Portion sizes - guide to

[Nick25]

55 years ago when diagnosed as T1 at 11, I ( or more accurately my mother!) was given guidance on portion sizes of typical different foods , quite a comprehensive list I seem to recall. I have coped fairly adequately with diet and insulin throughout those intervening years . A recent switch to Libre Freestyle has made me conscious that my overall food intake has crept up over time and so I thought a reset might be wise.
However to my surprise online searches fail to produce any comprehensive list of typical foods . There are some offers of wall charts and various articles (including from Diabetes U.K.) urging portion counting which give a random sample list of half a dozen items in different categories , but I am looking for a comprehensive list. Hard to believe something like this really does not exist.
Any recommendations?

 

[Olddogandgrump]

Different days - as you probably know. My mother was diagnosed as an adult in the same period as you were. Then you took your insulin and matched your carb intake to that. My mother, at the time, a busy mother of four, the youngest still a toddler, was brought into hospital and her dose and diet were set there. Set based on sitting around in hospital all day, not looking after a family.

Now we pretty much eat as much as we need to fuel our activity and match our insulin to that.

There are no fixed or recommended portion sizes as such as we all have different needs. And I'd dismiss anything that tells you x amount of anything is a portion. A thirty year old gym using brickie will need bigger portions than an eighty year old retiree. Now that we have fast acting insulin and good BG testing there aren't even limits on what we can eat, never mind the portion size - within the bounds of a well-balanced diet.

The best thing you can do is learn carb counting (DAFNE or similar). If weight is an issue change your portion sizes to match your activity and use the carb counting dosing techniques to keep your BG stable.

And if weight is not an issue then neither are your portion sizes.

 

[Nick25]

Different days - as you probably know. My mother was diagnosed as an adult in the same period as you were. Then you took your insulin and matched your carb intake to that. My mother, at the time, a busy mother of four, the youngest still a toddler, was brought into hospital and her dose and diet were set there. Set based on sitting around in hospital all day, not looking after a family.

Now we pretty much eat as much as we need to fuel our activity and match our insulin to that.

There are no fixed or recommended portion sizes as such as we all have different needs. And I'd dismiss anything that tells you x amount of anything is a portion. A thirty year old gym using brickie will need bigger portions than an eighty year old retiree. Now that we have fast acting insulin and good BG testing there aren't even limits on what we can eat, never mind the portion size - within the bounds of a well-balanced diet.

The best thing you can do is learn carb counting (DAFNE or similar). If weight is an issue change your portion sizes to match your activity and use the carb counting dosing techniques to keep your BG stable.

And if weight is not an issue then neither are your portion sizes.

I do not think you are right saying there is no such thing as a standard portion although I perfectly understand that different people doing different levels of activity need differing amounts of carb intake …and therefore insulin.
My Freestyle Libre sensor software asks me to record my food intake measured in …..portions. I do not believe it means big or small portions for differently active people ,I think it is meant to be used to record the different numbers of those standard portions.
It is those “ portions” that used to be set out in detail , making it far simpler to build a meal with right number of portions, simpler and therefore far more likely to be followed.
I understand the option of carb counting , but that involves a far more detailed maths calculation( possibly including weighing ingredients) for every meal.
How much easier it used to be to just know an egg was 1 portion , a piece of bread , or was it two was a portion, an apple etc etc.
It seems a shame that such a “ directory” is no longer available.

 

[In Response]

The diet (and portion size) for someone with Type 1 is no different to the diet for some without diabetes.
There are recommended daily allowances of calories etc. But I strongly believe there is no such thing as a standard portion. Some people are bigger than others, some more active, some older, some with faster metabolism.
Why do you think you are eating too much? Do you weight more than you'd like? Or is it just a general feeling!

 

[Rokaab]

From some googling Nick25 might mean this type of thing :

I think it was probably just an old-school simpler version of 'carb counting' that I'm sure isn't taught anymore (and not used by the vast majority), and I'm sure it just wouldn't work for me, I need to know actual carbs not multiples of 15 (for a start I need more than one unit per 15 carbs anyways and the calculations would be a lot more complex than they are now as my carb ratios are not all nice divisors of 15)

 

[Ushthetaff]

I was diagnosed in 1980 and remember the “ portion “ list , I always remember 10 g of carbs being one portion but it was that long ago I am probably mistaken ( happens a lot these days , but luckily I’m that old now I can use it as an excuse hehe)
the ones i always remember are 1 slice of bread equals 1 portion , and the Standard question from a dietician was how many potatoes the size of a boiled egg do you eat, still can’t remember how many boiled egg sized pots were a portion , plus no personal bs testing then or Basel and Bolus,
i remember carbs were restricted , I started when diagnosed on 275g carbs, but that was soon changed to 375 due to being hungry all the time , I still use the portion system today but I can normally tell but looking at a meal what it is roughly plus labelling these days helps a lot ,

