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carb content

greener

greener

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
hello!

I am confused about carb content
can you tell me please the net carb content (ie. excluding fibre) of beans cooked and corn cooked? I eat a salad that contains a largish spoon of each and I want to limit my carbs in 20g per day, is that suitable?
also, how low carb is houmous??

thanks!
 
It's the total carb you should be looking at.
 
I doubt it will be suitable if you want to keep under 20g a day, but it all depends how many beans and bits of corn.

There is a brilliant book many of us have (also an app) called Carbs & Cals, available from Amazon. It has thousands of different food stuffs, with coloured photos of them on a plate and it gives the weight, carbs, calories, fat, protein and fiber in that portion size. Easy to follow, and easy to see what portions look like on a plate.
 
For some reason I don;t understand, food generally has higher carb count when cooked than uncooked,. Corn seems to have a high carb count compared to other vegetables, There are tables on the web that can be downloaded for reference. or you can search 'how many carbs in'. I tend to use the value for 100 gms total weight to tell me foodstuff is low carb. For me anything above 5 carbs/100gms is suspect.
 
Oldvatr said:
For some reason I don;t understand, food generally has higher carb count when cooked than uncooked,. Corn seems to have a high carb count compared to other vegetables, There are tables on the web that can be downloaded for reference. or you can search 'how many carbs in'. I tend to use the value for 100 gms total weight to tell me foodstuff is low carb. For me anything above 5 carbs/100gms is suspect.
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It depends on the food. Pasta, for example, has higher carbs per 100g raw than per 100g cooked (because the cooking pasta soaks up water and thus the carbs are 'diluted').
 
azure said:
It depends on the food. Pasta, for example, has higher carbs per 100g raw than per 100g cooked (because the cooking pasta soaks up water and thus the carbs are 'diluted').
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Point taken, but how many people eat uncooked pasta I wonder? The real answer is to check, esp if aiming for 20gms target.
 
Oldvatr said:
Point taken, but how many people eat uncooked pasta I wonder? The real answer is to check, esp if aiming for 20gms target.
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Well, it's not that people are eating uncooked pasta. It's just easier to measure when it's uncooked and void of water.

The basic laws of physics tells us that we cannot create energy. Only transfer it. Fortunately, that means our food doesn't gain more calories simply because it's being cooked.
 
TorqPenderloin said:
Well, it's not that people are eating uncooked pasta. It's just easier to measure when it's uncooked and void of water.

The basic laws of physics tells us that we cannot create energy. Only transfer it. Fortunately, that means our food doesn't gain more calories simply because it's being cooked.
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I think I was talking carb, not calories, and looking at several diet sheets they only seem to quote the cooked value for pasta, and rice but do sometimes quote both for other vegetables, The laws you cite do apply directly to calories, but not to carbs
 
Oldvatr said:
I think I was talking carb, not calories, and looking at several diet sheets they only seem to quote the cooked value for pasta, and rice but do sometimes quote both for other vegetables, The laws you cite do apply directly to calories, but not to carbs
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Well, the laws of physics apply to everything and carbohydrates (which contain calories/energy) are no exception.

What you're referring to is whether or not that energy is available to be metabolized by the human body. Cooking some vegetables makes their cell walls less rigid. That allows our bodies to digest and extract the energy/nutrients easier.
 
TorqPenderloin said:
Well, the laws of physics apply to everything and carbohydrates (which contain calories/energy) are no exception.

What you're referring to is whether or not that energy is available to be metabolized by the human body. Cooking some vegetables makes their cell walls less rigid. That allows our bodies to digest and extract the energy/nutrients easier.
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I don't actually know the answer to this one, but your explanation seems eminently sensible. All I know is that the diet sheet tables show this difference, which could be significant if one has a carb target of 20 grams per day as stated in the OP.. Having looked at a packet of pasta here, it does not state if the carb count is uncooked.or not. It is also difficult fitting it in a cup. i am glad I have given up spaghetti even spelling it gives me nightmares !
 
Oldvatr said:
I don't actually know the answer to this one, but your explanation seems eminently sensible. All I know is that the diet sheet tables show this difference, which could be significant if one has a carb target of 20 grams per day as stated in the OP.. Having looked at a packet of pasta here, it does not state if the carb count is uncooked.or not. It is also difficult fitting it in a cup. i am glad I have given up spaghetti even spelling it gives me nightmares !
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Either way, with a goal of <20g of carbs per day corn and beans should be absent from your diet.

