• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

carbs in veg.

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
veganlass said:
Just found this link.

http://www.lasting-weight-loss.com/calories-in-vegetables.html

I will save on my favourites.
Click to expand...

Bernstein reckons that for the average overweight T2 1 gram of carb will raise the bg by 0.4 mmol e.g according to Bernstein's figures the 28g of sweet potato will deliver an 11 pt rise. But that doesn't tell you how long the rise will take to start,peak and subside.

That's where the GI and GL concepts come in. The GI of sweet potato is 54 so the GL of 100g will be 54/100 x 28 = 15. This is a Medium GL and should hopefully produce a longer hump in bgs rather than a spike. Drop the portion size to 70 grams of sweet potato and the GL comes in at 10, which is a low GL and should be OK.

It would be interesting to work out the GLs of all the veg in your list, giving portions that would provide Low GLs and medium GLs. It could be a sticky 🙂

Parsnips are also generally reckoned to be a problem by many T2s.
 
Last edited:
Handy link, thanks.

Although I also eat some meat occasionally, I like my veg too much to count carbs so am happy use DAFNE guidelines not to count, apart from in potato and sweet potato. Plus, many of our parsnips and pumpkins come from out garden, so CHO content are possible less predictable than bought. Things like black skinned radishes and beetroor leaves aren't usually sold or listed, but I'm confident they're low in CHO.

Once our ducks get laying, we won't be buying any hens eggs from shops, although bosses of both my partner and I have hens, so we are sometimes given eggs. We just guess when using larger duck eggs in recipes, and 4 or 5 instead of 5 or 6 in a large omelette for 2 people.
 
That's where the GI and GL concepts come in. The GI of sweet potato is 54 so the GL of 100g will be 54/100 x 28 = 15. This is a Medium GL and should hopefully produce a longer hump in bgs rather than a spike. Drop the portion size to 70 grams of sweet potato and the GL comes in at 10, which is a low GL and should be OK.

It would be interesting to work out the GLs of all the veg in your list, giving portions that would provide Low GLs and medium GLs. It could be a sticky 🙂

Parsnips are also generally reckoned to be a problem by many T2s
Click to expand...

If you want to compile such a list
At this link http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/31/12/2281/suppl/DC1
you can find all the GIs GLs tested up until 2008
supplemental table 1 is the 'normal list'
supplemental table 2 is the foods tested on people with diabetes and with small numbers of subjects ( there is a good correlation between those tested on people with diabetes and those without)
Vegetables are listed from 1610 on the first table and 2361 on the second.

What you won't find is GIs for non starchy veg and the lower carb fruits like strawberries. There has to be a minimum amout of carb in the portion eaten. With very low carb fruits and veg the portions would be too large for the subjects to eat!
 
Last edited:
HelenM said:
If you want to compile such a list
At this link you can find all the GIs GLs tested up until 2008
supplemental table 1 is the 'normal list'
supplemental table 2 is the foods tested on people with diabetes and with small numbers of subjects ( there is a good correlation between those tested on people with diabetes and those without)
Vegetables are listed from 1610 on the first table and 2361 on the second.

What you won't find is GIs for non starchy veg and the lower carb fruits like strawberries. There has to be a minimum amout of carb in the portion eaten. With very low carb fruits and veg the portions would be too large for the subjects to eat!
Click to expand...

What is the link Helen? :confused:
 
I bought a small snack size packet of baby carrots the other day to go with my lunch; 80g in weight and apparently contained 11g worth of carbs! 😱 I was shocked when I read the packet. Was only the day before that I bought the same, but from another shop, and they were only 0.6g worth of carbs. For the life of me I couldn't, and still can't, work out how the two differed so much.
 
scanz said:
I bought a small snack size packet of baby carrots the other day to go with my lunch; 80g in weight and apparently contained 11g worth of carbs! 😱 I was shocked when I read the packet. Was only the day before that I bought the same, but from another shop, and they were only 0.6g worth of carbs. For the life of me I couldn't, and still can't, work out how the two differed so much.
Click to expand...

Carrots are about 8g carbs per 100g, so both your packets are out, although the 0.6g is highly unlikely - unless it was per baby carrot!
 
Northerner said:
Carrots are about 8g carbs per 100g, so both your packets are out, although the 0.6g is highly unlikely - unless it was per baby carrot!
Click to expand...
Hmm in that case we should be counting carrots when carb counting? I was told not to worry about counting any vegetables or salad.
 
scanz said:
Hmm in that case we should be counting carrots when carb counting? I was told not to worry about counting any vegetables or salad.
Click to expand...

