New and confused!!

[SIMPS321]

Hi all
Last week diagnosed borderline and told to go low carb, I would love someone to explain the carbs per 100g thing and of which is sugar as I am finding it difficult to choose what to buy!! Many thanks

 

[Pipp]

Hi all
Last week diagnosed borderline and told to go low carb, I would love someone to explain the carbs per 100g thing and of which is sugar as I am finding it difficult to choose what to buy!! Many thanks

Hello and welcome, @SIMPS321 .
Good that you have been advised to go low carb. Very simply, if you are buying packets of food look at the nutritional information on the packet. Ideally low carb would be less than 5% of total carbs. All carbs are proceesed by digestion to simple sugars. So,best to avoid, or keep to minimum, sugar, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, foods made with flour. The good news is that healthy fats, such as butter, cheese, cream, meat, (if you eat meat) are all suitable on a low carb diet.
Some info in my signature explains it better.

 

[resander]

Carbohydrates = Starch + Sugars

High in Starch = Potatoes, Rice, Pasta, Breads(white and brown), Porridge, Cereals, anything_containing_flour,...

High in Sugars = Cakes/Biscuits/Danish_pastries, Fruits, Icecream,...(maybe best to totally exclude these)

No carb foods = meats, chicken, ham, bacon, eggs, fish, ...
Low carb foods = Greek authentic yogurt, raspberries, strawberries,
avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage,...

You need to know how different meals affect your blood sugar values. Use a blood glucose meter to measure 2 hours after meals. If value is higher than 7.8mmol/L, reduce carb (if possible), reduce portion size or just drop the meal.

Useful: the web sites of UK supermarkets (www.tesco.com, www.asda.com, www.sainsburycom,...) contain calories, carb, sugar, fat, protein contents for all foods.

 

[SIMPS321]

Hello and welcome, @SIMPS321 .
Good that you have been advised to go low carb. Very simply, if you are buying packets of food look at the nutritional information on the packet. Ideally low carb would be less than 5% of total carbs. All carbs are proceesed by digestion to simple sugars. So,best to avoid, or keep to minimum, sugar, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, foods made with flour. The good news is that healthy fats, such as butter, cheese, cream, meat, (if you eat meat) are all suitable on a low carb diet.
Some info in my signature explains it better.

Hi
Thank you, my main query is that on most food packages is says(example) carbs-per100g =73g and then says of which are sugar per 100g =10g
I am not sure what I’m looking for here

 

[bulkbiker]

Hi all
Last week diagnosed borderline and told to go low carb, I would love someone to explain the carbs per 100g thing and of which is sugar as I am finding it difficult to choose what to buy!! Many thanks

What exactly do you need to understand?
If you view yourself as "allergic" to carbs (hence your T2 diagnosis) then you should reduce your consumption of them.

Foods with zero carbs - meat, fish.
Foods with very few carbs - green veg, eggs, dairy, berries.
Food with lots of carbs - pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, root veg.

Look at the per 100g as a percentage i.e. food labelled with 60g of carbs per 100 g is 60% carbohydrate and best avoided completely.
Food with 3g of carbs per 100g is 3% carb and probably ok in moderation.

Does that help?

Edit to add
Oh sorry ignore the of which sugar bit.. its meaningless for you. all carbs turn to sugar once eaten.

 

[SIMPS321]

What exactly do you need to understand?
If you view yourself as "allergic" to carbs (hence your T2 diagnosis) then you should reduce your consumption of them.

Foods with zero carbs - meat, fish.
Foods with very few carbs - green veg, eggs, dairy, berries.
Food with lots of carbs - pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, root veg.

Look at the per 100g as a percentage i.e. food labelled with 60g of carbs per 100 g is 60% carbohydrate and best avoided completely.
Food with 3g of carbs per 100g is 3% carb and probably ok in moderation.

Does that help?

Edit to add
Oh sorry ignore the of which sugar bit.. its meaningless for you. all carbs turn to sugar once eaten.

Your explanation is all I required to understand it , many thanks

 

[Pipp]

@bulkbiker has provided the answer. Thanks @bulkbiker.
Hope this is all you need, @SIMPS321 , though do have a read around the low carb forums. Lots of help and advice . As you have been diagnosed ‘borderline’, by following low carb way of eating you could turn this around very easily.
Best of luck.

 

[Resurgam]

Even though I was well into the diabetes range when diagnosed, I am not so strict as previous posters. I set the upper limit for carbs at 10 percent, except for chocolate - I buy the 95% cocoa one from Lidl and have a square of it once in a while.
I spent some days just checking my after eating levels, but eating no more than 50 gm of carbs a day. I removed peas and beans as they spiked me - I eat them now but only a half portion to what I should be able to eat if the carb count was right for me. That sort of thing is why checking is a good idea.
As you are borderline you might well find that you can cope with more carbs than myself, if you have the means to test yourself.