 

[Olddogandgrump]

I do not think you are right saying there is no such thing as a standard portion although I perfectly understand that different people doing different levels of activity need differing amounts of carb intake …and therefore insulin.
My Freestyle Libre sensor software asks me to record my food intake measured in …..portions. I do not believe it means big or small portions for differently active people ,I think it is meant to be used to record the different numbers of those standard portions.
It is those “ portions” that used to be set out in detail , making it far simpler to build a meal with right number of portions, simpler and therefore far more likely to be followed.
I understand the option of carb counting , but that involves a far more detailed maths calculation( possibly including weighing ingredients) for every meal.
How much easier it used to be to just know an egg was 1 portion , a piece of bread , or was it two was a portion, an apple etc etc.
It seems a shame that such a “ directory” is no longer available.

Hi - sorry, that was my misunderstanding. I use grams to work out my carbs. But I do use this when the nutrition info is not available

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://clinical-pathways.org.uk/sites/default/files/leaflet/carb-counting-reference-list-2012-diabetes.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj81ay65pCBAxWFQkEAHeGSAkMQFnoECEIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2jetHhctoda6kfADLR8-R8

It might give you what you want.

 

[Still_Here]

I was diagnosed in 1980 and remember the “ portion “ list , I always remember 10 g of carbs being one portion but it was that long ago I am probably mistaken ( happens a lot these days , but luckily I’m that old now I can use it as an excuse hehe)
the ones i always remember are 1 slice of bread equals 1 portion , and the Standard question from a dietician was how many potatoes the size of a boiled egg do you eat, still can’t remember how many boiled egg sized pots were a portion , plus no personal bs testing then or Basel and Bolus,
i remember carbs were restricted , I started when diagnosed on 275g carbs, but that was soon changed to 375 due to being hungry all the time , I still use the portion system today but I can normally tell but looking at a meal what it is roughly plus labelling these days helps a lot ,

Ah that brings back memories, from 1977, although the term portion is slightly misleading.

If I recall correctly this was an early attempt / prototype at carb counting. The idea was to break the carbs required to balance the insulin taken (look up bi-phasic treatments) into 10g lots or portions to facilitate carb exchanges. So one could swap an apple for 7 fluid ounces of milk - a medium glass - as both came out at 10g of carbs.

The 10g portion was to facilitate easy calculation of exchanges.

There was a large book that listed the amounts / weight/ volume that made up a 10g portion of exchange. We learnt it by heart.

I still use the lessons learnt then, to carb count today.

 

[becca59]

Hi @Nick25 I think the confusion here is from how your Libre is set up. Go into servings, then Carbohydrate units. There are two options- grams or portions. Change to grams. Then you can just input carb count.

 

[Ushthetaff]

Ah that brings back memories, from 1977, although the term portion is slightly misleading.

If I recall correctly this was an early attempt / prototype at carb counting. The idea was to break the carbs required to balance the insulin taken (look up bi-phasic treatments) into 10g lots or portions to facilitate carb exchanges. So one could swap an apple for 7 fluid ounces of milk - a medium glass - as both came out at 10g of carbs.

The 10g portion was to facilitate easy calculation of exchanges.

There was a large book that listed the amounts / weight/ volume that made up a 10g portion of exchange. We learnt it by heart.

I still use the lessons learnt then, to carb count today.

Yep that’s definitely it , from what I remember , I seemed to see the dietician quite often , not something that happens today ,

 

[Grant_Vicat]

I was diagnosed in 1980 and remember the “ portion “ list , I always remember 10 g of carbs being one portion but it was that long ago I am probably mistaken ( happens a lot these days , but luckily I’m that old now I can use it as an excuse hehe)
the ones i always remember are 1 slice of bread equals 1 portion , and the Standard question from a dietician was how many potatoes the size of a boiled egg do you eat, still can’t remember how many boiled egg sized pots were a portion , plus no personal bs testing then or Basel and Bolus,
i remember carbs were restricted , I started when diagnosed on 275g carbs, but that was soon changed to 375 due to being hungry all the time , I still use the portion system today but I can normally tell but looking at a meal what it is roughly plus labelling these days helps a lot ,

Spot on! 10g of carbohydrate was a portion. But now "portion" sizes don't seem to have any bearing on this. A potato the size of a boiled egg was a portion - hence a portion of chips is astronomic! Basal and Bolus came in (in my case) in 1966, but it was just called slow and fast-acting insulin. The book which bears portion size out in the early days is: