose. A GI is therefore a property of the food tested, under test conditions: useful for comparing foods, not a promise about your plate.

Refined white sugar's listed GI is 70, the average of 25 entries in the database, all for sucrose dissolved in water and tested in countries from Australia and Canada to China and Germany. On the scale above, that lands in the high band, exactly on the 70 line. The spread behind the average matters as much as the average: the individual tests run from 48 to 110, so a given study of plain sugar can land low, high or anywhere between. Read any single sucrose GI you meet online with that spread in mind; the number the database lists for the food is the mean, 70.

Sugar's composition explains why the tests exist at all: per 100 g, white sugar is 100 g of carbohydrate, 387 kcal and nothing else of note, with 0.05 mg of iron and no fibre. The GI tells you how the carbohydrate behaves; the composition tells you there is nothing else in the spoon.

Brown sugar sits one point higher: the database lists a GI of 71, from a single test in China on six people, whose reference the database does not give. One test is a thin basis, so take the 71 as a best-available marker rather than a settled value; what is not in doubt is the composition, 98.1 g of carbohydrate and 380 kcal per 100 g.

Honey reads a little lower at 63, averaged over seven plain-honey tests that spread from 49 to 87, which puts honey in the medium band, the only one of the three not high. Honey still carries 82.4 g of carbohydrate per 100 g and 304 kcal, so the lower GI does not make it calorie-light. Jaggery, the sweetener people often ask about next, has no GI listed in the database, so no number is offered here; the guidelines count it as sugar.

Per 100 g raw, edible portion. Composition: USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), FDC ID 169655, NDB 19335; USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), FDC ID 168833, NDB 19334; USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), FDC ID 169640, NDB 19296. GI: University of Sydney GI database. — means not reported. These are average values for the food; the label on a pack gives the values for that product.

The spread in sugar's tests is a reminder that GI is measured, not calculated. The international method feeds real people a fixed 50 g of carbohydrate, so results differ from one test to the next. The 2021 update of the international GI tables makes the point with cereals: whole-grain and whole-meal versions showed wide variation in GI values, presumably arising from variations in manufacturing methods. Against that background, the database lists a mean for a food like sucrose rather than one eternal number.

The same logic covers the sweeteners around sugar. Honey's seven results, 49 to 87, span three bands; brown sugar has a single test, which is why its 71 deserves less confidence than sugar's 25-test mean. When a recipe, a diet app or a label quotes one GI, ask what it averaged.

GI ranks a food, not a spoonful. The test portion is 50 g of available carbohydrate, but the sugar you actually use is a teaspoon of 5 g, holding 5 g of carbohydrate and 19.4 kcal. Honey's teaspoon is heavier at 7 g, about 5.8 g of carbohydrate and 21.3 kcal, and 5 g of brown sugar gives 4.9 g of carbohydrate and 19 kcal. A teaspoon and a whole sweetened dessert are not the same event, whatever the GI.

The guidelines put the practical number on it. ICMR-NIN suggests adults keep added sugar to 20 to 25 g a day, and WHO recommends free sugars stay below 10% of energy, with a further suggested cut to below 5%. Against those ceilings, a white sugar GI of 70 is not the problem; the count of teaspoons is.

None of this banishes sugar; it sizes it. One level teaspoon of white sugar in tea costs 5 g of carbohydrate and 19.4 kcal, and a teaspoon of demerara costs about the same; the brown sugar tea recipe uses 2 teaspoons (10 g) a cup, about 38 kcal. If you have diabetes, count white, brown and honey as one line item in the day's carbohydrate count, not three: their GIs, 70, 71 and 63, all sit medium-to-high. For the per-100 g tables, see brown sugar's nutrition per 100 g, and for what the numbers mean for blood sugar management, brown sugar for diabetes.

What is the glycemic index of white sugar?

70, the average of 25 tests of sucrose dissolved in water in the University of Sydney database, with individual results running from 48 to 110. That places white sugar on the line of the high band, which the database defines as 70 and above.

Is white sugar good for health?

White sugar is energy and little else: 100 g of carbohydrate and 387 kcal per 100 g, with 0.05 mg of iron and no fibre. The ICMR-NIN guidelines say refining leaves sugar without any vitamins or minerals, and suggest adults keep added sugar to 20 to 25 g a day. Small amounts fit; the day's total is what counts.

What is brown sugar?

Brown sugar is sugar that keeps part of the cane's molasses, which gives it colour, a moist texture and a caramel taste; demerara is one kind. Its numbers sit beside white sugar's: 98.1 g of carbohydrate and 380 kcal per 100 g, with a GI of 71. How it is made, and what counts as brown sugar, are laid out in the brown sugar guide.

Does brown sugar have a lower GI than white sugar?

No. The database lists 71 for brown sugar, from one test in China on six people, against white sugar's 70, the mean of 25 tests. Both sit in the high band, and brown sugar carries 98.1 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, so neither sugar has a GI advantage over the other.

Is honey low GI?

No, honey is medium: 63, an average over seven plain-honey tests ranging between 49 and 87. Some individual honeys land in the low band, but the average does not, and honey still brings 82.4 g of carbohydrate per 100 g. Count it as sugar, whatever its GI.

What is the GI of jaggery?

No figure is listed for jaggery in the University of Sydney database, so none is given here. Jaggery is mostly sugar, and the dietary guidelines count it in the same added-sugar line as white sugar. Its composition, from IFCT 2017, is on the jaggery nutrition and glycemic index page.