Veggies- Magic non-carb wonder food?

[scotchpie]

Hi guys.
Let me start by saying a quick thankyou to all of you who have taken the time out to respond to my posts. Awesome!
OK, to the nitty gritty.
After posting asking for tips on carb counting and managing my diabetes in general, i have had some conflicting results. :?
Some are saying that the only vegetables that you need to incorporate in your mealtime carb analisys are potatoes as they are the only ones that contain any.
Others are saying that most veggies contain carbs and should all be counted.
Can anyone shed some definitive light on the subject for me :?:
Meanwhile, i'll head off to the freezer, i'm sure theres some frozen veg lurking around in there somewhere. Now where's my reading glasses.... :lol:

 

[cugila]

NO THEY ARE NOT.

Take a look at this existing topic which is all about what a dietician said about carbs and vegetables. A load of rubbish frankly. There are a number of Veg with high carbs, check out this link.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10692#p100382

 

[hanadr]

scotch pie
Incidentally, my husband's grandfather was a famous maker of scotch pies. Short's ( of Troon and Irvine)
Get your self a copy of Collins Little Gem Calorie counter.
It gives nutrition data, including carbs, on thousands of foods.
Invaluable! and only costs about £4.99. Small enough for handbag or pocket.
Potatoes, Parsnips, carrots, and some other roots are relatively high in carbs. Green leaves are very low.
Hana

 

[CiaraJansonFan]

Hi guys.
Let me start by saying a quick thankyou to all of you who have taken the time out to respond to my posts. Awesome!
OK, to the nitty gritty.
After posting asking for tips on carb counting and managing my diabetes in general, i have had some conflicting results. :?
Some are saying that the only vegetables that you need to incorporate in your mealtime carb analisys are potatoes as they are the only ones that contain any.
Others are saying that most veggies contain carbs and should all be counted.
Can anyone shed some definitive light on the subject for me :?:
Meanwhile, i'll head off to the freezer, i'm sure theres some frozen veg lurking around in there somewhere. Now where's my reading glasses.... :lol:

I didn't actually say that my dietitian said ONLY potatoes contained carbs and no other veg contains any! I just said she said they were the only veg you actually needed to inject QA for! I now realise that yams need to be covered, but I don't eat them anyway so it doesn't matter to me :lol:

Can't remember the exact reason but I'll clarify it with her on Thursday when I see her again.

Any DAFNE graduates around to give me their opinion please?!!?

Cheers

 

[Spiral]

speaking as a vegetarian low carber - I wish...

I can get eyewateringly high readings if I eat the "wrong" vegetables. All vegetables were not created equal.

 

[Celtic.Piskie]

I've found the glycemic Load to be bery useful.

Pumpkin has a hig GI, but a low load. The sugars are broken down evenly.
Sweetcorn is a higher GI food.

You might not have to inject for a lot of veggies, but putting a lot of veggies on your plate, you nust know what's there to decide.

 

[Shazza]

Collins Little Gem Carb counter is great book cost about £2 on Amazon

Hana Shorts the bakers is in my neck of the woods, they done lovely pies

 

[NickW]

I absolutely need to inject insulin to cover vegetables. I think the reason many nurses / dietitians only consider potatoes / yams / sweet potatoes etc. is because most people eat a lot of carbs, so the handful of grams of carbs in the vegetables is fairly inconsquential relative to the great big whack of carbs from the potato they're eating.

However, what this really means is they're saying "well, you're not going to get the dosage exactly right for the potato anyway; why bother confusing things with the veg as well?" They're assuming you'll have to take a rough stab at the total carb content and might be out by a fair bit. To my mind, that's just plain wrong and it's as bad as the thinking that having your blood hit double figures after a meal is fine so long as it comes down a couple of hours later - utterly bonkers.

Personally I account for everything I eat; even a small salad probably has enough carbs to warrant a unit of insulin for me, and you can be sure I'll take that unit! Referring to the labels on food or to calorie counter books (or sites like Fit Day or Nutrition Data) can help with this as I'm sure you're aware.

Of course, I also eat a low carb diet which means the carbs in the veg I eat are generally the bulk (or all) of the carbs I get all day - so my estimates are far more accurate than if I was staring at a huge pile of mashed potato or a bowl of pasta.

Hope that helps (and sorry to be presumptuous and post on the "Experts" forum, let me know if it's not the done thing - I'm certainly no expert!)

 

[sugar2]

sweetcorn and peas are 2 more (i think!)

 

[scotchpie]

Hello all
I'm begining to think that carbs are the enemy. Is this the case and if so, why the hell did both my dietitian and DCN tell me to eat tonnes of carbs with every meal? The advice i was given was to have 2 or 3 slices of wholemeal bread with each meal. For the bread i buy thats more than 60g of carbs alone. They then went on to say that i should eat the bread even if i had a pile of potatoes or pasta and especially if i was eating a potato or pulse/legume rich soup. Are they trying to kill me on purpose? :twisted:

 

[jopar]

I'm a DAFNE gradulate

The veg question

Yes there are some veg that you should and have to include in your carb count..

But some really depend on two factors the actual quanity you are eating and how they react to you in particular..

If I have haricote beans, then because these are low GI and I find personaly that I am so slow at digesting these that I need to 1/2 my carb count, and if only having asmall portion then I don't have to include in my carb count if I do give a full count then I tend to end up with a hypo..

Tomatoes are another one for me, if I'm having them in a salad then I don't tend to count them...
Bananas is another one, again 1/2 of the carbs for counting..

But this is me and what my body does, so it is a case of if you are dealing with lower carb vegetables, then test to find out if you need to either count or deduct some off your carb count to get the correct insulin dose..

 

[CiaraJansonFan]

I'm a DAFNE gradulate

The veg question

Yes there are some veg that you should and have to include in your carb count..

But some really depend on two factors the actual quanity you are eating and how they react to you in particular..

If I have haricote beans, then because these are low GI and I find personaly that I am so slow at digesting these that I need to 1/2 my carb count, and if only having asmall portion then I don't have to include in my carb count if I do give a full count then I tend to end up with a hypo..

Tomatoes are another one for me, if I'm having them in a salad then I don't tend to count them...
Bananas is another one, again 1/2 of the carbs for counting..

But this is me and what my body does, so it is a case of if you are dealing with lower carb vegetables, then test to find out if you need to either count or deduct some off your carb count to get the correct insulin dose..

Thanks jopar - that's pretty much what my dietitian says, who it turns out does teach DAFNE courses as well as having individual appointments with patients such as myself. It's all to do with the GI and fibre contained within the vegetables and the effect this may (or may not) have on your BG

She's referring me for the DAFNE course but not sure when that'll be! Can I ask how long you had to wait to get on one?!!?

Cheers

 

[jopar]

I'm glad I could be of some help, even though it does confuse matters a bit for those new to carb counting..

I attended my DAFNE back in January 2008, and my name was added to the list in 2007, but different areas will have different amount of courses per year...

I would ring up the diabetic nurses, as they should be able to add you to there list, and give you a probable waiting time..

 

[suzi]

Our dietician, told us told us that if the vegetable grows under the ground, then yes it has carbs, made up from starch, unlike fruit, thats grown above ground and its carbs come from natural sugar.
This was aimed at a 10 year old, and easy to remember.
Suzi x

 

[wallycorker]

..........Hope that helps (and sorry to be presumptuous and post on the "Experts" forum, let me know if it's not the done thing - I'm certainly no expert!).......

I'm a non-insulin-dependent Type 2 but that all sounds very expert to me NickW - and very readable and sensible too. I think that you might be understating your capabilities. Keep posting your messages! Best wishes - John

 

[wallycorker]

Hello all
I'm begining to think that carbs are the enemy. Is this the case and if so, why the hell did both my dietitian and DCN tell me to eat tonnes of carbs with every meal? The advice i was given was to have 2 or 3 slices of wholemeal bread with each meal. For the bread i buy thats more than 60g of carbs alone. They then went on to say that i should eat the bread even if i had a pile of potatoes or pasta and especially if i was eating a potato or pulse/legume rich soup. Are they trying to kill me on purpose? :twisted:

Hi scotchpie - It sounds as though the penny has dropped with you too! It's absolutely crazy and bewildering!

Have you supported my petition? You can find it here:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Diabetes-Advice/

Best wishes - John