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carbohydrate figures

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sweetenoughnicki

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Hi all
Can anyone help me to understand this carb counting thing please? When looking at nutritional info on food, there are usually two readings. Do you use the figure for the total carbohydrate OR the carbohydrate which sugars when counting your carbs??
 
Hi, you count the TOTAL carbs not just the sugars, as the other carbs are starch and they convert to glucose and affect your blood sugar as well. I have started using a phone app called 'Diet and Calorie Counter'. It also has a website which is where I registered, I think. Makes keeping track of carbs much easier.
 
Yes it's pretty simple.

On the back of each packet on the label you'll normally spot a thing called total carbohydrate. There maybe two numbers next to it. Usually the first is the grams of carbs per 100 grams of the thing. This is the one to write down. Also totally and absolutely ignore the "of which sugars" number. It's total carbohydrate you want.

Next weigh out how much of the thing you are going to eat.

As an example lets say whatever it is you are eating says 10 grams per 100 grams. Lets also say who weigh out 250 grams. Then the "count" or grams of carbs you are going to eat will be 250 times 10 divide by 100 or 25 grams. This works for every product that you find a grams per 100 grams figure for. Another example, say it says 1.0 grams per 100 grams but this time you are eating 50 grams of it then again its simply 50 (the amount you are eating) times 1.0 (the grams per 100 grams figure) divided by 100 or in that case 0.5 grams of carbs.

Do that sum for ever thing you eat, add up the scores to get your total carbs per day. A good value to aim for to begin with is around 125g / day as this should mean roughly a quarter of your plate will be carbs if you are eating around 2000 calories a day. Use your BG meter to determine if you need to drop your grams or can get away with more. I ended up only being tolerant to around 75g per day.

For fresh things that have no handy label I use this site.

http://www.fatsecret.co.uk

On its home page enter the food it its search bar. When you get to the page describing the food you will normally see a per 100g figure.

Sounds a bit hard but it really is easy with a calculator.
 
Get yourself a good book such as the Calorie Carb & Fat Bible 2012, it lists just about everything you eat and drink.
 
Thanks guys, going to have a really good go at controlling my carb intake..have experimented a bit already and been able to cut my insulin down..seems to be the way to go!
Have read 'Escape The Diet Trap' which I would highly recommend..makes perfect sense to me! Where did the idea come from that we should include lots of carbs in our diet to control our diabetes??????? We are just feeding our disease!!
 
A trick when reading labels is to avoid things over 10g of carbs per 100gram or if you're more strict anything above 5g/100 grams.
 
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