Pho and Diabetes: Noodles, Broth and the Size of the Bowl

A bowl of pho is comfort food for many families. What USDA records for pho and rice noodles, why the bowl size matters, what is known about the parts, and what research has not studied.

For many Vietnamese families, pho is breakfast, lunch or a Sunday treat. It is also one of the most popular restaurant dishes in many American cities. After a diabetes diagnosis, a common question is whether that big, steaming bowl still fits.

We want to be honest from the start: we could find no research that studied pho itself in people with diabetes. What we can do is look at its parts, the rice noodles, the broth and the size of the bowl, using sources that did study them. This article goes through each one.

What USDA records for a cup of pho

USDA FoodData Central has two pho entries, one with meat and one without. Both are measured by the cup, broth and noodles together:

The two cards are close in carbohydrate. In pho, almost all of the carbohydrate comes from the noodles. The meat, herbs, bean sprouts and lime add little.

These are USDA's figures for a typical recipe. The pho you eat may be different. Every cook and every restaurant makes it their own way, with more or fewer noodles in the bowl.

The noodles carry the carbohydrate

Here is cooked rice noodle on its own, by the cup:

No photo yet 42 g carbs 1.8 g fiber Rice noodles, cooked Per 1 cup

Compare it with the pho cards above. A cup of plain noodles holds much more carbohydrate than a cup of pho, because much of a cup of pho is broth. So the question with pho is mostly a question of how many noodles are in your bowl.

If "carb choice" is a new term, our article What is a carb choice? explains how grams of carbohydrate become portions.

The size of the bowl

The cards are per cup, and bowls are not all the same size. Two people can both say "I had a bowl of pho" and have eaten very different amounts of noodles.

At home, pouring your usual bowl into a measuring cup once can show what it holds. On each food page you can set your own amount, in cups, grams or ounces, and see the carbohydrate change with it.

The American Diabetes Association describes the diabetes plate method: half the plate nonstarchy vegetables, a quarter protein and a quarter carbohydrate foods. A bowl of pho is not a plate, but the same idea can apply. The herbs, sprouts and greens are nonstarchy vegetables, the beef or chicken is protein, and the noodles are the carbohydrate part.

What one small study found about rice noodles

In 2001, Chan and colleagues in Sydney tested nine Vietnamese foods in twelve healthy adults, six Asian and six white. They measured blood glucose after each food and compared it with pure glucose.

In that study, the noodle products produced a lower blood glucose response than the three rices tested. The authors suggested rice noodles might be an alternative staple for Vietnamese people with diabetes.

This is one small study, in people without diabetes, and each food was eaten on its own after an overnight fast. It did not test pho, with its broth, meat and herbs. A lower response per gram of carbohydrate also does not make a large bowl small. It is a hint worth knowing about, not a finding to build a plan on.

The broth: sodium is the other thing to know

Pho broth is seasoned with salt and fish sauce, and the table often has hoisin and sriracha too. Open each pho card above and look at the sodium row on the food page. Sodium is not a carbohydrate, but it matters for people with diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association advises people with diabetes to limit sodium to under 2,300 mg a day, the same as for the general population. Its Standards of Care call limiting sodium "a valuable strategy for people with diabetes with or without kidney disease", and name processed foods as major sources of it. In the DASH4D feeding trial it describes, adults with type 2 diabetes had lower blood pressure on the lower-sodium diet.

A 2021 meta-analysis by Ren and colleagues pooled eight randomised trials in people with type 2 diabetes. Reducing sodium lowered blood pressure in those trials.

Most of the sodium in a noodle soup is in the liquid. A small trial in Japan by Sugimoto and colleagues (2023) gave young men ramen with either a regular spoon or a spoon with holes. With the perforated spoon they drank less soup and took in less salt, and they found the meal just as filling and tasty. That was ramen, not pho, and the group was young and healthy. But it shows the broth left in the bowl is sodium not eaten.

If you also have kidney disease, sodium, potassium and phosphorus in broths matter even more. Our sister site KidneyFoods covers those minerals.

What is not known

We found no study of pho and blood glucose, in people with or without diabetes.
We found no study of how much pho broth people usually drink.
The one study of Vietnamese noodles is small and more than twenty years old.

So anything said about pho beyond its carbohydrate and sodium is a guess. Your own glucose meter or monitor, checked after a bowl, can tell you more about how pho affects you than any general article.

Pho can still have a place

Pho is a meal of noodles, broth, protein and herbs. What tends to matter is the amount of noodles, counting them in your carbohydrate for that meal, and knowing that the broth carries salt. The Today page adds up what you log, so you can see what your usual bowl adds to the day.

Your numbers are yours

How much carbohydrate and sodium fit in your meals depends on your medicines, your blood pressure, your kidneys and your glucose goals. Your doctor, diabetes educator or dietitian sets those numbers, and their advice comes before anything you read here. If you take insulin or a medicine that can cause low blood glucose, talk to them before changing the size of your usual meals. If pho is part of your family's table, tell them. A good plan works with the food you love.

Sources

Chan HM, Brand-Miller JC, Holt SH, et al. The glycaemic index values of Vietnamese foods. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2001; 55(12): 1076–1083. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11781674 (checked 8 October 2026)
Ren J, Qin L, Li X, et al. Effect of dietary sodium restriction on blood pressure in type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 2021; 31(6): 1653–1661. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33838996 (checked 8 October 2026)
Sugimoto M, Tajiri E, Nakashima N, et al. Effects of Using a Perforated Spoon on Salt Reduction When Consuming Ramen Noodles: A Randomized Crossover Study of Japanese Male University Students. Nutrients, 2023; 15(13): 2864. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37447190 (checked 8 October 2026)
American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee. 5. Facilitating Positive Health Behaviors and Well-being to Improve Health Outcomes: Standards of Care in Diabetes—2026. Diabetes Care, 2026; 49(Suppl 1): S89–S131 (recommendation 5.20; sections on eating patterns and sodium). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12690188 (checked 8 October 2026)
NIDDK. Healthy Living with Diabetes (last reviewed October 2023). niddk.nih.gov (checked 8 October 2026)
USDA FoodData Central: Soup, pho, with meat (FNDDS 2707124); Soup, pho, no meat (FNDDS 2707125); Rice noodles, cooked (SR Legacy 168914). fdc.nal.usda.gov (checked 8 October 2026)
Food figures on this page: USDA FoodData Central, via the DiabeticIndex food database.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Talk to your diabetes care team before changing how you eat or how you take your medicines.

This article gives information, not medical advice. Your carbohydrate target and how you count carbs are set with your own doctor, diabetes educator or dietitian. Food figures on this page come from USDA FoodData Central.