Is 'Free From' pasta a good alternative for Type 2s??

I wouldn't have thought so. There is rice in it, and has an enormous amount of carbs, which all turn to sugar, not just the 0.5%.

Nimacado said:

My daughter-in-law has a gluten allergy and eats pasta made from maize and rice rather than wheat. On the label it says it has 78.5g of carbs per 100g but only 0.5 of that sugars - is that good???

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I just searched homemade pasta on the internet and came up with this


so only 24% carb

I have tried it....it is not bad taste wise I do portion and balance not low carb.....
I have a little rice as well....with a few spices....very nice ...
We are all different

Of which sugars probably relates to added sugar

Carbs are not sugar!! Sugar is a carb, and carbs turn to glucose in the liver and the liver dumps that into the blood stream

So far a diabetic it's the carbs that the important number


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Nimacado said:

Oh blimey, will I ever get this under control???


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Yes, just takes time to get used to it.. I aim for about 120g of carbs a day, was hard to start off trying to find the carb content of every thing including the stuff you don't think or right away

Like milk, fruit... Even sweet corn

But it can be done


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Nimacado said:

My daughter-in-law has a gluten allergy and eats pasta made from maize and rice rather than wheat. On the label it says it has 78.5g of carbs per 100g but only 0.5 of that sugars - is that good???


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78.5 % of carbs?No, not good.

You could try glass nodules though. Some people seem to tolerate them in limited amount. They contain bean flour and corn flour.

I don't. They keep my bg slightly elevated for up to five hours, but it might be different for others.

I haven't eaten pasta or rice in nearly 2 years since low carbing, I dont missit at all.

I don't see the point of a diabetic going for the gluten free pastas as good quality durum wheat pastas are middle to low GI anyway, typically about 40-45. If you go for wholewheat pastas, they are even slower to release with a GI of 30-35. Remember too, a typical portion of pasta is about 60g - 80g so. Buitoni wholewheat Penne has 66g per 100g so taking 70g as an average portion size, the carbs in a meal is 46g and, as the main meal of the day, that isn't at all bad when you consider that your body needs something like 220g of glucose per day. This is so vital, your brain needs something like 130g, if you eat less that 220g, your body will extract what it needs from it's own stores. You're quite safe with 46g and especially with it being such a low GI food.

When considering foods to eat, it is always a combination of total amount of carbs ingested, ie portionsize plus the carb content and the type of carbohydrate. The point about low GI is that the release is slow and you need to match the release rate with your own personal insulin response rate. Slower release gives the insulin longer to work on the glucose so although the carbs do get turned into glucose, the blood sugar is less likely to go above the unsafe level. Type 2s all have a different insulin response though, some are much better than others, so you need to test. The graph below is theoretical for someone whose glycaemic reponse is working normally. Most type 2s have an impaired glycaemic response and none of us know how impaired it is, unless we test.

.

Nimacado said:

That's helpful, thanks.

I've bought a codefree blood glucose monitoring system. It only came with 10 strips so I've ordered more. Just need to get the hang of testing. From what I can tell, I should test before every meal and two hours after. I tested this morning when I woke up and it was 9.7 which I think is high. What range should I be looking at? The book says the normal fasting range for an adult without diabetes is 4.1-5.8mmol/L. Should I have been within that range this morning? It says 2 hours after a meal (again for an adult without diabetes) the levels should be less than 7.7. Am I aiming to be within these ranges? The nurse at our GP surgery runs a clinic once a month with a diabetes nurse - can't wait to go and ask loads of questions!!!!


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They are good targets but it may take a while before you can get there. Don't beat yourself up if your aren't within those ranges. Stress can have a negative impact. Your aim at the start is to understand the impact of what you eat so you can make decisions on how to change your diet or exercise more.

You are doing well x