🍚 Foods Highest in Carbohydrates — TOP 30(per 100g)
Primary energy source for the brain and muscles. FDA Daily Value: 275g.
1–30 of 5,985 foods
What Carbohydrates Does
Carbohydrate is the body's most readily used energy source and the only fuel the brain uses in quantity under normal conditions. The category spans sugars, starches, and — nutritionally very differently — fiber.
The ranking is led by pure sugars and sweeteners at essentially 100g per 100g: stevia extract powder, powdered fructose, granulated and powdered sugar. There is no headroom above them.
Below that sit flours, dried pasta and rice, dried fruit, and legumes. Their per-100g figures are dry-weight values, which is why they look so much higher than the cooked foods people actually eat.
Daily intake reference (FDA Daily Value)
FDA Daily Value: 275g of total carbohydrate per day on a 2,000-calorie diet, with added sugars limited separately to 50g. Fiber is counted within total carbohydrate but behaves nothing like sugar or starch.
Getting Enough Carbohydrates
Judge carbohydrate by what comes with it
Beans and white sugar are both carbohydrate. One arrives with fiber, protein, and minerals; the other arrives alone. The accompanying package matters more than the gram count.
Cooked figures are roughly a third of dry
Dry pasta shows around 75g per 100g and cooked pasta around 25g, because cooking triples the weight with water. Compare like with like.
Added sugars are the target, not carbs generally
US guidance limits added sugars to 50g per day while placing no comparable restriction on carbohydrate from whole foods. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest single source.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Which foods are highest in carbohydrate per 100g?
A. Sugars and sweeteners at nearly 100g per 100g, then flours and dry grains (70–80g), dried fruit, and dry legumes. Once cooked, grains and legumes drop to roughly a third of their dry values.
Q. Are all carbohydrates the same?
A. No. Refined sugars and starches are absorbed quickly and carry little else; whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit come with fiber that slows absorption and with vitamins and minerals attached.
Q. What does "available carbohydrate" mean?
A. The USDA figure used here excludes fiber, counting only the carbohydrate the body can actually digest and absorb. That is why high-fiber foods show lower carbohydrate values than their total weight suggests.
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Data source: USDA FoodData Central (Public Domain) — fdc.nal.usda.gov