• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Easier and trickier carbs

JMoli

Well-Known Member
Messages
250
Location
Edinburgh
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi, I was just wondering if there is a carb that you all find ‘easier’ than others. Do you avoid certain types or find others quite straightforward to bolus for?
I find potatoes the easiest, barely any rise, and an easy ten minute pre-bolus. Pasta is weird and I seem to need less insulin, I split bolus and always end up needing a third less than I calculate.
I’m a bit scared to try rice - over a year into my diagnosis and have read that it’s a bit of a nightmare?!
 
Sounds to me like you have it sorted ! ...every person is differant in how their body responds to food / insulin you obv listen !
I avoid rice i cant seem to manage it no matter how i try! and chips ? I cant fathom a way round them either .. but skinless iceland sasuage x3 1u and potatoe gratain iceland 2 u.. easy my go to
 
Very much an individual response I think. What one person can tolerate the next can't. One walnut sized new potato sends me well into double figures
 
For me good carbs are kinder Bueno bars (I got a sweet tooth ), potatoes, pizza. My glucose hardly ever rises and usually automatically synchronizes with my insulin. No matter if I prebolus or not. They are almost always right.

Bad carbs. Porridge. A BIG NO NO for me. No matter how much I prebolus I always spike for a long time and always seems insulin delayed or not enough. Instant noodles. Sometimes spikes and sometimes not ‍. Rice cakes. After rice cakes I spike like crazy. Also, tea with food. I used to drink hot tea while eating and it also caused spikes. Apparently hot tea or any hot liquid speeds up digestion process thus speed up of carbs absorbed to the blood stream. I try to drink hot tea 30min after a meal, never during. Also a bad carb for me, or rather a whole meal is a burger with burger buns (yes, sometimes I order burger without a bun, obviously), but then my sugars keep on rising for hours after the meal and have to correct multiple times.
 

Hi there, it's tricky isn't it. I wonder if it's also to do with what you are eating with said items (unless you have pasta on its own?). Generally there would be a sauce of some kind which may contain fats & protein too which is likely to alter the rate at which the accompanying carbs are processed. I also find potatoes easier to bolus for but only if I keep them to around 30 carbs, above that and it's a bit hit or miss. I sometimes have a portion of rice with a curry (takeaway) but again I have no real idea of its affect on its own because I have a big (fatty) curry with it too. With potatoes you probably have meat or a few veg so again, perhaps easier to guess at as they are sort of a standalone food. Some people boil the rice, let it go cold & reheat it which apparently makes it less tricky, maybe just try it, you might be surprised. In conclusion, if I have any of those things around the 30 carb mark I seem to be able to get the bolus just about right. x
 
Potatoes are also good for me.
I do try and avoid pasta and rice.
I can’t eat pizza and some chicken burgers.
The food that cause me less of a spike are those that I digest quicker.
 
The time of day also tends to matter for me.

I can’t eat a bacon sandwich in the morning, just can’t get the bolus or timing right. But if I eat the same bread with ham, cheese & salami after midday my lunch ratio works.

Pizza is a complete nightmare, I’ve not cracked it yet but I’ll keep trying. Roast, boiled, mashed potatoes are easy but chips are not. Also got spaghetti down but I suspect that would change based on the type of pasta.

I would say try not to be scared of trying different carbs, just approach it with a trial & error mentality. I aim slightly on the safer side if I’m trying new thing & would rather correct a high than a low.

Plus since your only a year in there’s a chance what works today won’t work next week. What fun!
 

Chips! What’s with them - I’m the same! I did find that if I had them alongside bread, bit of a carb fest, they are fine but otherwise they are very unpredictable.
Sausages and potatoes are my easy go to as well! Or chicken and potatoes, no split bolus hassle and I know I’m not going to go sky high x
 

Yes! Thought I had mastered breaded/battered food but suddenly it’s all change and back to the beginning again, ugh! Can you manage bread/toast for breakfast? I find I have to bolus 35 minutes before I eat then. That’s great you’ve worked out spaghetti, any tips? Do you have to split bolus for pasta? X
 
Gafspa said:
Potatoes are also good for me.
I do try and avoid pasta and rice.
I can’t eat pizza and some chicken burgers.
The food that cause me less of a spike are those that I digest quicker.
Click to expand...

Do you find bread and potatoes easier to deal with? I struggle with low GI food and find split bolus too time consuming - having to watch what my blood sugar is up to like a hawk. It’s maybe the breadcrumbs on the chicken burger? I have erratic results with them too. And we are told that T1 can eat whatever they want! x
 

Hi, yes I absolutely find the same - 30g carbs per meal makes my bloods so much easier to deal with. Interesting that we generally find potatoes the easiest. You might be right about the fat/protein we put with pasta etc causing more of a delay.
I’ve been trying to put on weight recently and have upped my carbs at lunchtime to between 60-80 g as I feel I can exercise more in the afternoon if it all goes wrong, and it often does, and stick to 30g carbs at dinner to avoid an evening with rubbish highs. Luckily I’ve never been much of a foodie so happy eating tatties every night! x
 

Wow, you are so lucky that you find pizza easy! That’s interesting about the hot drinks, does soup cause similar problems?
Maybe the fat in the burger slows down the digestion of the bread/bun. It’s all such a headache isn’t it, I sometimes have steak with veggies and no carbs to avoid the stress of it all! Would LOVE to add chips!
 
MrsA2 said:
Very much an individual response I think. What one person can tolerate the next can't. One walnut sized new potato sends me well into double figures
Click to expand...

Oh no, that’s interesting as it seems potatoes are easier for others/most here on this thread. We are all different though, it would so much easier if we all reacted the same and then there would be a manual of how to time bolus injections for each meal. I have ‘experiment days’ where I try out new foods at lunchtime to see how they go, so much easier that trying at dinner and going to bed super high and/or on a rollercoaster x
 
I don’t particularly struggle with any carb, pizza is definitely the trickiest but I usually try to be really precise on carb counting for it. I’ll still see a spike but nothing crazy.

The easiest carbs for me are rice, sweet potato, white potato & oats. I can eat any amount of them any time of the day it doesn’t really budge my BG.
 
For me, my bane's always pasta. I love pasta but I always seem to miss the perfect time to take/split my insulin
 
That’s great, do you have to split bolus for many carbs? Is pasta quite straightforward?
 
StewM said:
For me, my bane's always pasta. I love pasta but I always seem to miss the perfect time to take/split my insulin
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too! I have different bolus timings every single attempt- one time I was waiting six hours for the rise, it’s like I have to really dedicate the day to it (only eat it at lunch time)
 

I just avoid carbs in the morning unless I’m hypo after the school run, even a quarter of a slice can make me spike before lunch. With the spaghetti I just tweaked the weight of cooked pasta until I got it right. Of course the ratio only works for tea, I’d be in trouble if I ever wanted spaghetti for lunch, lol probably a whole new ball game. But you’ve got to be chill about trying & failing. Last nights tea saw me dropping hour on hour, tonight I’ve had to correct a high. The only difference was I ate less protein tonight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…