Food CHO portion inconsistencies

[Dyadya_Maykl]

Since attending the Dafne course I have made a real effort to monitor my CHO/insulin regime. I have bought scales, have a good meter, and use the Dafne Carbohydrate Portion list. I was astounded to find that the value for raw potato in the book was 1.5 CP per 100g (1 CP = 10g CHO), whereas a pack of frozen chips for frying/baking/grilling was 31.5g per 100g. That is over double the vaue in the book! In real terms that means that a portion of 200g of chips by the Dafne book would give me 3 CP's (30g CHO), whereas by the packet measure would give me 6CP. I use the packet metric.
This finding has caused me concern. Who checks the reference souces? I question the Dafne guide. Their selection of foods has been hugely influenced by commercial interests rather than concern for their clients - their listings contain large numbers of proprietary products - Angel Delight, McMuffin, Pizza Hut to mention just a few. Their alphabetical listings are overfull of these nonsense foods. They have three sizes of French fries - regular, medium and large - CP's given, but no weight of the actual portion. Then a few lines later they list Fries - regular at 3.5 CP, whereas the earlier listed regular French Fries was listed as 3CP. I need to know the CP values of fruit and veg - peas, carrots, beetroot, aubergine as well as a correct value for potato. Does anyone know a good listing, which has all proprietary junk foods removed.
Packet foods seem generally OK - give CHO per 100g of product.
However, I am finding a problem with Holland and Barrett French lentils listed as 60g CHO per 100g. If I use this value I experience low blood sugars. Is this due to some of lentil CHO being indigestible?
All this is now made more complicated by the new style food labelling - giving sugars levels, and calories, but no CHO percentage quantity. Good example - Tesco fresh prepared pasta products only have the basic traffic light labelling. At least Sainsbury's pasta products give a better breakdown.
All this makes planning and food control very difficult.

 

[noblehead]

The little DAFNE booklet is very basic and I for one wouldn't go by that, the Calorie Carb & Fat Bible 2014 is an excellent resource.

Lentils are low in the Glycemic Index and your insulin will work quicker than the digestion of the food, so this will be why your experiencing postprandial hypo's after eating them.

Some labelling is ridiculous but it has come on a long way in recent years.

 

[Spiker]

I have taken to politely complaining on the supermarket's facebook page whenever a product doesn't carry CH labeling. It's really annoying with the traffic light system which is useless for diabetics.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[ElyDave]

this one's pretty reasonable, has a wide range of vegetable and fruits

Collins Little Gem pocket calorie counter is another good one.

Teh chip vs potato discrepancy will be due to water loss in the cooking. In the same way you can't equate 100g of cooked lentils to 100g raw, dry lentils as they absorb water when cooked.

 

[Hooked]

Potatoes can vary a lot, depending on how they are cooked. A baked potato, for example, tends to be larger, older spuds and has a lot of moisture taken out of it - therefore much more carb dense than the same weight of , for example, young, baby boiled potatoes. So whilst they are basically the same thing and same weight, the way they are cooked affects how much carbs are in them. (I hope that makes sense, it does in my head, lol).

I got the carbs and cals book, and then bought the app for my phone. I find it very handy for looking up foods when out and about.