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Net Carbs or not?

P

PurpleCloud

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi, new to the forum and would really be grateful for some advice please. After a couple of years of struggling with my BS control on tablets, I've finally been re-diagnosed as LADA/type 1.5 and put on insulin. I have also decided to give low carbing a try but would like to know whether I am best counting net carbs or total carbs please. I've read several conflicting articles so advice from experienced low carbers would be much appreciated!
 
Personally, I've only ever worked with total carbohydrates - don't know if others here do anything different.

Welcom to the forums @PurpleCloud
 
If you are in the UK, you may find it easier to count total carbs, as the fiber is not figured into the total carb count.

If you are in the US (like me), I count net carbs, since our fiber is not figured into the total carb count.
 
As far as I know, total carbohydrates on UK food labelling is already net carbs as the fibre is listed separately, i.e. is not counted in the 'total carbohydrate' amount. It works differently for USA labelling.
 
it's crazy but US net carbs (you deduct the fibre) = UK total carbs (fibre is counted separately), so as Indy51 and vintageutopia have said fibre content is treated differently in the two countries.

I'm in the UK so I work with total carbs, but you'll use the method of counting according to where you live. The only time you may need to be aware of the alternative method is if you are looking at dietary information internationally.

Robbity
 
Or if you use an American food or product recipe. However, when using recipes from other countries, do bear in mind that any carb numbers given are worked out using their measurements.

A tablespoon in UK is 25ml, in Australia it's 20ml. An American tablespoon is 0.83 converted into British tablespoons, i.e. a British tablespoon is bigger.

American and Australian cups aren't the same either. Australian ones are smaller.
 
Yes, possibly even more important this one!

Robbity
 

I did not realize that it varied so much.
 

I thought a UK tablespoon was approx 15ml, as its three teaspoons with each teaspoon being 5ml?
 
azure said:
I thought a UK tablespoon was approx 15ml, as its three teaspoons with each teaspoon being 5ml?
Click to expand...

I used a specialist culinary website. The UK has a standard teaspoon measure, but no standard teaspoon size.

As a former chef, I don't follow recipes much, I just use them for inspiration. However, if you're tracking carbs on a diet tracker, accuracy helps.

I have a full set of cups measures which I brought back from Canada, because although it's metric, many people do use US cooking measures. You can buy them in the UK more easily now. Australian cups are smaller than US ones.
 
Thanks for replying Strange about the tablespoon not having a standard size

I have both measuring spoons and cups, but haven't a clue what country my cups are supposed to be from! I shall do some measuring!
 
just to add..if possible, eat to your meter. some foods that i like, despite being relatively low in carbs does not provide an immediate spike but invariably my fasting blood glucose the following day will be a tad higher..my kryptonite is nuts..
 
Azure, you're welcome . Measurements derived from people cooking, so they would write their recipe down for friends and stipulate a teaspoon, a cup etc and the measure was standardised only when populations got bigger and cookbooks became a thing. In the UK we didn't even have a whole country time zone before railways, so measurements, time zones and much more were regional.

I collect old cook books and will find they call for say a moderately hot oven. People knew what that meant, in the days when they didn't have temperature control. So in recipe books from the 50s and 60s, cookbooks often started with a conversion chart to fahrenheit. Just as in the 70s cookbooks began converting fahrenheit to centigrade and pints to litres.

In the end, I find that trial and error is often better than trying to convert measurements !
 
Helpful hint...if you're not sure if you're looking at a UK or US product, pay attention to how Fibre (UK) / Fiber (US) is spelt.
 
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