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Carb confusion

sparkyrich

Well-Known Member
Messages
197
Hi all, I know this is a dumb ass question but...
I've been having the linseed etc Bergen bread cos quite a few have said its probably the best. To be honest, I reckon my budgie would soon turn his nose up at it. Picking seeds from my fillings gives me something to do and takes my mind off food I guess but there's got to be more to life as a diabetic.
Looking on the packet it says iirc (and I probably don't ;-) ) carbs per slice 11ish, g of which sugars 2ish g. Now whole meal Hovis is 16ish g of which sugar 1g.
Isn't it the sugar we're supposed to be avoiding? So isn't the Hovis the better choice? Or is it total carbs that matter and the " of which sugar" bit is of no relevance?
Sorry to sound a Norbert but I find it all so confusing... :-(



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I have Burgen, and its the total carbs you should be looking at. If you live near a Waitrose they have started doing bread called Livlife - only 3 grams of carbs I believe.
 
Both matter but total carb content you look at first. Both are sugar, just of which sugar is added refined sugar. carbs is what your body will turn to sugar. The of which sugar part is relevent to how quickly the total carb content wil be turned to sugar, the gi index of food. Eg, 20g total carbs, of which sugar 3g not too bad as your body will take a few hours to convert all carbs to sugar. 20g total carb, of which sugar 10g not so good as all carbs will be converted to sugar very quickly as the of which sugar is 50% of total carb. Thats the way I look at it but sure someone will be along with a more scientific approach.
Whatever the of which sugar content always look at total carbs.
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Its sugar and carbs you need to watch out for, breads like Bergen effectively transform the carbs into sugars more slowly than white bread which causes a rapid rise in sugar levels. Others will probably put it a lot better than I can.

White bread is best to be avoided, as with most of us it sends our BS levels high very quickly. I am not that keen on the Bergen bread after trying a couple of different ones. 99% of the time eat Roberts wholemeal bread which is I think 14.1 g of carbs with 1.4 g of sugar per slice, which suits me.
 
I don't eat bread as a rule 11g a slice is too much for me but if I did id eat burgen I love it..... dunno what that contributed to this thread I just felt like sticking up for burgen lol sorry
 
Livlife low carb bread stocked at waitrose and 3.8 grams of total carb per slice so happy days! egg on toast and bacon butties are back! :mrgreen:
 
Total carbs as everyone has said. I find with Burgen it's nicer toasted as it awakens the flavour of the seeds, there another which I buy more often called Hovis Seed Sensations, its around 14g of carbs per slice but the slices are slightly bigger than the Burgen bread.
 
I try to buy lower carb, higher fibre breads and find Burgen works well as this. Personally I enjoy the flavour.
 
Hi I am 69 and type 2 insulin dependant on Nova mix I inject 48 twice a day, my DN says she doesn't want me counting carbs I test 3 times a day and my sugar ranges from 20.1 down to 3. I use my Wii every morning doing light exercise my BMI is 30 and weigh 10st 8lbs this is really making me feel depressed as I don't seem to get any answers when I can get to speak to my diabetic nurse..
 
paul-1976 said:
Livlife low carb bread stocked at waitrose and 3.8 grams of total carb per slice so happy days! egg on toast and bacon butties are back! :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Mmmm might have that for tea tonight.
 
Flojo
You should not be having such great fluctuations in your levels. It is important to carb control to vary the meals you have...
I understand DSN thoughts that you aren't on a bolus/basal regime however it is a NHS guideline now that every diabetic should have education regarding foods and lifestyles. My practice has a big poster up identifying the 15 things that are necessitys for a diabetic to have.. Food education ie carb counting is just one of them.



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Flojo
Car counting is counting the amount of carbohydrates that are in your food.

If you are on premixed doses and levels of insulin then you must eat certain levels of carbohydrate to keep you level. If you don't do this, despite being on premixed insulin you will get large swings in your bg levels.


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The carb content of food can usually be found by looking at the nutritional info printed in a rectangle on the front, back or sides of the packaging. Always take notice of the carb and ignore what turns to sugar. Most of the time, the carb content will be listed xxxxg of carb per 100g (weight) so ideally, weighing scales are helpful and then use cutlery like tsp, tbsp, dsp to convert the weighed amount of food

The next bit is to work out an insulin to carb ratio if using bolus/basal insulin which most diabetics start off using 1u bolus for every 10g carb and by testing bg levels frequently, can then alter the ratio if needed, so that bg levels stay within levels that are ok.

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Pre mixed insulins are easier to use as all that is needed, is to keep to eating certain amounts of carb every 3hrs. The amounts of carb to be eaten is worked out by a Dsn but can be fine tuned by testing bg levels and adjusting the carb to the action of the insulin on bg

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Thanks for your replys.. I am on insulin that I have to mix I have had my results from this month and I have gone from 73 down to 49 so I will see what the DN has to say on Monday when I go to see her...
 
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