Hi I'm type 2 diabetic. Trying to understand carbohydrates and sugar when buying food. Can I eat food that has high carbohydrates but shows low sugar. Example oats carbs 24.2g and Sugar 0.5g
Hi Bruce and welcome.
Well - you can eat it, but the issue is that carbohydrates - all carbohydrates - are digested to glucose. The "of which sugars" doesn't really provide any useful information for a T2 doing low carb. So (for example) if I was to eat potato, bread, and pastry, none of which contain any sugars but lots of carbs, my blood glucose would rocket and stay elevated for a long time, because my system cannot deal well with that level of glucose. I know this for me because I've tested for it, having eaten the food.
Ultimately any question of "can I eat..." will be answered by testing blood glucose before and +2 hrs after eating, and seeing how well your system deals with the carb in the food. Some of us can deal better with some things, less well with others. I'm ok with legumes, but definitely not with pastry (similar GI if I recall correctly - I don't find the GI at all helpful).
So I'd suggest to you that, if you're aiming for a low carb approach, you work out how many carbs you want to eat in a day, and then use a meter to check what that does in practice. Keep a record, and adjust your approach if needed.