The carb counts of common foods vary more than most people expect. A cup of cooked brown rice packs roughly 45 grams of carbohydrates, while the same volume of cooked green peas comes in around 25 grams. Whether you’re comparing grains, fruits, potatoes, or vegetables, the differences come down to the type of food, how it’s prepared, and how much you’re actually eating.
Rice, Pasta, and Other Grains
Rice and pasta are close competitors in the carb department. In matched servings (2 ounces dry weight), white rice contains about 43 grams of carbohydrates while regular pasta has around 42 grams. The real difference is fiber: pasta provides about 3 grams per serving, while white rice delivers less than 1 gram. That means pasta gives you slightly more “net” carbs you can subtract if you’re tracking fiber separately, but the total numbers are nearly identical.
Brown rice, chickpeas, and other whole grains or legumes shift the picture. A cup of cooked chickpeas has about 45 grams of total carbs but a hefty 12.5 grams of fiber, leaving roughly 32.5 grams of net carbs. That’s a meaningful difference if you’re watching blood sugar, since fiber slows digestion and blunts glucose spikes.
White Potatoes vs. Sweet Potatoes
This one surprises people: white potatoes and sweet potatoes have the same amount of total carbohydrates. A 100-gram serving of either, with skin, contains about 21 grams of carbs. Sweet potatoes edge ahead on fiber (3.3 grams vs. 2.1 grams), which means their net carb count is slightly lower. But if you’re simply asking which has “more carbs,” the answer is neither. They’re a dead tie.
Which Fruits Pack the Most Carbs
Fruit carb content ranges enormously. Berries tend to be on the low end (around 5 to 12 grams per 100 grams), while tropical and dried fruits sit much higher. The biggest outliers per 100 grams:
- Dates: 75 g of carbs
- Bananas: 22.8 g
- Grapes: 18 g
- Pomegranates: 17.1 g
- Mangoes: 17 g
Dates are in a league of their own because they’re partially dried, concentrating their natural sugars. A small handful can deliver more carbohydrates than a full banana. Fresh fruit like watermelon or strawberries, by contrast, is mostly water, which dilutes the carb density considerably.
Starchy vs. Non-Starchy Vegetables
Vegetables split into two camps. Leafy greens, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes are very low in carbs, often under 5 grams per serving. Starchy vegetables are a different story. A cup of cooked green peas contains about 25 grams of carbohydrates, while a single ear of cooked corn (about 89 grams) has roughly 19 grams. Root vegetables like carrots and beets fall somewhere in the middle, typically 7 to 13 grams per 100 grams.
If you’re building a low-carb plate, non-starchy vegetables give you volume without much impact. Starchy vegetables act more like grains in terms of carb load.
How Cooking Changes the Numbers
The same food can look dramatically different on a nutrition label depending on whether it’s raw or cooked. Dry pasta contains about 70 grams of carbs per 100 grams. Cook that same pasta and the number drops to around 30 grams per 100 grams, not because carbs disappeared, but because the pasta absorbed water and got heavier. The total carbs in your bowl didn’t change. The weight of the food did.
This matters when you’re reading labels or using a food tracking app. Always check whether the listing refers to the raw or cooked weight. Mixing them up can double or halve your count without you realizing it.
Total Carbs vs. Net Carbs
Nutrition labels show total carbohydrates, which includes starches, sugars, and fiber all lumped together. Net carbs subtract fiber and sugar alcohols from that total, since your body doesn’t fully digest them and they have minimal effect on blood sugar.
The formula is simple: total carbs minus fiber minus sugar alcohols equals net carbs. A protein bar with 24 grams of total carbs, 10 grams of fiber, and 8 grams of sugar alcohols would have just 6 net carbs. This calculation isn’t an officially regulated term, though. Different food companies apply it differently, so it’s worth checking what they’re subtracting.
For practical purposes, foods high in fiber (legumes, whole grains, vegetables) will always look better on a net carb basis than refined foods (white bread, candy, white rice) with the same total carb count. Two foods with identical total carbs can behave very differently in your body depending on how much fiber comes along for the ride.