Carbs In Food - how many?

[monkeymutha]

When I look at a label to see what carbs are in the food I see two measurements. One says 'Carbohydrates', the other says 'Of Which Sugars'. Which one should I be concentrating on for carb counting???

 

[lucylocket61]

Look at the "Carbohydrates" number and ignore the sugars one.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Ditto what Lucy said it is the Total carbohydrates we need to concerne ourselves with, nothing else, all carbohydrates are converted into glucose in our intestines, sugar just gets converted quicker. :thumbup:

 

[AMBrennan]

Well, no. Contrary to popular conventional wisdom, not all carbs are equal.

Table sugar or refined sugar (sucrose) has an intermediate GI value (about 60-65). This is due to the fact that it's a disaccharide (double sugar) comprising one glucose molecule (GI value 100) plus one fructose molecule (GI value 19). Thus sugar has less of an effect on blood glucose levels than most people think.

So, total carbs is what you need to look at but be weary of high sugar foods because they may affect your BG differently (specifically, less) than you may expect.

 

[SamJB]

Just to confuse things even further. Fibre is a type of carbohydrate, but your body doesn't digest it. So if fibre is shown you should minus it from the carbohydrate. This is called "net carbohydrate".

 

[monkeymutha]

haha thks for the replies. Complex stuff huh. shoulda looked into this earlier.

 

[AMBrennan]

So if fibre is shown you should minus it from the carbohydrate. This is called "net carbohydrate".

I have a hunch that that's US only (where nutritional labels have carbs & "of which fiber") whereas UK labels list net carbs

 

[SamJB]

Perhaps so. I'm not sure either way to be honest. I always subtracted fibre when I saw it and used carbs as net carbs when it wasn't shown. I don't eat carbs any more so maybe you shouldn't listen to me!

 

[Spearmint]

We count total carbs except for veg which we don't count at all and baked beans we just count the of sugars

 

[Klang180]

So if fibre is shown you should minus it from the carbohydrate. This is called "net carbohydrate".

I have a hunch that that's US only (where nutritional labels have carbs & "of which fiber") whereas UK labels list net carbs

Definetly USA only. The carbs on our labels in the UK do not include fibre and so should not be subtracted. That said anything with a significant enough fibre will probably be lower in carbs or at least will be slower release so it might not matter too much anyway.

 

[BridgetW]

Here is a good idea of where to find the carbs listed on the label here: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/ss/nutritionlabels_5.htm

It can be tricky, but we really don't have to worry about the sugars, just look at the Total carbohydrates

 

[lucylocket61]

BridgetW

the website in your post is a US one.The labels are different in the UK

 

[phoenix]

UK Label
( the carb figure is the amount of carbs, fibre is labelled separately and has already deducted. The carb figure is total carbs. NB note spelling of fibre).
In the EU if it something is labelled it also has to be labelled per 100g.

Us Label. It includes fiber in the total carb count : carbohydrate of which fiber. You need to deduct it to be equivalent of the total carbs in the UK Note spelling fiber) In the Us things are often labelled in oz or portion sizes.
The big problem is if you use US sources on the net for your calorie/carb info.

 

[hanadr]

Here is a little chemistry lesson:[it's all classes and excptions

Carbohydrates are a class of chemical compounds which are formed from Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms. Sugars are a subset of the general group carbohydrates.Starches are another subset and also raise blood glucose. There's a subset of carbohydrates which are insoluble and indigestible.[except to herbivores!] we usually call these dietary fibre and exclude them from the carbs category in the food info panel.[ but chemically, they ARE carbohydrates!] If you travel to anywhere that US food labelling applies, they are included there. In which case you find you have to do your own excluding.
However if you are only looking at UK labels, assume anything classified as a carbohydrate is likely to raise your blood glucose.
Even here, there's a complication, in that a common sugar called fructose, which occurs mainly in fruit DOES NOT raise blood glucose, but it's undesirable for other reasons.
Extra bit of info:
Usually anything with a chemical name ending in ~ose is a sugar. the exception to this one, is the artificial sweetener "sucralose", which doesn't behave quite like a natural sugar and doesn't raise blood glucose.
PS Glucose is a sugar and comprises 50% of table sugar which is called "Sucrose"
Hana