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Label reading

B

bigbird

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Type 2
can some one tell me on the food labels I need to know sugar and carb what is a good percentage what’s the highest level am changing the way I shop I need to get my sugar levels down and I need to go low carbs as well please help me
 
Forget the sugars on labels and just look at the carbs as they include sugars. I try to buy foods that are under 10g/100g carb, but I also take into account the quantity of the food that I'm likely to eat in one serving, so can often buy higher carb foods.
 
Ten percent net carbs is what works for me - the net carbs are not including the fibre, which is included in the US but not the UK. I do eat a few things which are more than ten percent, but in very limited amounts.
 
miahara said:
Forget the sugars on labels and just look at the carbs as they include sugars. I try to buy foods that are under 10g/100g carb, but I also take into account the quantity of the food that I'm likely to eat in one serving, so can often buy higher carb foods.
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So when you look st the label what percentage should the sugar be under 10 for carb and sugar also is there a cook book you can recommend and thanks for your help x
 
bigbird said:
So when you look st the label what percentage should the sugar be under 10 for carb and sugar also is there a cook book you can recommend and thanks for your help x
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Also can you give me a list of low carb food e g paste rice bread what spread should I use
 
Hi @bigbird unfortunately pasta, rice, bread, underground veg like potatoes, are not low carb! There is a lot of good information on this website and dietdoctor is a good website for food ideas.
 
For cook books try :
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-cookbook.html

As far as regards percentages just aim for 'carbs' of 10 or less and completely disregard 'of which sugars' and you'll not be far off the ideal. But as I said in my earlier post you could go higher in carb content if you are only going to consume a small amount of the product.
 
bigbird said:
So when you look st the label what percentage should the sugar be under 10 for carb and sugar also is there a cook book you can recommend and thanks for your help x
Click to expand...

As an example of what I look for, and because they're on my desk..

Ryvita Dark Rye crispbread. The 'headline' boxes based on 10g cracker tell me

Energy 34kcal
Fat 0.1g
Saturates 0.02g
Sugars 0.3g
Salt 0.07g

But those aren't the numbers I'm interested in. So then there's a more detailed nutritional info box that tells me

Carbohydrates 6.7g, or 66.6g per 100g. So they're the crispbreads of the Beast. Or they're high in carbs. But a lot of that is in fibre, so with it's low sugar content, unlikely to spike BG immediately. For me, they don't seem to raise my BG much. Then..

KP Dry Roasted Peanuts. Those have the same standard info boxes as the Ryvita, so again looking at the nutritional info, 7.2g per 100g of carbohydrates.

Then there's fibre, which is listed seperately and gets more complicated. It's carbohydrate, but we don't digest fibre as easily as other carbs, so may not convert all the fibre into glucose. Plus fibre helps keep us regular, give or take some conditions like IBS, and the rest can dive into figuring out stuff like high/low GI foods to balance energy levels between meals.

TL;DR version though, avoid things that are high sugar/high carb.
 
I look for 5g or less/100g, but 10g/100 is ok too. Labelling is confusing! I have a packet of Truvia here: 99g/100g, but of which 99g are polyols. But a portion is only 1.5g, which is 1/3 tsp. Both 5g and 10g are a simple guidelines for family/friends if they are ask what they should look for if they are offering to cook or cater for you. But be very wary of (or avoid) the 'suitable for diabetics' stuff, even if it is raw, vegan, free from everything, produced in someone's kitchen etc - the small print can be quite a shocker!
 
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