carb counting confusion !!

[shellyk]

Hi all, we are just in the process of being taught carb counting prior to my daughter ( 14 year old type 1) before being given the accu chek expert BG machine, so she can start to calculate her own bolus and give herself a little more freedom. before we can have the machine we need to complete several weeks of diet sheets to show that we can work out the carbs ok and they can also calculate her carb to insulin ratio. I thought i would start out simple with pasta but i am already confused the packet states allow 100g per preson of pasta, and the nutirional information states that 100g (cooked as directed) is 32.3 g carb. Does this mean that if a weigh 100g grams of dry pasta and cook that will be 31.3g of carb or is that 100g pasta cooked ! hope that makes sense. All help greatfully recived

 

[ebony321]

Hi all, we are just in the process of being taught carb counting prior to my daughter ( 14 year old type 1) before being given the accu chek expert BG machine, so she can start to calculate her own bolus and give herself a little more freedom. before we can have the machine we need to complete several weeks of diet sheets to show that we can work out the carbs ok and they can also calculate her carb to insulin ratio. I thought i would start out simple with pasta but i am already confused the packet states allow 100g per preson of pasta, and the nutirional information states that 100g (cooked as directed) is 32.3 g carb. Does this mean that if a weigh 100g grams of dry pasta and cook that will be 31.3g of carb or is that 100g pasta cooked ! hope that makes sense. All help greatfully recived

Hi,

Carb counting can be quite confusing, especially as some labels seem to make it worse!

Ususally pasta has an 'uncooked weight' and a 'cooked weight'.

But it seems to me ''from information states that 100g (cooked as directed) is 32.3 g carb'' it means if you weigh 100g of COOKED pasta you will have 32.3g of carbs. The key word being 'cooked' so you have already cooked it before you have weighed out 100g. Does that make sense?

Remember to always count the WHOLE carbohydrate content and ignore the 'of which sugars bit' as that only accounts for usually a small part of the carbs, which can be misleading when first starting out.

Good luck, seems like your right on track

 

[noblehead]

Ebony's right and obviously the cooked pasta is much heavier due to it's absorption of water, carbohydrate counting is tricky at first but with practise does become easier in time, buy a good carb counting book such as The Calorie, Carb and Fat Bible 2011.

Nigel

 

[Unicornz]

Hi Shelly Ebony is right, make sure to check the pack for 'cooked' or 'uncooked' details

What I would also like to add is have you thought of buying some nutritional scales? Lloyds sell some for about 20 pounds and you can find some different ones on Amazon as well. I bought some not too long ago and they are saving me so much time and hassle!

You just pop the food on and there's a little booklet that comes along with it with different foods in which have a code behind it; just pop in the code onto the scales and it automatically calculates from the weight how many carbs are in it! Such a timesaver. The booklet also states whether the weight is for cooked or uncooked foods (usually it goes off uncooked if I recall correctly). Mine has the feature to add up foods as well, so if you're making a soup or something you can pop all the ingredients on and add them up as you go along!

Good luck with the carb counting, I can imagine it seems a little daunting at first but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon!