• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Newly diagnosed - confused!

C

Chellez

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Help. Can someone tell me when looking at labels should you look at the carb content or the sugar content?

For example what is better for Type 2 - per 100g

Carbs 39.8g
Sugars 2.4g or

Carbs 32g
Sugars 3g

I'm confused!! Do I go for the lower carb or the lower sugar?
 
It's the total carbs you should look at All carbs turn to glucose in the body, even savoury ones like pasta, so if you want to reduce your carbs then it's the total amount of carbs you should focus on. Something can have minimal sugar in but still be high carb.

How many carbs a day are you aiming for?
 
I would say that neither of those was good for a diabetic. You needn't bother with the "of which sugars" line at all since they are included in the carbs. What you need to do is find foods with a low carbs content and considerably lower than in the 30's.
 
I would like to add that you should avoid the traffic light labels like the plague since they quote the sugar but not the total carb content.
 
It's total carb count I believe, sugar content is irrelevant.

And welcome
 
Thanks guys. I'm not counting how many carbs per day, I'm just trying to cut them down as much as possible and thinking about what I'm eating at each meal. I need to have some carbs if I'm not going to eat again for a while or I end up taking a hypo. At first my dietician was telling me I was being too strict
, but my blood sugar readings were telling me otherwise. So yes, cut the carbs. I've bought myself a blood sugar monitor and I'm now managing my blood sugar very well. My trouble is I'm losing weight which I can't afford so it's finding things to eat that's not high in carbs but also keeps my weight steady.
 
welcome @Chellez Your meter is your very best companion, no matter what anyone says about diet, your meter will tell you what is good (and bad) for you. Eat to the meter!
If you weight loss is a problem, try cheese or nuts if you do not have allergies preventing you from eating them. I found both of these helped to stabilize my weight once I had lost what I wanted to
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…