WHAT is aCARB?

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hanadr

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I've been away for a day and I come back to find a thread which makes it clear that some people haven't quite got to grips with the concept of carbohydrates. I did explain it in detail in one of my stickies, but here goes again.
The simplest guide to carbs and BG
Carbohydrates, constitute a chemical "family" that consists of molecules made up of carbon hydrogen and oxygen
The ones that concern us in our eating are those that are based on Glucose molecules. Glucose is a fairly simple, metabolically active carbohydrate molecule, formed in plant cells, for energy storage, as a result of photosynthesis( remember it from school???) Glucose is VERY soluble and so plants polymerise it( make it into chains) for a stable storage material, called starch. the starch chains are folded into grains and found in the storage organs of the plant, ie seeds of cereals and tubers of potaotes and roots of parsnips. To access the stored energy, plants use an enzyme called diastase to break up the starch grain into maltose and glucose. Under normal circumstances, WE can't access the energy from starch, it has to be processed or at least cooked.
Thus when we eat the cooked storage organ of a plant, we ingest starch in a form we can break down. The breakdown product is..... glucose!!!! and being VERY soluble in water, it gets into our blood stream FAST.
Since potatoes and bread contain loads of starch, it follows that if you eat a lot of either cooked, you'll end up with high BG. Chips, which contain fat, hit the blood a little more slowly, but NOT LESS in total.
Hana
 
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brendan998

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Frighteningly informative.
I need to see a dietician quick
All the signs seem to be telling me toavoid spuds and bread as they're my two biggest 'baddies'
What do you have to fill you up when you're starving, surely not more fruit and salad?
:(
Brendan
 
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neededthat

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i to am a big fan of the spud and bread although i have cut down the amount of these i eat and also now i mainly eat wholemeal instead of white bread i'm finding myself perminantly hungry and was wondering what peaple eat to satisfy there hunger? been type 1 for a year and am wanting to get my bg where it should be.
 
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fergus

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People often don't believe it at first, but if you replace the spuds 'n loaf with more nutritious foods such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, veggies you'll probably find you're actually much less hungry.
Essentially, the problem with these starchy carbs is that they raise your insulin levels too high. When insulin levels are high, the body can't access its own stored reserves of energy and so we have to eat again instead. High insulin = hunger, weight gain and a few other unpleasant consequences.

All the best,

fergus
 
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spinningwoman

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Like Fergus says, it is hard to believe, but it really does work. My husband used to eat a bit like my teenage son - always hungry, always needing something (usually a cheese sandwich) between meals. I also used to eat a lot of snacks; when we used to visit my Mother in Law who is a 'cook three meals a day and that's it' sort of person, I used to have to take a packet of biscuits or something to keep in the bedroom. But once we started on the low carb diet, it really changed. You think you are going to have to replace all that bread and pasta and rice with 'something else' but actually the other parts of the meal just take over - maybe an extra scoop of veggies or whatever. It takes a couple of weeks for your body to get used to the switch which is why the published low-carb diets usually start with a couple of 'strict' weeks so that you don't get tempted off the straight and narrow.

Having something like almonds (but not peanuts or cashews which are higher in carbs) around to snack on when you feel peckish helps too. I also quite like the Tesco 'soya nuts' - crispy roasted soya beans which they sell on their crisps and snacks counter. Not as more-ish as almonds, so we find it easier not to carry on eating them once the edge is off the snackiness. And quite a bit cheaper too, at 99p for a big bag.

One thing to remember is that enough good fats and oils are important. A salad with a lovely olive oil based dressing, or green beans with butter on them will be a lot more filling than just the veg 'naked'! If you are cutting out bread, pasta, rice etc you will also be losing all the butter and other fats you used to put on them, and no pastry goods means none of the fats they are made with, so you really don't have to worry about adding a bit more to the things you do eat.
 
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dragongirl

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Great idea, spinningwoman. I've been wondering how to get butter down me if no bread or crackers to put it on. I'll drench my veg (had to give up tomato sauce, you see!). Any advice on which sort of butter fulfils the criteria best? And I'll definitely look at the soya nuts when next in Tesco.
DG
 
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hanadr

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DG
butter is butter, but it's made in a couple of different ways. the continental unsalted types are smoother and creamier than the usual British "Anchor" salted.
It's all down to what you prefer.
Hana
 
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spinningwoman

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Actually I think Anchor is NZ rather than British, which is why they can advertise as 'free-range' - there is year-round grazing there so the cows eat only grass all year round. Which ought to mean that the butter is slightly lower in saturates - which might also explain why their 'softer' butter was until recently one of the few which didn't have veg oil mixed in. However recently, this changed, so whether or not the butter is lower in saturates I don't know.
 
phoenix

phoenix

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(All I learned in a holiday job many years ago!)
Before butter was mass produced, it was made on the farm or in small dairies, you had to keep the cream from several days milking to get enough cream to make butter, the cream used was ripened: in effect, sour cream. This sort of butter is still made by small producers
Today on the Continent the cream used is sour cream, soured using bacterial cultures (cultured butter) Beurre d'Isigny is a cultured butter.
A more recent method is to sour the cream with lactic acid. Lurpak is a lactic acid butter.
The 'traditional' (actually it's relatively recent) English/New Zealand type butter is made from fresh pasturised cream and is called sweet cream butter.
For most people it's a matter of taste but there are some that claim the fermented type is better for you.
All butters can be salted or unsalted.
 
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dragongirl

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That's interesting.

What happened is that my helpful husband brought in a pack of Morrison's English Butter, which is unsalted. But of the 8.3g fat (per 100g), 5.5 is saturates - which worries me a little (tho it tastes fine!). This doesn't sound good for my cholesterol at all. I do understand about high fat helping lower cholesterol in the absence(ish) of carbs, but is this butter quite bad?
DG
 
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ajokuk

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I am type 2 male 5.10 and weigh 10.6 or 66k, I am underweight I need to put on weight but so cutting out carbs is not an option ,any advice on what to eat to put on weight
 
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hanadr

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It's fructose that your body makes into cholesterol, not fat.
There's very little REAL evidence that natural saturated fats are in any way harmful. However. Transfats, which are made in laboratories from oils are thought to be VERY NASTY.
Hana
 
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cugila

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hanadr said:
It's fructose that your body makes into cholesterol, not fat.
There's very little REAL evidence that natural saturated fats are in any way harmful. However. Transfats, which are made in laboratories from oils are thought to be VERY NASTY.
Hana
Click to expand...

Whilst I agree that Fructose is ONE of the contributory causes of Cholesterol it is definitely NOT the only one to consider. I find there is MUCH evidence available that certain fats are not good for certain of us who have more to consider than Diabetes alone. I have my Heart to consider with all it's Cardiovascular implications.

In the UK too much saturated fat in the diet is the most common cause of high cholesterol. Saturated fat encourages the body to make more cholesterol than it needs or can get rid of. In the UK we tend to eat a lot of saturated fat and this is probably why we have the highest rates of coronary heart disease in the world.
Full article:
http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/cholesterol.htm

And this.

What you eat. Eating too much saturated fat (the kind found in high-fat meats and dairy products) and cholesterol can cause your body to make more cholesterol, raising your blood cholesterol levels. You can lower your cholesterol level by cutting down on animal fat and other fats and eating foods rich in starch and fiber, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Full article:
http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/lowerc ... auses.html

There's more..... :wink:
 
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