 

[ianf0ster]

Good Blood Glucose meters for testing how you react to meals are ones with cheaper test strips because we Type 2's need to do a lot of testing before we figure out how much of a food we can handle with which other foods and at which times of day. Some of us are less able to handle carbohydrates in the morning than in the evening for example. Some are able to handle carbs when consumed with fat much better, where for others doing that just makes them fat!

We are a varied bunch and so specific higher carb foods that are OK for one person may not be OK for another. Thus it takes lots of testing until we know the most suitable foods for our specific bodies.

The 2 BG meters with relatively cheap test strips most used on this forum are:
SD Gluco Navii
Spirit TEE2

 

[SIMPS321]

Good Blood Glucose meters for testing how you react to meals are ones with cheaper test strips because we Type 2's need to do a lot of testing before we figure out how much of a food we can handle with which other foods and at which times of day. Some of us are less able to handle carbohydrates in the morning than in the evening for example. Some are able to handle carbs when consumed with fat much better, where for others doing that just makes them fat!

We are a varied bunch and so specific higher carb foods that are OK for one person may not be OK for another. Thus it takes lots of testing until we know the most suitable foods for our specific bodies.

The 2 BG meters with relatively cheap test strips most used on this forum are:
SD Gluco Navii
Spirit TEE2

Thanks for the great advice, I have already purchased a Accu chek to start the journey!!

 

[howdiditcometothis]

Hi all. Im newly diagnosed and very scared and confused to the point where i regret going for my blood test! Sounds like a dumb thing to say i know! I was diagnosed at 48mmol on both my tests and was told this is the cut off point for when they diagnose diabetes, not sure what any of that means. Im yet to speak to my nurse, they due to call on monday. Not even sure what i want to ask here…. More did anyone else feel like what i’m feeling? I’ve not been able to sleep since i got told and have been totally off food as i feel whatever i eat will be bad for me and spike my sugar levels.

 

[EllieM]

Welcome to the forums @howdiditcometothis . It sounds like you picked a good thread to jump in on as @SIMPS321 sounds to be in exactly the same position as you.

48mmol/mol is very much on the diabetic/prediabetic borderline (which is a fairly arbitrary dividing line, mainly determined by the fact that few people with hba1cs less than this develop diabetic eye complications), so it is likely that reducing the carbs in your diet will push you to the right side of that line.

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but I recommend this link to you both.
JoKalsbeek's blog | Diabetes Forum • The Global Diabetes Community

Good luck (and a belated welcome to the forums to @SIMPS321 .

 

[Resurgam]

Hi all. Im newly diagnosed and very scared and confused to the point where i regret going for my blood test! Sounds like a dumb thing to say i know! I was diagnosed at 48mmol on both my tests and was told this is the cut off point for when they diagnose diabetes, not sure what any of that means. Im yet to speak to my nurse, they due to call on monday. Not even sure what i want to ask here…. More did anyone else feel like what i’m feeling? I’ve not been able to sleep since i got told and have been totally off food as i feel whatever i eat will be bad for me and spike my sugar levels.

As you are just at the edge of diabetes it should mean that by reducing the amount of carbohydrate you eat, you ought to return to normal numbers pretty quickly, but also - with any luck, it will improve your well being as you no longer have high blood glucose.
The bad news is that you'll need to watch the amounts of starch and sugar you eat. You could decide to eat smaller portions, cut out high carb foods, or make your own foods so as to alter their carb content - just having home made cake rather than shop bought could do the trick.
We can eat protein and fat as they don't impact blood glucose levels.

 

[Scrubbit]

What exactly do you need to understand?
If you view yourself as "allergic" to carbs (hence your T2 diagnosis) then you should reduce your consumption of them.

Foods with zero carbs - meat, fish.
Foods with very few carbs - green veg, eggs, dairy, berries.
Food with lots of carbs - pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, root veg.

Look at the per 100g as a percentage i.e. food labelled with 60g of carbs per 100 g is 60% carbohydrate and best avoided completely.
Food with 3g of carbs per 100g is 3% carb and probably ok in moderation.

Does that help?

Edit to add
Oh sorry ignore the of which sugar bit.. its meaningless for you. all carbs turn to sugar once eaten.

 

[Scrubbit]

Thank you from me for that too, three years in and I still don't find it easy reading the nutritional info on packets. I have a real problem with numbers, that is the most straightforward, easy to understand explanation I have seen to date.

 

[Daibell]

Some clarification. The only thing that really matters is the Total Carbs per day. The number of Carbs is in any particular food for any meal isn't too important. Just add up the total (which includes Sugars) and keep that total below your set target. That target will vary but will probably be 150gm/day or less.