Food scores: the whole picture at a glance
One searchable, sortable table of 260+ everyday foods and drinks — blood-sugar impact, saturated fat, sugar, nutrient value and the wider quality signals side by side, scored for long-term heart health and not just one number.
Most food charts show one thing. A food can spike your blood sugar yet carry no saturated fat (white rice, a baked potato), or barely move blood sugar yet be loaded with it (sausages, cheese, chocolate) — and the things that quietly shape a lifetime of health, like ultra-processing, nutrient density, preservatives and pesticide residue, never make it onto the same page at all. This table puts them together.
Every food carries an overall score from 0–100 (higher is better). It leans most on the two that matter most for your heart — glycaemic load and saturated fat — but it's built for longevity, not just blood sugar: free sugar and ultra-processing pull a score down hard, while genuine nutrient value (fibre, vitamins, minerals) lifts it. Search for a food, filter by group, or tap any column heading to sort. Portions are realistic — what people actually eat (a sandwich is two slices, a bowl of cornflakes is nearer 50 g), not a token serving.
| Food | Score | Nutrient | GL | Sugar | Carbs | Sat fat | Anti-inf | Metals | Pest. | Pres. | Additives | Proc. |
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How to read the table
All figures are per the serving shown. For most columns green is the gentle end and red the one to keep occasional — but Value is the opposite: there, green means nutrient-rich and good. The Score is a single 0–100 summary; the columns beside it show what drives it.
How the score is built
It starts at 100 and moves up or down. It's deliberately tuned for long-term health, not just a blood-sugar reading:
- Glycaemic load and saturated fat carry the most weight — the two with the clearest link to cardiovascular risk — so a high-GL or high-saturated-fat food drops sharply.
- Free sugar is penalised hard — by amount and concentration. A food that is essentially sugar (honey, jam, syrup, sweets, sugary drinks) scores badly even in a small serving, because most of its carbohydrate is added sugar. This is only ever about free sugar — the intrinsic sugar inside whole fruit, veg and plain dairy isn't penalised, which is why an apple scores near the top.
- Ultra-processing pulls hard, on its own. Processing is graded 0–10 and the penalty climbs steeply past the ultra-processed threshold — reflecting the links between UPF and poorer long-term health, independent of sugar or fat. That's why a heavily-processed product scores low even when its sugar and fat look modest.
- Nutrient density lifts the score — and empty calories cost. Foods dense in fibre, vitamins, minerals and beneficial compounds (leafy greens, berries, legumes, oily fish, nuts) are rewarded; foods that are mostly empty calories are marked down.
- Smaller adjustments come from anti-inflammatory effect, and transparent 0–10 scales for heavy metals, pesticide residue, preservatives and cosmetic additives.
It's a guide for comparing options, not a verdict — and a minimally-processed whole food is the better choice even when an engineered product happens to score close to it.
Caveats
These are population averages. Your own blood-sugar response varies (a short continuous-glucose-monitor trial, in the main guide, shows your personal curves), and figures shift with ripeness, cooking, cooling and brand.
Context changes everything. Whole foods eaten with fibre, protein and fat digest more slowly than a number suggests — a baked potato with beans, salad and olive oil behaves nothing like a plain one.
Not all saturated fat behaves alike — the stearic acid in dark chocolate and lean meat is largely cholesterol-neutral, while the palmitic acid in processed meat is the more concerning kind. The heavy-metal and pesticide scores are relative flags, not danger ratings: residues in a normal, varied diet sit well within safety limits. And the table can't see alcohol — wine and beer carry their own risks beyond the figures shown.
Values are approximate and per the serving shown; glycaemic load is a population average and the 0–10 nutrient-value, metal, pesticide, preservative, additive and processing scores are our own evidence-informed estimates for comparison, not laboratory measurements. This is general information, not personal dietary advice.