Most whole fruits are low glycemic, which is good news if you’re watching your blood sugar. A food is considered low glycemic when its Glycemic Index (GI) score falls below 55, and the majority of common fruits clear that bar comfortably. Some, like cherries and grapefruit, score as low as the 20s.
The GI scale runs from 0 to 100 and measures how quickly a food raises your blood sugar after eating it. Lower numbers mean a slower, steadier rise. Here’s what you need to know about which fruits rank lowest and how to get the most benefit from them.
Low-GI Fruits Ranked by Score
These fruits all score below 55 on the Glycemic Index, listed from lowest to highest:
- Cherries: 22
- Grapefruit: 25
- Prunes (pitted): 29
- Raspberries: 30
- Apple: 36
- Pears: 38
- Blueberries: 40
- Strawberries: 40
- Dates: 42
- Peaches: 42
- Oranges: 45
- Grapes: 46
- Kiwi: 47
- Bananas: 48
Berries and stone fruits consistently land at the lower end. Cherries are the standout performer at just 22, while tropical fruits and bananas tend to cluster closer to the upper boundary of the low-GI range.
Why Most Fruits Score Low
Two things work in fruit’s favor: fiber and fructose. Soluble fiber binds to glucose and acts as a physical barrier in your digestive tract, slowing the rate at which sugar enters your bloodstream. That’s why whole fruits behave so differently from candy or white bread, even when they contain a similar amount of sugar per serving.
Fructose, the primary sugar in most fruits, also plays a major role. A 2024 study in the journal Foods found a strong correlation between a fruit’s fructose content and its GI score. Unlike regular glucose, fructose is processed through the liver first before it affects blood sugar, which blunts the glycemic spike. Fruits that are higher in fructose relative to glucose tend to score lower on the index.
GI Score vs. Glycemic Load
The Glycemic Index tells you how fast a food raises blood sugar, but it doesn’t account for how much carbohydrate you’re actually eating in a normal portion. That’s where glycemic load (GL) comes in. GL combines the GI score with a realistic serving size, and it’s often a more useful number for day-to-day decisions.
A GL under 10 is considered low. Most fruits fall well within that range. A medium raw orange, for example, has a GI of 42 but a glycemic load of just 5, because a single orange only contains about 11 grams of carbohydrate. A medium apple has a GI of 39 and a GL of 6, with roughly 15 grams of carbs. In practical terms, eating a piece of fruit produces a very modest blood sugar response, even for fruits that score higher on the GI scale.
How Ripeness Changes the Score
A fruit’s GI isn’t fixed. It shifts as the fruit ripens, sometimes dramatically. As fruit goes from ripe to very ripe, starches break down into simple sugars, and total sugar content can more than double, jumping from around 7% to over 16% in some cases. Fiber content also decreases with overripening.
The effect is measurable. In one study, ripe fruits had GI values ranging from about 13 to 36, while very ripe versions of the same fruits ranged from 29 to 58. A very ripe sweet banana, for instance, scored 58, pushing it out of the low-GI category entirely. The same banana eaten a few days earlier, when still firm with a few green patches, would score considerably lower. If you’re trying to minimize blood sugar spikes, eating fruit at a just-ripe stage rather than waiting until it’s soft and spotty makes a real difference.
Portion Sizes That Keep Glycemic Load Low
A standard serving of most fruits is 1 cup or one medium whole fruit. For denser, more sugar-concentrated fruits like bananas and mangos, a serving drops to half a cup. Dried fruit packs carbohydrates into a much smaller volume: just two tablespoons of raisins or dried cherries contains about 15 grams of carbohydrate, roughly the same as a whole piece of fresh fruit.
Spreading your fruit intake across the day rather than eating it all at once helps keep blood sugar steady. Harvard Health recommends up to three servings per day, distributed among meals or snacks. Fresh berries are especially forgiving here, since a full cup of strawberries or raspberries delivers relatively few carbs alongside a lot of fiber.
Whole Fruit vs. Fruit Juice
The American Diabetes Association’s 2025 guidelines are clear on this point: whole fruits (fresh, frozen, or canned without added sugar) are all good choices, but fruit juice should be limited and ideally replaced with water. When you juice a fruit, you strip out most of the fiber that slows glucose absorption. You also end up consuming far more fruit per sitting than you would if eating it whole. A single cup of orange juice takes three or four oranges to produce, concentrating the sugar while removing the built-in braking mechanism.
Interestingly, one small crossover trial in people with type 2 diabetes found no significant difference in blood sugar response between whole orange pieces and 250 milliliters of 100% orange juice when consumed alongside a full breakfast. But that study used matched sugar portions, not the way most people actually drink juice (often in larger quantities, often on its own). The broader clinical guidance still favors whole fruit for blood sugar management.
Best Picks for Blood Sugar Management
If you want the lowest possible glycemic impact, berries are your best bet. Raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries all score 40 or below, come with generous fiber, and have large serving sizes relative to their carb content. Cherries and grapefruit are even lower on the scale. Stone fruits like peaches and plums are solid middle-of-the-road choices.
Bananas, grapes, and kiwi are still low-GI foods, but they sit closer to the threshold, and ripeness can push them over. If you eat these regularly, choosing them on the firmer side and pairing them with a protein or fat source (like peanut butter or yogurt) can further slow glucose absorption. The combination of fiber from the fruit and fat or protein from the pairing creates a more gradual blood sugar curve than eating the fruit alone.