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Carb counting and label reading

G

Geordie_P

Well-Known Member
Messages
846
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi friends,
I know some food labels have a total carbohydrate, and then that's broken into 'of which sugars' etc.
But when you have a label that just has carbs per 100g, then sugars per 100g,
do you just go by the carbs, or add them together, or what?

Case in point, I'm currently on a fairly strict diet and I'm trying not to touch any starch or added sugar- basically I only have oily fish, steamed leafy vegetables, eggs and tree nuts. I want to add kimchi to my meals, but the jar says

Carbohydrates 6.31g per 100g
Sugars 2.78g per 100g

Now, those don't look that high, but as I said, I need to really bring down my bg urgently (neuropathy issues) so...

1. do you think the kimchi is OK for a sub 800 calorie a day no sugar diet?

2. Could one of the more experienced members give us noobs a quick breakdown on how the whole carb vs. sugars on labels works? I'm sure there's a bunch of us who'd find it useful.
 
As sugar is a carb, I am guessing the sugar is already included in the total carb amount, as it is when it says "of which sugars".

I can't answer your question as to whether it is suitable for a sub 800 cal diet as I have no idea how many calories there are in it, and importantly, how much of it you will eat. 6.31% sounds reasonable to me if the portions aren't huge.
 
@Geordie_P Sugars are normally listed as a subsection of the total carbs, eg Carbs 40g per 100g, Of which sugars 10g. That means the total carbs are 40g and that's the info you should be looking at for carb counting.

That applies to UK labels.

The only reason you'd normally need to look at the sugars is if you were choosing between two brands of a product that had identical carbs. You may then prefer to go for the one where the sugar forms a smaller percentage of the total carbs.

The kimchi looks ok to me - low carbs. Try it and see how your blood sugar is. Your meter should be your guide.
 
Kimchi is yummy and quite healthy. Koreans llove it and i can only name on fat Korean
 
bulkbiker said:
I'm interested.. are you doing a very low carb newcastle type diet?
Click to expand...
Not exactly: I got a shock diagnosis at the start of October, and all I knew was that carbs and sugar were to be avoided, and my triglycerides were through the roof-32.7 I think, with 5 being as high as the warning scale went. So I just cut all added sugar and carbs first, while I tried to learn what was going on. Now I've learned about the Newcastle diet, I might go for it later, but my weight has been coming off faster than I thought possible- 200lbs down to 172lbs (I'm 5'10, for reference) so far, so I'll see what happens in my second venous blood test and take it from there. I'm in a bit of an odd stage right now- my fasting venous test was 13.2, and the doc said that's definitely diabetes, but when I went back 2 weeks later, I did a fasting finger prick test and it was 5.8. I asked the doctor if I could still be pre-diabetic, or if eating really badly the day before my venous test could have skewed the reading; he said it's unlikely, but worth checking again in a couple of months to see if I could still turn things around. So just by happenstance, I've ended up doing something that is a bit 'Newcastle-lite', or maybe more like the Michael Mosley blood sugar diet, or maybe even Jason Fung, but I'm taking it a bit easier on the fats than he says, on account of my trigs. I haven't got round to getting my bg tester yet, I know I should, but I'm just doing everything I can diet wise anyway, and I'll be getting another venous test done in december.

So as far as my experience might apply to other people, I'm not sure about bg, coz I haven't been monitoring it, BUT my weight has plummetted, and more importantly, I had such neuropathy in my feet that I could hardly walk at the start of October, and loads of tendon and nerve issues in my hands, and that's all reduced massively. I still have it, but it's light enough that I forget it when I'm at work or out and about. I've also lost the raging hunger and thirst I was plagued with before.
I'm still too new to have the temerity to 'advise' others, but I'm happy to share diet notes and ideas, so just in case anyone wants to know the breakdown of what I'm eating, I'll post it- and if you see any flaws in it, let me know

Breakfast: (6:30am) 1 boiled egg. Sometimes 5-10 almonds if I'm still hungry
Lunch: (12:30) smallish bowl of Kale or chinese cabbage with a piece of salmon or steamed chicken
Evening meal: (5-7 pm, depending on work) basically the same as lunch, but if I had kale and chicken, I'll have cauliflower and salmon in the evening, or some such variation.

And that's about it. If I'm stuck at work too long, I have a tin of sardines before my evening meal- I've been using tomato sardines with the sauce washed off, but sometimes I have oil ones now too. I used to have a dragonfruit as I heard they were good for lowering bg, but now I'm suspicious of the fructose, so I've just cut all fruit.

I've also ditched black coffee as I read it impairs insulin function- I need to find out more on that, but I drink a lot of Chinese tea to keep me going, so it's not a huge miss right now.

Can I keep this diet up? Honestly, I'm not finding it too difficult right now, and I was a *REAL* glutton before. If my venous test results are good, I'll let you know.
 
What wonderful job you are doing I Think you must have a little more variety into your salats like spinach 1-2 days a week and other very grean leafy salad types the leaves from beetroot family type is good parsley thyme oregano and alike rosemary all filled with good trace minerals too tomatoes .china cale it not very nutrient dence which you need on a very low calorie diet But a very Healthy choice otherwise . Yous choise of fish is fab , herring would would be another possibillity and maybe NOT as polluted as salmon (which I eat a lot myself ) But since you are not a Young Girl or childbearing woman it maybe doesn't matter that much.
do you take a multivitamin with your diet ?
 
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Sounds like you have designed your own LCHF Newcastle diet.. bloody amazing.. well done. Don't know if you saw the ITV Tonight programme last week but the success story guy there @Peter Maher did something similar to you which has worked well for him too. He has posted a couple of times here since the programme. Are you saying you have lost 200lb is a month? or it that a typo?
 
Hi, Geordie, Congratulations looks like you have made a good start, well done. I did what you are doing 3 years ago, worked out well, I didn't worry too much about what the food was, just the total calories, that's what counts, I ate a balanced diet, very small bowl of porridge for breakfast, 1 sandwich for lunch, evening meal on a side plate, slice of toast before bed, about 1000 a day. I lost 50lbs in four months. But trust me it's easy to put back on if you take your eye of the ball after. Bonus
 
Thanks guys; I'll keep it up as best as I can. Good tip on the herring too, I'll check it out.
Oh, I'll check out Peter Maher too: if it's anything to do with reversal, remission, pre-diabetes etc, then I'm all ears.
 
Think you may find this of interest
http://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/nutrition-facts-on-most-store-bought-kimchi
 
That's actually very useful, Oldvatr. I like the point about Kimchi's big flavour fighting cravings- I couldn't exactly articulate why kimchi is hitting the spot so well at the moment, but that seems about right.
 
well I would die if I ate those Kimchis then didn´t know there were chrimp sauce in it... good I only tasted my daughters recepi then...
 
Can anyone recommend a good Kimchi?

I bought some a while back, expecting some delicacy of stunning impact, and found the experience pretty traumatic. Maybe I had a bad jar of it? It was horrific.
- and I have a palate that can cope with the stinkiest cheeses, the bitterist chocolates, and the most marmitey of marmites
 
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