This is where GL comes in as opposed to GI. The portion of carrots you eat will probably be quite small, hence the amount of carbs also, so may not need to be counted unless you are particularly sensitive. Some people add a small amount to insulin doses through experience. Most vegetables have carbs, but in relatively small amounts when you take portion size into consideration, salad even less so 🙂
 
Northener: I believe sweet potato is fairly low GI though, compared to ordinary potato, making it a useful substitute

Northener - this is very intertesting! I have assumed for the last few years that because a sweet potato is called "sweet" it was not as good for me as a normal potato. I will be looking forward to trying one again this week :D Thanks for the very useful info as usual 🙂
 
Northerner said:
This is where GL comes in as opposed to GI. The portion of carrots you eat will probably be quite small, hence the amount of carbs also, so may not need to be counted unless you are particularly sensitive. Some people add a small amount to insulin doses through experience. Most vegetables have carbs, but in relatively small amounts when you take portion size into consideration, salad even less so 🙂
Click to expand...
So say I have a meal containing mixed veg; carrots, broccoli, peas and green runner beans and that covers just under half the plate - the rest being some sort of potato and meat. Would you count the veg? The relative portions would be small, but the overall portion adds up to be quite big which is what's confusing me now lol 😛
 
i was told just to moderate all veg that come out from under the ground ..ie root veg ....sad as i ate humongous amounts of carrots parsnips turnips onions beetroot pre dx thinking i was beeing well good 😡 !! however it was inconjuntion with loads of fruit and fruit juice 🙄 ..so now ive cut out all the obvious sugars and stopped drinking pure juice ...i can eat the root veg ..in moderation !
it seems to be such a balancing act !!
 
scanz said:
So say I have a meal containing mixed veg; carrots, broccoli, peas and green runner beans and that covers just under half the plate - the rest being some sort of potato and meat. Would you count the veg? The relative portions would be small, but the overall portion adds up to be quite big which is what's confusing me now lol 😛
Click to expand...

Of the veg you mention in your delicious plate (which is making my tummy rumble and reminding me to do something about tea), I'd ignore the broccoli, peas and runner beans and have a few sticks of carrots, equivalent to a small carrot in total. Probably wouldn't add to my carbohydrate equivalent, because I can't be bothered with weighing things, but have weighed and now estimate CHO content of potato & sweet potato by eye. I'd do the same for parsnips, beetroot, pumpkin (home grown) and swede as for carrots. Generally only have one moderate portion non-potato root veg in a meal, not every day, so not as irresponsible as it sounds.
 
Copepod said:
Of the veg you mention in your delicious plate (which is making my tummy rumble and reminding me to do something about tea), I'd ignore the broccoli, peas and runner beans and have a few sticks of carrots, equivalent to a small carrot in total. Probably wouldn't add to my carbohydrate equivalent, because I can't be bothered with weighing things, but have weighed and now estimate CHO content of potato & sweet potato by eye. I'd do the same for parsnips, beetroot, pumpkin (home grown) and swede as for carrots. Generally only have one moderate portion non-potato root veg in a meal, not every day, so not as irresponsible as it sounds.
Click to expand...

i would love to grow my own ...but sadly my garden is so shaded my huge trees nothing really grows apart from the natural woodland plants ...any ideas copepod? ...even mint !!!
 
scanz said:
So say I have a meal containing mixed veg; carrots, broccoli, peas and green runner beans and that covers just under half the plate - the rest being some sort of potato and meat. Would you count the veg? The relative portions would be small, but the overall portion adds up to be quite big which is what's confusing me now lol 😛
Click to expand...

It is confusing, thanks to the fickle Diabetes Fairy there's no rule that can cover everyone. Generally though, only a small proportion of your half plate of vegetables would be carb, so this would release slowly because of the bulk of non-carb/fibre present. The only real way to find out what, if any, additional insulin is required is trial and error - if you weigh and count the carbs for the veg and dose accordingly, then find yourself going low, then you may surmise that you didn't need to dose for it. Alternatively, you might have the meal with the veg one day, and without it the next, and compare the effects. The pain is that it does take time to build up experience of what works for you because there can be so many other factors that can come into play when working out doses, so you need to also develop an instinct for how these may also affect you.

Don't let that worry you too much though! I have found that, in practice, most of my meals vary by only one or two units, so nowadays I 'know' what the dose needs to be without mangling my brain by rtying to apply all the possible factors!
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top