carb counting and keeping sugars steady

This could be a simple case of "not everything is as it is written". If you get to know that a particular food happens to have a particular effect on you, then that's how it will be. If I find something I eat is usually followed by a hypo, I just have a unit or two less of my fast acting insulin with that food, compared to normal my ratios. The amount of time that any given foodstuff takes to digest will vary from person to person, with differing blood sugar results and that's why we all have to find our own ratios. I need to have a 2 units to 10g carb for cornflakes, but the same carb portion of Weetabix sees me having to go to 2 units to 10g + 2 extra units or I get a high reading.

manda pops said:

Hi, guys

Does anyone know how you would count fruit? i have notied the ammount of carbs are in fruits but when u use my normal ratui i always have a hypo even if there is some other kind of stodgy carb with my snack or my meal? this whole carb counting and rqation is really starting to annoy me as my sugars are up and down at the min.


thanks

Manda

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You are best to get a carb counting book which will tell you what an average portion contains. It is no good guessing. An apple for instance is 23 carbs for a medium one - so eat half at one meal and half at the other -that is what I do. Best to avoid carbs completely if you don't know what they measure. Concentrate on proteins instead and add only very small portions of carbs gradually, according to how your meter reacts. For instance I might eat a steak for dinner but have just 2 or 3 chips with it and a lot of green salad. Carbs like bread are easy, you just read the label on the loaf of bread - I just have 1 or 2 slices of the smallest size wholemeal bread per day - around 10g per slice.

Camilla said:

manda pops said:

Hi, guys

Does anyone know how you would count fruit? i have notied the ammount of carbs are in fruits but when u use my normal ratui i always have a hypo even if there is some other kind of stodgy carb with my snack or my meal? this whole carb counting and rqation is really starting to annoy me as my sugars are up and down at the min.


thanks

Manda

Click to expand...

You are best to get a carb counting book which will tell you what an average portion contains. It is no good guessing. An apple for instance is 23 carbs for a medium one - so eat half at one meal and half at the other -that is what I do. Best to avoid carbs completely if you don't know what they measure. Concentrate on proteins instead and add only very small portions of carbs gradually, according to how your meter reacts. For instance I might eat a steak for dinner but have just 2 or 3 chips with it and a lot of green salad. Carbs like bread are easy, you just read the label on the loaf of bread - I just have 1 or 2 slices of the smallest size wholemeal bread per day - around 10g per slice.

Click to expand...

I agree that a good carb counting book is a vital aid to anyone who is trying to control their diabetes in this way. But isn't it a little dangerous to suggest low carbing without any mention of reduced insulin requirements?

Manda,

If you are having hypo's after meals then your insulin to carb ratio is wrong or you are mis-counting the carb content of your food.

Ignoring the obligatory recommendation that every T1 and their dog eat a low carb diet (no offence Camilla, but I try to avoid making T2 diet recommendations), it is quite possible that you need to count differenct foods differently (Carbs & Cals, for example says that it's usually not necessary to inject insulin for carbs from vegetables), so this is unfortunately a bit of trial end error.
[That's probably due to things being a bit more complicate than the simple "BG increase = carbs eaten"]

Hey Manda,

Just to add to what AMBrennan has said, I do have to count vegetables in my carb calculation and jab for them the same as any other carb. Fruit is a bit difficult - it tends to hit my blood levels very quickly, so I go high before the insulin has had a chance to work and then low because the fruit carb has started to reduce by the time the insulin is working. So, I avoid large portions of fruit - keep the portions small. Count the carb, but reduce my insulin ratio - so for a small apple (which is about 11g carb according to Carbs and Cals) I add 0.5 unit instead of my usual 1 unit for 10g). The other option is to have a spoonful of cream with your fruit as this usually slows down the absorption of the sugar. (But watch the calories!) It is a bit trial and error, but they do need to be calculated and jabbed for one way or another.

Smidge

A good time to eat fruit is after a main meal or when exercising, I try and eat 2 bananas a day....one after lunch and one when exercising on a night.

Fruit is a funny one!

Assuming you are basal / bolus you can probably get away with eating small portions of certain fruits without covering.. Apple for instance I know I can eat and it will have a limited effect on my blood glucose maybe + 0.5 - 0.75 mmol/l... Banana on the other hand I would definitely cover with bolus.

It's a lot of trial and error.. best way I found to asses fruit was to eat it first thing in the morning for breakfast and don't eat anything else.. do a + 1 and + 2 hour check. Afterwards correct if you need to.. then from the rise in blood glucose you can work out what you would need to inject if you wanted to cover it.