How many teaspoons of sugar in cauliflower?

Cauliflower’s figure comes from Table 1 of the 2016 paper by Unwin, Haslam and Livesey, though three of the charts name it. The fruits vs vegetables, South Asian and African and Caribbean charts all list cauliflower in their side notes of foods in the very low glycaemic range, without printing a figure.

Table 1 gives an 80g portion 3.2g of available carbohydrate and a glycaemic index of 60, and prints a glycaemic load of 0.32. That printed load does not follow from the table’s own inputs: 3.2g at GI 60, divided by 100, is 1.92. The teaspoon figure in the same row, 0.7, matches 1.92 and not 0.32. The paper does not explain the difference. This site records the calculated load, 1.9, and uses the teaspoon figure as printed.

The same pattern appears in two neighbouring rows of Table 1, tomato and mushrooms, where the printed loads are also smaller than the table’s own carbohydrate and GI figures produce. All three are listed together on the sources page.

A GI of 60 would place cauliflower in the medium band. With so little carbohydrate in a portion, the GI has only a small effect on the load either way.

Cauliflower is widely used grated as a substitute for rice, sold fresh and frozen as cauliflower rice. Table 1 does not describe the preparation; its row is simply “Cauliflower”, and it does not say whether the cauliflower was raw or cooked.

The two other rows with the same table issue are tomato and mushrooms.