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Even more confused

Chromeautofill

Chromeautofill

Active Member
Messages
36
Location
Banks
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
Dislikes
Golf, tennis, darts and snooker
I keep seeing that rice and potatoes are to be avoided amongst other things food wise, yet looking at the packages rice is generally only 1% of your daily sugar intake, and ready made mash 2%, then on the other hand apples 6% yet some of the things ive read about foods to eat or avoid champion apples, surely the higher the sugar content the worse it is if you've got impaired glucose tolerance like I have ? Its totally confusing to say the least
 
Are you looking at only sugar? Or 'of which sugar'? If so it is the total carbs you should be looking at. Try to aim for foods that are 10% or less per 100g. Apples are a great, nutritious food but for us diabetics they are like sweeties and should only be eaten as a treat because the flesh is carb rich. I ignore the percentages per day column as this is based on a 'normal' diet not a low carb diet. Hope this helps.
 
In addition to the total carbs, it is also useful to consider how quickly those carbs are absorbed. This is known as glycaemic index (GI). Whilst there are websites (e.g. http://www.glycemicindex.com/) which tell you the value for various foods (with 100 being equivalent to pure sugar and digested very quickly), this is only an indication as different people digest different food at different rates. This is why many contributors on this forum advocate getting a BG meter and checking 2 hours after eating to see how different foods affect you.
There are some useful things that have come out of the GI research which help with choosing foods.
- fat reduces the GI which is why chocolate is not a good treatment for a hypo.
- fibre reduces GI a little which is why wholefood is generally better than white rice/pasta/bread. And, I suspect ready made mash has little fibre so is broken down and absorbed very fast.
- There is also a complex scientific reason why rice has a very high GI (Jasmine rice has a higher GI than pure sugar). This explains that weird feeling of hunger many people (including me) feel after eating a meal with lots of rice: we are full when we finish eating but not for long.

Unfortunately, it is all rather confusing at first but once you get to understand your body, things get easier.
 
Its the "of which sugar" part I'm looking at, so it should the the % of carbs I need to take heed of and not the 'sugar' amount ? I still
 
Yes, you are looking at the wrong thing. All carbs turn to sugar (glucose) once inside the system. Refined sugar is just one carb. Look on the packet for total carbohydrate - that is the amount of glucose that will enter your bloodstream.
 
Chromeautofill said:
Its the "of which sugar" part I'm looking at, so it should the the % of carbs I need to take heed of and not the 'sugar' amount ? I still
Click to expand...

Yes, you need to look at total carbs.

All carbs will raise your blood sugar so even if you ate carbs with zero sugar in, your blood sugar will go up.
 
We are all different. There are a few lucky forumers who can eat rice, fruit, spuds or whatever they feel like IN MODERATION and it give them an acceptable BG reading. The only way to find out if you are one of the lucky ones is to use a blood glucose meter to find out how those foods affect you and keep a food diary noting your readings against the different foods.

For instance my BG spikes quite severely with any of the carbs you mentioned so to keep my BG down this low (see signature) I have to eat less than 20g of carbs per day - it sounds harsh but you get used to it surprisingly quickly if you go 'cold turkey'.
 
Hi. Yes, forget sugar itself and think carbs as sugar is just another carb. Don't worry about the daily intake of the carbs etc. Look at the % of carbs in 100gm of the product and work how much of that product you will eat at a meal. That enables you to work out the carbs for that meal.
 
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