Where did I go wrong?

Are you sure you got the gms for the oven chips right.Chips are potatoes and have more gm/100gm than that.Are you sure you checked the total carb of the chips not just the sugars?

According to my book oven chips are 41.7 gm of carb per 100gm.

HI smitha, I think the mistake was made with the chips and also the mushy peas are 10.1g carb per 100g.

Please dont stress too much though, in the beginning its all trial and error, you learn as you go along, many years ago when I started out I thought I was ever so clever when I went out to the pub and didnt drink beer or baileys all evening but loads of coke and orange juice as well, yep I was positively smug, and then spent the entire night peeing for the nation and had an insatiable thirst which made me pee even more of course and in the morning I looked and felt worse than if I had been boozing all night. Then someone told me that the coke was high in sugar and so is the orange juice, well I never had the brains to work that out for myself, DOH.

All the best

Karen

Read the total carbs.All carbs affect your blood sugar.The complex carbs just do it more slowly.So if you have 20gn of carbs of which 2gm is sugar it means that the 2gm quickly gets absorbed and raises your BS but.....the other 18gm will also raise your BS ,just more slowly.

Smitha,

I'm limiting myself to around 50g a day, but I'm type 1 on an insulin pump. From the threads I've been reading on here so far, I don't think there's a set amount - just as has been previously said, trial and error. Since I started, I've found that if I have more than 15 - 20g cho at any one meal, I bounce up as high as 13 or 14 but if I stick to 10 - 15g cho, I don't peak at more than 8 even if I check just 1 hour after eating. (my specialist recommends waiting 2 - 2.5 hours for a true post-meal reading). I also try to include something with a low GI, so that the carbs are absorbed much more slowly, which should in turn reduce the peak in Blood sugars.

Re carb counting. I'd weigh things for now, so you get the feel of portion sizes. After that, still weigh things now and again - its amazing how portion sizes can grow without you realising. Speaking from experience - I've had diabetes for 31 years, and was soooooo cocky about knowing all there is to know - until I came on this site and discovered the theory of low carbing. As a result, I weighed a 'normal' sized portion of potatoes, rice and pasta, and was horrified to find that the 40g cho I thought I'd been eating was more like 80 - 90g :shock: . As I said - keep a check on yourself and do spot checks now and again!!!!

I've only been low-carbing for 10 days, and I've had absolutely wonderful results .... until I messed up at the gym yesterday and over did the lucozade - shot up to 19.4!!! ouch. :twisted: As a result, I've had rebound lows and then highs all day today - been bouncing between 2.2 and 15.4. Absolutely nothing compared to the old complex carbing range of 1.8 - 33.3, though. I've settled again now and am just trying to take it a day at a time and learn as I go along, as you will too! :wink:

Smitha,start out slowly,start with a 30/60/ 30 .That is 30 for breakfast ,or less,60 for your main meal and 30 for other meal.If you find you can cut down more all well and good but start slow otherwise you will feel unwell. I suggest getting a carb counting book such as Collins little Gem carb counter or calorie counter to get the hang of how much carbs are in things.Count the total carbs not just the sugars.Eat plenty of Veg.go easy on the fruit as it contains fruit sugars .

