Conversion rate

Hi Brian.
Welcome.

That glass of fresh Orange juice will almost instantly raise your Bg levels by a large amount as you have found.

As a rough guide it has around 22 carbs per 250ml of juice. Not a good idea for a Diabetic. This is the sort of drink I have for instant treatment of a Hypo.

Ken.

Hi Brian,
As a T1 I have learnt that 10gms CHO will increase by BG by 3. So for me, a 250ml glass of orange juice would increase my BG from 14 to approximately 20. Also starting the day with a BG of 13.9 is starting the day high. Of course as a T1, I have no natural insulin production so I would expect my BG to shoot up. :wink:

You have not said what medication you are on, but as a T2 perhaps you need to see your diabetes specialist to review treatment if your BG is swinging dramatically.

I'm not sure this is what you mean, but if you estimate your blood volume as about 4.5 litres, Orange juices are about 10g of carb per 100ml. So if you drink 200ml, you have taken in 20 g or so grams of carb,. If they are distributed evenly through your blood volume,not metabolised or lost in periferal vessels or stored in your liver, your Bg will go up by around 7mmol/l FAST( If I've done my sums right, which I may not have)
In any case it will be A LOT.
If this is not the info you want, please ignore my iffy calculations.
Hana

brian13 said:

Hi I am new so please bear with me.
I have been asked to monitor my CHO levels but I am struggling to understand how to convert them. For example on waking today my level was 13.9 and I had a cup of tea and a glass of fresh orange juice and my level has now increased to 20 after 90 minutes. Would a glass of orange juice increase my level by this amount so quickly.

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The biggest mealtime effect on blood glucose is the amount of CHO but the speed of digestion and absorption also has an effect. How much each g of carbs will cause your level your rise is also dependent on weight, insulin resitance and amount of your insulin your body is producing.
( A chart for type 1s on insulin shows for 1g of CHO, a 0. 17mmol rise for someone weighing 90kg to 0.33mmol rise for someone weighting 41kg... That assumes some background (basal) insulin)

Orange juice is relatively fast acting so will have a quick effect and raise your levels significantly.

If you have access to enough testing strips, testing your blood glucose levels before and 2 hours after meals it will help you see what effect individual meals have on your glucose levels.


I wonder if you are actually being asked to monitor the level of your CHO intake, ie keep a diary showing an estimate of the carbs eaten at each meal. So you would need to keep a record of the amount of carbs in food such as cereals, bread, rice, pasta, beans/lentils, potatoes, milk, fruit, soft drinks, cookies and cakes and also vegetables (though fewer in the latter).
If so you (and forgive me if its not the case and you know how to do this) its worth getting some scales and a measuring jug.Use these for measuring how much you eat of things containing carbohydrates you can then check out their carb content with a book of carb tables (the little Gem carb counter ? )
If you eat food thats prepackaged and labelled, its easy to use that..