What a Con

Resurgam said:

The traffic light system is based on the concept of carbs being unlimited - no need to even think about them.

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The regulation EU Regulation 1169/2011 gives the following definition of sugars
‘sugars’ means all monosaccharides and disaccharides present in food, but excludes polyols

So manufacturers do not need to include any sugar alcohols. For example, the traffic light for a brand of faggots that I used to use would show green, but contains significant polyol content that sets my meter dinging away like the fairground show your strength machine. Most home bgl test kits are sensitive to malitol. Many processed foods, even packaged frozen veg in certain supermarkets can raise blood sugars unexpectedly. Also found in cheaper baked beans,
Especially prevalent in low sugar prepared meals and slimming products.

ardvark said:

Here's one for you all.
Per 100 grams
What Fat and What Carbs is best for Type 2?

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I have seen many times people saying "I only eat foods with less than 10% carbs" or whatever. This might be a sort of guide but without knowing the quantities of the food involved it is pretty meaningless. A vegetable with say 8% carbs still has 40g of carbs if you eat 500g of it. Mustard with 13% carbs has less than 1 gram of carbs per teaspoonful. If you don't like the maths involved the Carbs and Cals book has a good approach of showing a picture of portions and the amount of Carbs.

The traffic light system only counts things irrelevant to most diabetics - total carbs is not included - not even those in the proverbial chocolate tea pot.

Mr_Pot said:

I have seen many times people saying "I only eat foods with less than 10% carbs" or whatever. This might be a sort of guide but without knowing the quantities of the food involved it is pretty meaningless. A vegetable with say 8% carbs still has 40g of carbs if you eat 500g of it. Mustard with 13% carbs has less than 1 gram of carbs per teaspoonful. If you don't like the maths involved the Carbs and Cals book has a good approach of showing a picture of portions and the amount of Carbs.

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It is the density of the foods which has most effect - I'd need to eat a small sack of salad to reach my daily limit - or a sandwich.

ardvark said:

I'm still trying to get my head around this Fat and Carbs thing.
What I'm after is a rough guide to what amount of Grams of Fat or Carbs is ok for the likes of a Type 2 like me.
Once I have that then I'll know what to look for when shopping.

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Fat as much as you like until you are full (which will probably be a lot less than you think)..
Carbs as few as humanly possible..
Seems to have worked for me..

ardvark said:

I'm still trying to get my head around this Fat and Carbs thing.
What I'm after is a rough guide to what amount of Grams of Fat or Carbs is ok for the likes of a Type 2 like me.
Once I have that then I'll know what to look for when shopping.

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Fats (healthy fats, that is) is measured by satiety. This means you add fats until you feel satisfied which is different for everyone so relying on gram-age is pointless. With carbs, I agree with others who have said 10g or fewer per 100g of weight.

I rather suspect that the fat in arteries being blamed on fat in the diet is rather misleading - and as for the cholesterol being damaging advice - I suspect it is rather like blaming ambulances for causing road traffic accidents - well whenever there is an RTA you find an ambulance nearby - so it must be the cause - it has to be.
In your circumstances, though, perhaps cutting back on carbs so you get into fat burning might help to sort things out. It seems to have restored my metabolism to a good state.
One of my wicked pleasures is watching a nurse take my blood pressure and then doubt what she is seeing - yanking the cuff really tight or going to get another machine to try to get the reading she expects to see.
My diet has lots of fresh veges, salad and the fruits are mostly tomatoes and cucumbers (the benefits of a B.Sc) The most processed foods I eat are sausages, beefburgers and bacon - but I boil the bacon for a minute or so to remove the soluble chemicals, and only buy high meat good quality sausages and burgers.
If you buy anything in a packet, look on the back or side for the full information, not the traffic lights.