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Carbs & Cals

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J

johnellis

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I was recommended this book by Northerner from this website. I was looking for something to help me with carb counting especially when eating out or with take away food as this always seems to be a problem for me. The book is very different from other carb counting books I have seen. Instead of having a list of food with the carb value it uses photographs of different portions of a huge variety of different food, drink and meals. It has been made for the UK and written by a diabetes dietician so the information is up to date.
I have been using it for about 2 weeks now and have found it extremely helpful and very accurate. I am on an insulin pump and getting the carbs right is very important for good control. One other bonus is the foods also have the calorie values listed. Although I did not think I would need this I have found it has actually helped me think more about my portions. For this reason I think that the book would also be something that many people with Type 2 diabetes would find a great asset.
I bought the book from www.carbsandcals.com and it was delivered within 2 days. I also understand from the website that there is an iPhone App coming out in the near future which I eagerly await.
I hope this helps others out (its my first book review!)
John🙂
 
I brought the book too last week as my son has just moved to mdi and its great. Helps him to learn too. I highly reccomend it.

Gem
 
I have just got this book, and think it's great! it shows the portion sizes, the carb content, and also the weight of each portion so you can adjust accordingly.

Much easier than food tables, and no need to worry about hidden carbs!

Can't wait for the iphone app...
 
This is a brilliant book , i have found this so useful since doing Dafne course , love the way they have photos of different portion sizes too always getting book out to compare with whats on my plate 🙂
 
Based on this thread I ordered, and received today the book.

Fabulous

What a useful tool, this will be well used

Thanks for the thread
 
Does anyone have the ipod app.?
 
johnellis said:
I was recommended this book by Northerner from this website. I was looking for something to help me with carb counting especially when eating out or with take away food as this always seems to be a problem for me. The book is very different from other carb counting books I have seen. Instead of having a list of food with the carb value it uses photographs of different portions of a huge variety of different food, drink and meals. It has been made for the UK and written by a diabetes dietician so the information is up to date.
I have been using it for about 2 weeks now and have found it extremely helpful and very accurate. I am on an insulin pump and getting the carbs right is very important for good control. One other bonus is the foods also have the calorie values listed. Although I did not think I would need this I have found it has actually helped me think more about my portions. For this reason I think that the book would also be something that many people with Type 2 diabetes would find a great asset.
I bought the book from www.carbsandcals.com and it was delivered within 2 days. I also understand from the website that there is an iPhone App coming out in the near future which I eagerly await.
I hope this helps others out (its my first book review!)
John🙂
Click to expand...


What's the book called John?, it sounds interesting and will certainly take a look at it, feel free to pm the title should you wish.
 
toby said:
What's the book called John?, it sounds interesting and will certainly take a look at it, feel free to pm the title should you wish.
Click to expand...

Its called 'Carbs and Cals' - not a brilliant name but it is a brilliant book :D

http://www.carbsandcals.com/thebook.html
link to the books website, but i bought mine from 'another online store' 😱
 
Yep, this book is so useful!! I have been using it for the last couple of months or so, it's fantastic!! When my blackberry contract runs out I am going to get an I Phone .......just so that I can get the app!
Literally has changed my life, my control is so much better now that I am confidently counting carbs 🙂
 
ipod touch

I have recently bought the IPOD touch same as the phone but with np phone half tnhe cost and no contract to get apps my son got a further 30 pounds off as I phoned him whilst in the shop and he did a price match for me
 
Got the Protein & Fat version of the book from Amazon -- it arrived quickly. I was recommended this book by the "Living With Diabetes" course I'm on at Kings, London (it's like a DAFNE course but for insulin-dependent Type 2s) and it looks to be an excellent buy.
 
heasandford said:
I.m thinking about it too, it's only 3.99 (or is that expensive for an app, never bought any), so all info appreciated
Click to expand...
It depends on what value you give to it. Yes, for a throwaway joke App ?3.99 would be expensive. I've got a couple of App's that cost ?10+ (most of mine are ?0)

It you want a visual Carb guide app, then Carbs & Cals is very reasonable and it does get updated for free when they add new foods (unlike a book).
 
I had a look for the iPhone app the other day, and tried the Lite version just to see what it was like. It's a fantastic little thing! Now I'm just bugging Luke to remember his calculations for the amount of carbs and I'm going to get it.

Is it worth getting the book if you have the app?
 
I got the new book with the added protein and fats, and as a newbie struggling with comprehending my diabetes, I feel the book is an excellent aid to helping me with a food plan, diet etc.

I also got that little Collins Gem, that lists the GI index for many foods. Used in conjunction with the above, a good stating combination.
 
I bought this book in 2013 when I was thought to be type 1 and was using insulin. Since then I have been re-diagnosed as type 2 and so carb counting has become slightly less important, especially as my rigorous exercise regime seemed to have been working. Since my last review has showed a rise in my glucose levels I have decided that I need to get a bit more of a grip on my carb intake so I've now dug the book back out of the library.

Nearly all packaged food comes with a chart that gives carb content in grams per 100 grams of the product, basically as a percentage. Referring to these charts makes calculating carb intake very easy and straightforward, just basic arithmetic. My problem with this book is that it doesn't give the per 100 grams figure so that in order to work out carbs for the items that don't come with nutritional information on the pack, I have to divide or multiply the figure that it does give to compare it. Not only that, the book shows different portion sizes and, presumably due to rounding errors, calculating the percentage from the various different sizes gives different answers. Opening at random, carb percentage for lasagne is between 12.74% and 13% which isn't too bad. Turning to another random page, Melon is somewhere between 5.63% and 6.87%. Absurdly, 60 grams of crab meat contains 1 gram of carbs but 30 grams is completely carb free.

So, only one star from me I'm afraid.
 
Have to say Chris - if 0.24g carb makes a noticeable difference to your BG then you're in blooming dire straits. I've no idea what most food I eat WEIGHS for starters. eg that slice of melon - and was that skin on or off anyway?

The number of layers of pasta makes a difference to the value of lasagne, as does eg the actual amount of béchamel sauce - and OMG how ripe were the tomatoes before they were tinned? The best you can do really even staring with raw ingredients from scratch - is a close approximation.
 
Yes you are probably quite right. Maybe it is because I always have my engineer's head on that I find this kind of imprecision annoying. When I cook I weigh just about everything that goes in and the regular nutrition guides on packaging make it dead simple to calculate how many carbs are going in. If the book were to show grams of carbs per 100 grams of each food it would just make the calculations more straightforward. It just seems to me to be a really obvious thing to have included which is probably why I'm annoyed that it isn't.
 
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