Carbohydrates

depends on how much of it you want to eat, and how many carbs you plan on eating throughout the day.

Hi and welcome,

It depends what portion size of the food product you chose. If it is something you only have a spoonful of, then any carbs will be fairly insignificant. If it is the whole tin or packet then up to 5g is probably fine if there are other carbs in that meal, or up to 10g if there are very few other carbs going in that meal. It is really like "how long is a piece of string". There is no real answer.

I have rose syrup and that's 95g/100g, as pasha said, it depends how much of it you eat..my total carb is well below 50g a day total

Hi and welcome to the forum.

@daisy will be along soon with her basic advice which should help you.

@Diafite

Hello and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you find it useful as it contains a lot of information on carbohydrates. Ask more questions and you will get plenty of help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 130,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

In the opinion of a growing number of people, diabetics would do well to steer clear of as much carbohydrate as possible. I know how you feel about this claim. I went through the same thing this time last year. Before deciding on how to proceed, watch the following video. I have had a few problems with my iPad posting the wrong thing, so just in case it should be a video of a talk given by an Australian doctor called Troy Stapleton. Hope it helps you as much as the idea of low carbohydrate has helped me.

Charles Robin said:

In the opinion of a growing number of people, diabetics would do well to steer clear of as much carbohydrate as possible. I know how you feel about this claim. I went through the same thing this time last year. Before deciding on how to proceed, watch the following video. I have had a few problems with my iPad posting the wrong thing, so just in case it should be a video of a talk given by an Australian doctor called Troy Stapleton. Hope it helps you as much as the idea of low carbohydrate has helped me.

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Brilliant, shall forward this to my consultant who has taken great interest in my use of LCHF. Thanks

Diafite said:

As a newbie to type 2 I found this video excellent, very concise and easy to understand. It is a gret help. Thank you.

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My pleasure to share. Troy Stapleton is very good at explaining things in a clear manner. Getting the facts is important, but there's no reason everything has to be full on in your face technical jargon. I think this is where Dr Richard Bernstein falls down. Without a doubt he is the leading authority on diabetes management via low carbohydrate, but he is extremely technical and matter of fact. Nothing wrong with that if you're a scientist, but a lowly music graduate such as myself struggled with some of the big words in his book!

This is a handy book to have also.
http://www.xperthealth.org.uk/shop/details/p/handbook-lowcarb-highfat-lifestyle