Tomato Glycemic Index (GI) - Is It High or Low?

by Victoria Mazmanyan | Last updated on November 09, 2023

Medically reviewed by Elen Khachatrian

Vegetables, in general, contain minimal carbohydrates, so they tend to be classified as low glycemic index foods. On average, a low GI value could be assigned for most vegetables.

The International Tables of Glycemic Index does not include GI values of vegetables due to the difficulty of consuming a portion of the food containing 10g of carbohydrates.

However, there are GI numbers for other products made from tomatoes.

Tomato soup from Canada has a glycemic index of 38±9. Condensed tomato soup, prepared with water from the US, has a GI of 52±4.

Tomato juice with low sodium from Canada has a GI of 23±6. The GI of tomato juice with no added sugar from the USA is 33±3. Lastly, Australian canned tomato juice, with no added sugar, has a GI of 38±4. The mean of these three studies makes the glycemic index of tomato juice 31.

Based on the numbers by The Journal of Ethnic Foods, Nigerian tomatoes have a glycemic index of 38.38±1.42 (3).

According to another study, the GI of a tomato ranges around 23±11 (4).

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shown that tomato pasta sauce's GI is 31 (5).

Daily consumption of 200g of raw tomatoes has been studied to have beneficial effects in lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases by decreasing blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes (6).

Tomatoes are rich in the carotene compound lycopene. Although there is no evidence for an association between lycopene intake and the risk of diabetes, the compound may have a beneficial effect on oxidative stress in diabetic patients (7).

One research has found that tomatoes do not improve insulin resistance but are still favorable for diabetic conditions since they decrease diabetic-induced oxidative stress, inflammation, atherosclerosis, and tissue damage (8).

Visit our Glycemic index chart page for our complete glycemic index chart of over 600 foods.