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Carbs - The Lowdown.

A

acron^

Well-Known Member
Hi,

I was diagnosed about a month ago now so I'm just getting my self settled and into a routine for diet. Basically, there are a lot of things I don't know about the kinds of carbs I should be eating/avoiding. I understand the general pointers regarding eating wholemeal etc etc, but there are still things I need answers to:

1 - When I look at the nutritional contents table on a food package, I automatically look at the carbs. What is it exactly I should be looking for? It often says "Carbohydrates - Of which are sugars/starch/saturates". What does that mean?

2 - Fruit; I've heard people on here both saying fruit is good and bad. And what's fructose? Is it the same as glucose? Does it affect my BG?

3 - My DN told me cholestoral is too high (5, should 4) but I'm struggling to find ways of cutting it down. I'm 23, my BMI is 23. I don't even understand why it's high! What should I be avoiding?

Your advice is much appreciated!
 
 
acron^ said:
3 - My DN told me cholestoral is too high (5, should 4) but I'm struggling to find ways of cutting it down. I'm 23, my BMI is 23. I don't even understand why it's high! What should I be avoiding?

Your advice is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

if ONLY they did a full lipid panel and gave you the breakdown of HDL LDL and triglycerides that question would be much easier to answer.

In general a low carb diet (one which doesnl't cause your BG or insulin levels to spike - or in your case to require excess insulin to be injected) - will reduce trigs, sometimes spectacularly. This in addition to exercise should increase your HDL. Extra fat may increase both HDL and LDL, without the trigs even saturated fat seem to improve my HDL at the expense of LDL but there are both dietary and genetic factors involved. Generally shifting the balance towards monounsaturated fats and more Omega 3s (fish or flaxseed) at the expense of Omega 6s *should* improve the lipids. With low trigs and high HDL the LDL molecules are larger, fluffy and non-dangerous, it's the small VLDL which is a danger signal. Trigs/HDL ratio should be below 3 in US numbers, I think that translates to below 1.2 or 1.3 in UK numbers.
 
- When I look at the nutritional contents table on a food package, I automatically look at the carbs. What is it exactly I should be looking for? It often says "Carbohydrates - Of which are sugars/starch/saturates". What does that mean? Crbohydrates are a class of molecule made up of Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen only. the simplest carbohydrates are the simple sugars The very simplest are the Trioses, which have 3 carbon atoms. there are theoretically some dioses with 2 carbon atoms, which I've never heard of. However the biologically important sugars are the Hexoses, which have 6 carbon atoms. the most important is Glucose. Fructose is another 6 carbon sugar as is lactose. the 6 and some 5 carbon sugars can link up into larger molecules called disaccharides, poly saccharides and oligosaccharides. Sucrose,table sugar, is a disaccharide made up of a molecule of glucose linked to a molecule of fructose. Maltose, produced by yeasts, is a double glucose and starch is long chains, either branched or straight, of glucose molecules. Interestingly, Cellulose or fibre is also made of chains of glucose, but linked together in a way which our system cannot undo./color] Any digestible carbohydrate made up of glucose units will find its way into the blood as blood glucose pretty quickly.

2 - Fruit; I've heard people on here both saying fruit is good and bad. And what's fructose? Is it the same as glucose? Does it affect my BG?Fructose is a 6 carbon sugar. It's made up of the same components as glucose, but they're put together slightly differently. Fructose doesn't easily become glucose but unfortunately tends to get turned into triglycerides. This is a pity, because fructose tastes nice, cooks well and is sweeter than sucrose. It would be an ideal sweetener for diabetics otherwise

3 - My DN told me cholestoral is too high (5, should 4) but I'm struggling to find ways of cutting it down. I'm 23, my BMI is 23. I don't even understand why it's high! What should I be avoiding?Cholesterol is a complex molecole made in the bodies of many species. Thus we can eat it, but most of the cholesterol found in the bloodstream of humans, was synthesised in their own bodies. Cholesterol is fatty and rather sticky and can block tiny blood vessels, bringing about strokes or heart attacks or causing atherosclerosis. the amount of cholesterol in the diet makes very little difference to the amount in the circulation. Some people are geneticaly predisposed to make a loads of cholesterol. Nowadays it's though it's made from carbohydrates

This is carbohydrate chemistry 101 :? . What you need to know is that starches turn to blood glucose rapidly and that on a food label, anything ending in~ose is a sugar.The thing that makes fruits tricky is that some store glucose, some fructose, some both ( like grapes) and bananas store starch which turns to glucose fast. If it's sweet and came from a tree, it contains sugar.

Your advice is much appreciated!
 
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