Carbohydrates VS Sugar

Welcome, you will be confused don't worry things will drop into place soon. Others will be along with advice. My suggestion is to read the 8 week sugar diet. Not necessarily to do the diet but his explanation of every thing is really good. Don't panic, you have found the right place.

If you are in the UK and the EC, when looking at nutrition labels you need to look at the Total carbs and ignore the "of which sugars". Two reasons - sugar is a carb and is included in the total carbs. Plus, ALL carbs turn to sugar once eaten. That includes low GI ones, wholemeal, brown versions. It includes all carbs including those in vegetables, protein and fat sources. On packaged food it is best to limit choices to those with less than 10g carbs per 100g (which is 10%) preferably less than that.

In America they have a different system because they include the fibre content in the total carbs, which needs to be deducted. In Europe the fibre is already deducted and listed separately.

Sugar is very fast release. It releases its glucose immediately, so is best kept to an absolute minimum.

Net carbs has nothing to do with the sugar. It is the total carbs. In America the term Net Carbs is used to mean the total carbs minus the fibre.

How many grams of carbs you eat per day or per meal is up to you. We all have our own targets, usually between 20g a day and 100g a day.

Sugar is a carbohydrate. When you see the carbohydrate level on a label you will also see (underneath) 'of which sugars' but this of which sugar amount has already been added to the total carb value.

Hi it is confusing isn’t it when you read @bout high gi etc. But most important thing to remember that any gram of carb will turn into sugar - the whole meal/gi bit just means it’s a bit slower turning into sugar but sadly it does change into sugar so is just as bad for you as a diabetic.
To make it more confusing too most fruit which contains fructose is even worse for diabetics as this burns (or not!) In the liver which is harmful for diabetics as can contribute to a fatty liver. Berries are the only ones low enough not to worry about including.
Generally speaking try to completely avoid high carb foods such as bread. Pastry, pasta, rice, below ground veg and most fruit and make up your diet from lower carb foods see
Www.dietdoctor.com
For lists of low carb food and menus and recipes
How many total grams a day you eat is a personal decision. Many people start out at higher end of low carb ie under 120g per day and keep testing to check out which foods don’t spike them and then if needed work way down the total carb numbers.
Personally I started at 75g of carb then went down to 50g and now do keto which is generally under 30g of carb but to achieve my results I had to go below 20g a day. My diagnosis hbaca1 was 97 most recent one was 33 and I have lost more than three stone since last September.
Good luck read as much as you can plan out a few days eating low carb and get testing your bgs we are all individuals and have have different levels of tolerance of carbs so some can operate with higher levels of carbs than others. Only way to find out is give it a go and test test!

I agree just focus on lowering the total carbs. How many are you eating at the moment?

The right amount to reach your goal is personal to each person but most do well between 20-100g of carbs a day.

Keep a food diary, it will help you identify which foods make you spike. Have you ordered spare test strips? I use about 200 per month. That will reduce once I have got things under control.

I gave up tea because I couldn't stand cream in it and the small amount I used in tea make me spike because of the lactose.

Read, read and read some more. There is some rubbish on the internet, check back on this forum about anything you are unsure of. Ask lots of questions.

Has anyone tagged @daisy1?

Petaluk said:

PS
I have just ordered a codex bg tester as recommended on here

There is so much to learn about foods, I would never have guessed just how crucial what you eat is. I just presumed oh it’s for sale, must be ok, or the government wouldn’t allow it to be sold. I have learnt so much on here.

Why the government doesn’t insist that the amount of teaspoons of sugar in a food item is plastered on the front packaging, I will never know. I wouldn’t have bought half the products I have if I knew 4g sugar is 1 teaspoon of sugar for example.

I NEVER used to eat sugar except the occasional bag of sweets..always low fat..or sweetener stuff...but as I got older, I couldn’t read the labels, so ,well, here I am now!

I know high saturated fat, smoking, drinking, street drugs are bad - even lethal for you...but food..oh my gosh!

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Except saturated fats are not on the bad foods lists - only processed fats such as seed oils. Another one to get your head round again www.dietdoctor.com has loads of info on the best fats and links to research evidence re saturated fats.....

Petaluk said:

Oh no really ...milk did that to you..wow

By the way..do you or anyone else know...how long, roughly, does it take to get your blood sugars down to normal (under 50?) my reading was 56

Also does vaping (non tobacco products) spike bg?

Thanks again x

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Once you get your testing kit download the mysugr free app. If you enter all your readings daily after about two weeks of readings it will give you a hbac1 guideline that will give you an idea. Re lowering the number and how quick it can take a while but you should see s downward trend quite quickly although fasting bgs tend to take longer to get in line it depends on you and what you're eating and drinking and your reaction to it.
Re vaping no idea I have heard that CBD oil can be vaped and I have seen some research that CBD oil can bring bgs down but don't understand the science and have never smoked or vaped! Hope this helps!

Low fat products need to be left on the supermarket shelves. Natural fats are good for us and will never raise blood sugar levels. Low fat items probably will, and are full of chemicals. Animal fats are good and natural. Butter is wonderful. Plant and seed oils are not all good for us especially things like sunflower oil and corn oil. Read the nutrition labels and look carefully at the ingredients.

With any luck it seems many people can change to eating low carb and see normal readings for Hba1c and blood glucose in 6 months - those are consistently low readings - lower readings start as soon as we stop causing spike eating all those healthy carbs and indulge in a madcap Atkins type approach to eating - odd that it works so well.

shelley262 said:

Personally I started at 75g of carb then went down to 50g and now do keto which is generally under 30g of carb but to achieve my results I had to go below 20g a day. My diagnosis hbaca1 was 97 most recent one was 33 and I have lost more than three stone since last September.

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Very well done for sustaining eating under 20g carbs daily, for your huge weight loss, and for your fabulous A1c result. You deserved it! I am currently eating under 20g daily too, so I know how hard it is, but I'm afraid my next A1c won't be as low as yours. Good to know there are others out there who are managing to follow the same regime. It seems to me that very often when I read posts or articles about keto, the people are not eating anything like as low as 20g carbs.

Petaluk said:

By the way..do you or anyone else know...how long, roughly, does it take to get your blood sugars down to normal (under 50?) my reading was 56

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Obviously everyone is different but you should be thinking weeks not months.

Petaluk said:

I have been losing about a lb a day though

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That must mean you have already been eating pretty low carb, or you would not have lost all that weight. BUT don't be disappointed if your weight loss rate slows right down. Each gram of carbohydrate is stored in your body with 3-4 grams of water, so you can see shedding stored carbs will mean you also lose a lot of fluid, and that won't go on forever.