Another newbie here - carb confused!

Hi Katie and welcome to the forum

You will find a lot of information on carbs on the Low Carb forum here. Here is the information we give to new members which also contains information about carbs which I hope you will find useful. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 70,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Hi
I recommend the book Carbs and Cals- it is really useful, it has photos of portion sizes and is really quite eye opening and I thought of myself as food aware.

Hi Katie, welcome.

Check out www.dietdoctor.com/LCHF

Many people on here find this beneficial both for weight and blood glucose control.

Good advice so far. As for Carbs & Cals, there is also a phone app as well as a book. Well worth the money. I would ignore the picture of the plate you saw. Good luck. It's a shock to the system to begin with but it gets easier, I promise


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

,Hi Katie. I was diagnosed in February. I have found as have most people that carbohydrates are the biggest problem. For me rice, wheat (as in bread) and potatoes are the worst things. If you can, get a blood glucose monitor, and use it before and after each new meal to find out its effect on you.

Im not on medication Katie. I have had great success using a monitor. the NHS position on diabetic diet seems to me and many on this forum to be very wrong

Hi Katie, the best thing you can do is to get a meter and test strips. The strips are expensive though but well worth the money as this is the best way to understand how food affect bg.

LCHF works very well for a lot of us diabetics, helps with weight loss, normalises bg, cholesterol and BP.

I have to agree about the blood meter, and lots of good advice, but the biggest one that helped me was the xpert course however it does vary region to region on how good it is


Type 2 diagnosed 24/01/2013.
Novomix 30, Victoza, metformin 2000mg sr (but not taking them as they play havoc with my insides,

sanguine said:

Hi Katie, welcome.

Check out www.dietdoctor.com/LCHF

Many people on here find this beneficial both for weight and blood glucose control.

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I don't see how the 'diet doctor's' claim that you can eat as much as you like and still lose weight can possibly be correct.

If you consume more calories than you burn you will gain weight, and conversely if you use more calories than you consume you will lose weight.

If you are obese, then the real enemy is likely to be the vast accumulations of fat around the liver and pancreas. This fat will go if you lower your calorie intake substantially. It will not go if you eat as much fat as you like.

Hi Katie and welcome

Syd said:

I don't see how the 'diet doctor's' claim that you can eat as much as you like and still lose weight can possibly be correct.

If you consume more calories than you burn you will gain weight, and conversely if you use more calories than you consume you will lose weight.

If you are obese, then the real enemy is likely to be the vast accumulations of fat around the liver and pancreas. This fat will go if you lower your calorie intake substantially. It will not go if you eat as much fat as you like.

Click to expand...

I don't understand the science behind it to be honest, but it does work. Fat and protein are filling and keep you satiated for longer, you don't need a lot of it and are less likely to snack. Carbs give you a hit then you crave more so are more likely to over consume. That is what I reckon, but no doubt someone will be along soon to explain it better.

I don't seek out fats to add to my meals, but if there is a choice between a low fat product or a full fat, I almost always go for the full fat version as it will contain less carbs (the exception is halloumi as the low fat version has less carbs). I have lost 30 lbs since Christmas without feeling hungry or deprived.

Hiya to Katie

I think when on LCHF, the conception is you can eat as much as you like but in reality, you don't. I think if calories were actually counted, they would be a relatively low daily amount. I agree with Syd, you can't argue science. If you consume more fuel than you burn, it's stored, simple.

mo1905 said:

I think when on LCHF, the conception is you can eat as much as you like but in reality, you don't. I think if calories were actually counted, they would be a relatively low daily amount. I agree with Syd, you can't argue science. If you consume more fuel than you burn, it's stored, simple.

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Thing is, most people on LCHF do eat exactly as much as they want to. The advice is to eat when hungry until you are satiated. A high fat diet normalises hunger and satiation through normalising hormones so we don't need to over eat. To over eat on a carb heavy diet is easy, to over eat on a high fat diet is difficult.

It is mainly about hormones and incredibly complicated. All calories aren't equal, for example: http://www.dietdoctor.com/calorie-calorie-even-close

Syd said:

I don't see how the 'diet doctor's' claim that you can eat as much as you like and still lose weight can possibly be correct.

If you consume more calories than you burn you will gain weight, and conversely if you use more calories than you consume you will lose weight.

If you are obese, then the real enemy is likely to be the vast accumulations of fat around the liver and pancreas. This fat will go if you lower your calorie intake substantially. It will not go if you eat as much fat as you like.

Click to expand...

See the link in my post to Mo.

And I disagree. If you eat carbs your insulin will go up and stop the body from using stored fat as fuel, while on a high fat diet your body uses body fat. There is a host of hormones regulating metabolism, hunger and satiation. Leptin, for example.

To say all calories are equal or that fat is fattening is to disregard science.

Lot of good advice so far from other posters. Many of try to keep the carbs down to at least 200gm/day and most go for 150gm/day or even less. Keep them low-GI where you can to smooth absorption. Some people go for very low-carb which can encourage the body to burn body fat for energy. My wife has been doing that and has lost a lot of weight and has never been so fit. Yes, smoothing carbs during the day is not a bad idea but you don't have to have carbs with every meal; that's a myth. Protein and fats keep you feeling full for longer. I avoid the term LCHF as it implies high fat which is not a good idea. Yes, go for LC but have enough fat and protein to give you the calories you need but beyond that and weight gain is more likely. Be careful with the Eat-Well plate on surgery wall-charts as it's based on excessive carb percentage and also overall calories. So that's why there are so many obese people around