If you are eating foods with British labels, you need to watch the total carbs. American labels include the indigestible fibre in the total carbs and you have to subtract that figure, that's why the internet can be confusing. So much of the stuff on it is American.
carbohydrate chemistry level 1 ( apologies to the geek if I make a mistake)
All carbohydrates contain the elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which is what the name means.
Sugars tend to have them chemically combined in the ratio 1carbon:2 hydrogens:1oxygen.
Starch has a slightly lower proprtion of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, because it loses some in the polymerisation process, when sugars combine.( giving off water, hence it's called condensation) Uncoupling the starch to make the sugars again requires the right sized spanners( enzymes)
The one carbohydrate we can't turn to sugar is cellulose. We don't have the right spanners in the toolbox. We call cellulose, "fibre" . Disconnecting starch molecules into their constituent sugars doesn't take long. this is why you need to count starch in our carbs for meals. the common simple sugars found in foods are: glucose, fructose and galactose. Other sugars that we eat are made up of a combination of these simple units and broken back down during digestion.
sucrose= glucose+fructose
maltose = glucose + glucose
Lactose = Glucose + galactose
Starch is long straight or branched chains of simple sugars.
Look at the pattern in the names. the names of sugars usually end in ~ose.
Watch out for it in food labels. Often the label says sugar and then glucose (or dextrose, which is the right handed form of glucose. ( there Is a left handed one too. It ought to be called sinistrose, but I'm not sure)
Another sneaky one is; "high fructose corn syrup" This is basically cornflour or corn starch as our transatlantic cousins call it, treated to split it up into its sugar units.
Fructose is a sugar that doesn't raise blood sugar by much, but there are other issues with it. It tends to get converted to triglycerides in the human body. Hence Ok in small quantites only.
All this is a bit boggling and the most important bit is Watch out for the sneaky ~oses!

I think the fat and carb bible is best as it has a bigger data base and uses uk tables.

Only problem is it isnt portable!

A look at ingredient lists is often the best way - and if sugar is in the first three then avoid it.

Food manufacturers can be very sneaky - a patient brought in a water today that i havent seen before - called Simple Water - contains lime and clouds! Howver it actuallly conatins 6.3 g CHO /100mls - the same as lucozade sport - best avoided I think!

Hi Smitha,
Look for the Nimble or Weightwatchers breads. They have around half the carbohydrates per slice than other breads. So for example a 2-slice cheese sandwich with normal wholemeal bread would be around 33g carbs. The same sandwich with Nimble would be about 18g carbs.

7.7 mmol/l 2 hours after eating isn't particularly high. 5.5 is petty low.
looks like you're getting it right!

Hi guys do you count carbs for mushy peas or are they slow release like sweetcorn
Marie

Think they are starch and turn to sugar pretty quick having been processed


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A good remake of fish, chips, and mushy peas is to bake the fish in foil with a bit of butter, lemon and dill rather than having it breaded or battered. Swap the chips for boiled or roasted new potatoes which are far lower in carbs than baking potatoes or fully grown potatoes of any kind. And cooked frozen peas or salad instead of mushy peas.

Still a satisfying meal but far lower in carbs compared to the traditional version.

Are mushy peas really that bad though?:smile:
I'm even partial to a battered feesh if the hydrogenated fats and msg arnt there.

Depends on what you are trying to achieve...

If your blood sugar is high and you're trying to get it down then you should be aware that mushy peas are made of mature dried peas that have a higher carbohydrate content then fresh green immature peas.

I cheat sometimes too, but I try to make sure it's when I know my blood sugar is OK and the high carb food is part of a more sensible meal rather than eaten on it's own. I don't always manage that, but I do try becasue I know that the damage done by high blood sugar is cumulative.

smitha said:

Thank you all for your replies...wow alot of info to take in!!!
Got to say Im slightly overwhelmed by it all. Some days I feel positive and ready to take on the challenge. Other days, I just feel so down at the thought of "is this how the rest of my life is going to be?"
We are going away at the weekend with some other families. I am taking alot of my own things to eat, but any suggestions on alternatives to sandwiches that wold be easy for the car journey. I do love bread, and will find this the hardest to not eat. If I do have a small sandwich, which bread would you recommend?
My readings 2hrs after meals on this low carb diet for a week are between 5.2 and 7.7. Im not on any meds (my choice). Do these readings seem ok? I know 7.7 is little high, but is it too high?
Thanks
smitha

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If you like cooked meats Morrison's do handy packs of chorizo, salami and ham. I will grab one of these and an olive pot for a snack or if I don't have time for actual dinner.

If you need bread then I found one in waitrose which is only 7.9g carbs per slice and tastes a bit more substantial than nimble.

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