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Carbohydrates

L

Lauren_951

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I am recently diagnosed and haven’t really received much information or help from my GP because of Covid at the moment.

I am abit confused about how many carbohydrates I am meant to be eating a day and per meal. I’ve been told no more than a handful or rice or pasta per meal but after doing some research do I need to be counting all carbs in all food I eat?

Any help is much appreciated
 
Hi @Lauren_951 and welcome!

A couple of questions for you. You’re posting in the type2 section of the forum so assume you’re type 2?

Have you been prescribed any medication for your diabetes?
 
Hi

Thanks for confirming. The short answer to your question is ‘yes’ it helps to understand all the carbs you’re eating.

However, there’s no set rule about the ‘right’ number of carbs per meal. That’ll be personal to you.

As you’re just taking metformin you’re not at risk of hypos and there’s no minimum number of carbs you need in a day. However, restricting carbs - to a greater or lesser extent - will be key to managing type 2. As to how much you need to do that, you’ll need to be able to test your blood sugars to see the impact that different foods on your numbers and then adjust accordingly. The idea is to test immediately before eating and again 2 hours after the first bite. You’re looking for a rise of no more than 2 mmols. Any more and the meal needs tweaking to remove some carbs. If you’d like information in meters (they’re rarely prescribed to type 2s on metformin), just shout.

In terms of carb levels, ‘low carb’ officially means 130g or less a day. Many here choose to eat significantly less than that. Partly personal choice and partly based on what their meter says. I’d suggest you have a good read of the dietdoctor website, which has loads of information about the carb content of foods, recipes etc.
 
There's a great book called the diabetes code by Jason Fung which I'd recommend you read or listen to on audio book. It will explain why carbs are often a problem for T2 diabetics.

In terms of how many carbs you can eat, that will depend on how you ready reacts. I can't eat lentils without my blood sugar spiking, but a small amount of porridge is fine. I haven't eaten pasta, potatoes or rice in over 2 years! I keep below 50g & that keeps me out of trouble on my HBA1C tests. You probably won't be given a blood glucose monitor but you can buy one & test yourself. You'll very quickly find what spikes you and what doesn't.

Unfortunately, alcohol is also a bit problematic. Beer & Cider are quite carby, but wine & spirits are not. It has some weird affect on your liver so you do need to be careful about how much you drink.

One other thing to note is that exercise does seem to increase insulin sensitivity (which is good even though it sounds like its not). So adding some exercise in to your routine might help as well if you aren't doing anything at the moment.

I went in remission following a low carb diet & have stayed there (just) despite a big wobble late last year which involved far too many bottles of wine, not enough exercise and some cake. It does seem to work as an approach even if very few doctors advocate it currently.
 
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