Carbohydrate or sugars ?

[laroc]

Can I please pick your brains? My husband is type 2 he was diagnosed over a year ago now and until recently we have managed him by diet alone, but recently his sugars have spiked and now we are really watching the sugars in food with a vengeance to avoid having to go onto tablets.
My question is which is more important when choosing foods, carbohydrate or sugar? Both are listed on packaging and can be wildly different. For instance on some sugar free wether sweets the carbohydrate is in the 80's but the sugar is 0.5 so are they good or bad for him?
I get so confused. :crazy:

 

[SweetHeart]

We always check the total carbs, not the sugars.

MH is also T2. We found that sugar free sweets gave him a real spike in BG levels. He went up about 5mmol by simply eating one Ruccola sugar free sweet.

Julia

 

[xyzzy]

Always use the TOTAL carbohydrate count and ignore the "Of which sugars" bit. Sugar is just a refined carbohydrate and it's carbohydrates (not just sugar) that effects blood sugar levels.

 

[borofergie]

The only slight exception is polyols (or sugar alcohols) which are supposed to have a smaller impact on your BG. This is why "sugar free" sweets are still apparently full of carbs:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26463&p=244014&hilit=polyols#p244014

The only way to be sure is to test and see, but to be honest, I try and minimize my consumption of all carbs, mainly beacause it's easier...

 

[snowy_barks]

There is no real difference carb and sugar regarding your blood glucose levels.

Carbohydrate is sugar. Sugar is carbohydrate.

Carbohydrate and sugar are absorbed into your bloodstream and turn into glucose.

The key difference between different types of carbohydrates is how quickly that they enter the bloodstream as glucose. This is known as the "Glycemic Index". It is very useful for diabetics to understand this, try this page on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

The other thing to remember is that everyone is affected differently by different foods, the only way to find out is to test after eating.

 

[AMBrennan]

Carbohydrate is sugar. Sugar is carbohydrate.

That is simply false and potentially dangerous. Sugar (sucrose) is a carbohydrate but not every carbohydrate is sugar - cardboard, and other indigestible fibre, is a carbohydrate too. This is why some products list "net carbs".

This is what sugar looks like:

It's glucose linked with fructose. It is broken down to glucose and fructose during digestion. Importantly, fructose increases BG much more slowly (GI = 19) because it has to be converted to glucose first.

Starch, on the other hand, is just lots of linked glucose. For this reason, 10g carbs worth of white bread will raise your BG more than 10g carbs worth of table sugar.

Empirically, that's exactly what I'm seeing. After switching from orange juice to Glucose C dissolved in water for my exercise, I had to halve the carbs. For this reason, the above quote is dangerous misinformation.

 

[snowy_barks]

Trying to keep it simple.

How can it be dangerous for a t2 to consider that all the carb in food will turn to glucose eventually?
After all, the percentage of indigestible fibre in food is generally a very small part of it's make up. So if you ignore the fibre content then the number of grams of carb in a given food portion will be SLIGHTLY overestimated.

Regarding the different between starch and carb, this is essentially what the GI is all about.

Also, apart from my dog, I haven't met anyone who enjoys eating cardboard, so I'm not sure that it is relevant to mention it?

Like I said at the beginning, trying to keep it simple, not trying to show people how clever I am and I understand the molecular structure of carbohydrate.

 

[AMBrennan]

Telling a T2 patient to watch total carbohydrates is OK. Posting

There is no real difference carb and sugar regarding your blood glucose levels.

Carbohydrate is sugar. Sugar is carbohydrate.

on a public forum is potentially dangerous because other people will see it as well, and might make decisions based on it without necessarily remembering the context in which they read that factoid.

 

[Anonymous]

I think you're being a bit picky AMBrennan - though your description of the structure of carbs is useful. The original post stated that he was Type 2, so it's reasonable to assume this when replying.

It is common for the newly diagnosed to only read the 'of which sugars' entry on packaging and it's better to educate people to read the total carbs figure. Carbohydrates are what we're watching and testing against.

 

[SweetHeart]

MH has been to an educational afternoon and they showed food labels with the traffic light system on and the advice was to check the sugars in the traffic light. If they were orange or red, you don't touch them the lady said. She didn't mention carbs in the full nutritional list on the product label and was not impressed when MH asked whether or not the total carbohydrates should be taken into consideration, and he was ignored.

There is just so much confusion and a lack of adequate advice for the newly diagnosed. That's why this forum is such a Godsend.

Julia

 

[Anonymous]

MH has been to an educational afternoon and they showed food labels with the traffic light system on and the advice was to check the sugars in the traffic light. If they were orange or red, you don't touch them the lady said. She didn't mention carbs in the full nutritional list on the product label and was not impressed when MH asked whether or not the total carbohydrates should be taken into consideration, and he was ignored.

There is just so much confusion and a lack of adequate advice for the newly diagnosed. That's why this forum is such a Godsend.

Julia

I had the same experience when I mentioned low carbing on my info thing. I think it is so sad that they are trying to kill us all off.

 

[SweetHeart]

Ah, 'tis cheaper that way! :twisted:

 

[Cowboyjim]

An interesting debate which points up the considerable confusion that exists about terminology and what a DM sufferer should be addressing. A little knowledge they say can be dangerous but I am not so sure. We owe it to ourselves and loved ones to try to go that little bit more to get under the skin of what DM is and what to do about it. This takes a lot of time and patience but luckily a few hours on this forum should help a lot and where it doesn't I hope people will not be afraid to ask even the -as they might worry - dumbest questions. We all have to start somewhere... I for one am certainly better off because it is here.

Personally I was never averse to starting a course of tablets. I agree diet etc is a good way of tackling DM if you can, but for me I prefer the belt and braces and another belt... lucky me I can not only change my diet but also exercise every day, this is not for everyone, but I take metformin, have done for 3 years and I think I am OK. Yes, there are side-effects but it is a very well understood med and is believed to have incidental health benefits too. Your choice, they are free to registered diabetics etc and you could do one course and see how you get on. One way of looking at it is maybe giving your diet a little slack so you can vary things a bit more. Plus of course we have meters to check progress in collaboration with the GP et al. Just my thoughts I am not a zealot... yet... 8)

 

[laroc]

Thankyou all for the interesting replies, my husband was originally put on to metformin but they in turn dropped his sugar levals to low so the doctor took him off them again. :? She then told him he did not need to test his bloods anymore she said his levals were fine. He was getting through so many test sticks because he was so confused he was testing all the time.
Anyhow recently we got a little bit slack in watching our sugars/ carbohydrates and could tell his sugar levals had gone up so started testing again.
Another question for you all what sort of leval of carbohydrate is acceptable and what would be to high? I know everyone reacts in a different way to carbohydrates and this is a loaded question
I am beginning to realise just how much sugar / carbohydrates there are in everyday foods that you simply would not think dangerous for example tomatoe sauce and soy sauce.
Thankyou all again.