Unfortunately, there's no way to address the OP's questions directly as different types of beans and corn have different nutritional properties. Hummus would be even more difficult as there are many different brands of hummus, and each one again has different nutritional facts. Furthermore, a "Largish spoon" is not a quantifiable unit of measurement and doesn't tell us much.

Long story short, I think the OP needs to elaborate a bit more. Otherwise, we'll never be able to answer his or her questions.
 
@Oldvatr Yes, that's the important thing - identifying whether the carb count given is raw or cooked. Pasta and noodles carbs are almost always given for a raw weight so I'd wager that your oacket of pasta info was the raw weight carbs (usually around 75g carbs, I think).There was someone on here recently who'd had problems by taking that to be the carbs for the cooked weight - that made a huge difference and caused a hypo as they thought they were having 75g of carbs when it was a lot less.

And although I don't eat raw pasta, I do use the raw weight carb value to calculate the carbs in my meals. I appreciate you might avoid pasta, but often there's been confusion about carb values here and, as you've identified, that's been due to the raw/cooked issue. Baked potatoes are another source of confusion (again, I use the raw weight for those).

It can make a big difference, especially if you're sticking to lower amounts of carbs per day.
 
I can't elaborate more, I get from the restaurant that salad and they cannot weigh the corn and bean before they put it in the salad! It's made to order.
 
TorqPenderloin said:
Long story short, I think the OP needs to elaborate a bit more. Otherwise, we'll never be able to answer his or her questions.
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I agree. think all we can advise at the moment is for the OP to invest in a sensitive pair of scales and a calculator and find out the carb percentage ( i.e. carbs/ 100gms of produce).. Then weigh out each item as it goes onto the plate and ratio the actual value about to be eaten. There are many Apps and diet tables with the info in them, or look on the label on the packaging.

I am not sure that the OP is experienced enough to achieve <20gms per day. There are some i have seen on the Forum who are trying for 20 gms/ meal, but few on this amount for whole day. Perhaps one of them would be able to give some insight as to how they achieve this target? Personally i have set myself a relaxed target of around 120 gms per day, and even that is giving me pseudo hypo's. I have never calorie or carb counted, but I have started reading the labels and carb tables when i shop
 
greener said:
I can't elaborate more, I get from the restaurant that salad and they cannot weigh the corn and bean before they put it in the salad! It's made to order.
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I gave myself a shock when I had some corn in a salad that normally I am ok with. I also had a spike when I had chickpeas as a side dish. i looked these up, and found that they two of the worst non starch vegetables for carb count. Could you consider a side dish of cucumber or other v, low carb substitutes? radish? pepper? Your target will be difficult to get to if you are eating corn and hummous (chickpeas)
 
greener said:
I can't elaborate more, I get from the restaurant that salad and they cannot weigh the corn and bean before they put it in the salad! It's made to order.
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Hi, Please accept my apologies. i have gone back over the c**p I have been writing here, and I seemed to have lost the plot. You made it clear that the portion size was small ie spoonful of each. If this is so, then the effect will be small. I still think <20 gms for a day will be a challenge for you to achieve, but maybe you need to relax slightly when you have a salad eg 25 gms. I do not think you will really notice any significant negative effects from your salads, so please enjoy them. (I have to say Without Relish LOL). The comments I made are to cover larger portions such as shown in the LCHF plate.
 
greener said:
how come, humous is said to have 7% carbs
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The chart I use shows chickpeas on their own at 24%, hummus at 14%
So if you have 10 grams of each on your plate, then you will have 3.8 grams out of your 20 gram allowance for the day, Note 10 grams is about 0.35 ounces which is about a teaspoonful and a half.

Dry/Weight Measurements
2 tablespoons 1/8 cup 1 ounce
4 tablespoons 1/4 cup 2 ounces
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon 1/3 cup 2.6 ounces
8 tablespoons 1/2 cup 4 ounces

I hope this helps. Since I don't carb count myself, I am sorry but I am at the limit of my experience now.
 
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