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Type 1 Newly diagnosed: dietitian has told me to ignore certain foods

C

Catherine4188

Well-Known Member
Messages
124
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hello,

I have been given some advice from my diabetes dietitian about how to carb count. I completely understand the majority but I find the veg a grey area. She had told me to ignore all veg apart from sweet corn and peas when calculating for my bolus insulin. However I eat a lot of veg with dinners and when I place these amount in my Dario app it tells me that they count for some carbs.

What do you all do?

The reason it concerns me is when I am out and use the values on packaged food to guide my calculations. I had a Starbucks salad the other day which was 48g carbs so I injected for that but had a hypo after. I was lucky with the dietitian at the time and she said I had to ignore all the veg in the salad so the packet value which was given was incorrect for my diabetic purposes.
 
Hi @Catherine4188 The advice not to count veg is correct. Although you'll see carbs for veg (even lettuce!) listed on carb apps, there is no need to count them when calculating insulin or carb counting for Type 1.

So in a meal of, say, potato, meat, carrots, cabbage - you'd only count the potato carbs.
 
Funnily enough, I spoke to my diabetes centre's dietitian about veg, on Thursday. I did this because I've read on the forum about so many members counting carbs in all sorts of veg that I wouldn't count. She said that the dietitians were all told to ignore all veg, even corn. I told her that parsnips and butternut squash both raise my BG but I'm ok with any other veg.

I learned through hypos not to use the printed carb total on pre-packed meals. I only count rice, pasta or potatoes in these meals and my BG remains within target.

Do what your dietitian tells you but if you find you go high or low with a particular veg, you'll learn to count/not count that veg in the future. We are all different so it's a case of finding what works for you.
 
As you learn a little more, you'll probably have to add a few more veg to your Have To Count list. The obvious one is parsnips (unless you're only having a few slices).

I only count sweetcorn, parsnips, butternut squash, broad beans - just veg that have more carbs. I don't count carrots, broccoli, green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, peppers, courgettes, etc etc
 
Interesting topic as I usually have vegetables with most meals in some form and have been adding it all to my totals (especially root veg). Nobody has previously told me not to.
 
Catherine4188 said:
What do you all do?
Click to expand...

I include veg in the total carb value for a meal, as an example I've just had my Sunday Roast and as usual I weighed the roast potato's, went from the packaging to get the carb figure for the Yorkshire Pud and just estimated the carbs in the veg (going from previous experience).

But as @dancer says you will find out the answer yourself through your own experience.
 
I definitely need to bolus for carrots (if it's 50g or more) and parsnips, squashes, swede, corn and peas.

I tend to not eat a tonne of carbs though, generally around 130-160g per day and because of this I also tend to have to bolus for protein too.

My advice would be to assume you don't need to bolus for most veg but as you gain experience, take notes to any exceptions you find. For example you might find that for some veg you need to bolus but only for half the carbs in them...
 
I was told not to include veg when counting carbs however I have started including them in my calculations lately as I'm trying to get tighter control. You may find that it's only certain veg you need to count carbs for, as others have said.

Good luck :)
 
We count all veg for my 6 year old. Sadly no foods are a freebie here!
 
I include relevant veg in my carb-count. Most root veg may be low-GI but it's still carbs. I suspect the dietician is churning out standard mantra like carbs are good for diabetics :)
 
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