Confused

[john pardo]

Sorry for sounding daft but i am a bit confused with the carbs and sugar stuff. When i am looking at nutrients table on a product which is what i should be more aware of and why. Is it the carbs content or the sugar content.

 

[SB2015]

With the news and government referring to sugar rather than carbs it can be very confusing.

All carbs that you eat will be turned into glucose by your body. In order to use the glucose your pancreas will need to produce insulin. The more carbs you eat the more insulin you need.

I am sure that there will be some T2 experts along to give you more advice soon.

 

[grovesy]

With the news and government referring to sugar rather than carbs it can be very confusing.

All carbs that you eat will be turned into glucose by your body. In order to use the glucose your pancreas will need to produce insulin. The more carbs you eat the more insulin you need.

I am sure that there will be some T2 experts along to give you more advice soon.

Agree.

 

[Northerner]

It's the total carb content you are mainly concerned with 🙂 The sugar amount is also helpful, because it will tell you if most of the carb content is sugar, which would mean it might raise levels more quickly 🙂

 

[john pardo]

So i will concentrate more on my carbs that sugar intake but i don't have much sugar foods like sweets, chocolates or cake anymore, only on special occasions

 

[DeusXM]

So i will concentrate more on my carbs that sugar intake but i don't have much sugar foods like sweets, chocolates or cake anymore, only on special occasions

That's good, but as others have said, all carbs are essentially sugar once you've eaten them. A bowl of pasta, for instance, will digest to put more sugar into your system than a chocolate bar. The difference is how quickly those carbs become sugar and enter your blood.

I find the simplest way to look at it is to imagine a Lego building and trying to put it into a small box. A 'carbohydrate' is the entire building, sugar are the Lego blocks. A bowl of sugar is like a pile of lego blocks - very easy to just chuck in the box. A piece of bread is like the building - you have to take while to dismantle it back into individual boxes to make it fit, and you may find there are more blocks to put away.

So essentially, watch your carb intake both in terms of quantity and type. Obviously things like sweets become sugar in your blood very quickly, but things like pizza, for instance, can effectively a huge pile of sugar that lasts a long, long time and raises your blood sugar too by quite a lot.

 

[Kateita]

I understood that we have to eat 40/50 gr of bread each meal, or 80 gr pasta at lunch. So low carb, but not too low. Is it true?

 

[khskel]

I understood that we have to eat 40/50 gr of bread each meal, or 80 gr pasta at lunch. So low carb, but not too low. Is it true?

No need to eat any carbs at all from a dietary point of view. If you are on fixed doses of insulin or something like gliclazide you would have to be rather more careful.

 

[Manda1]

I do eat carbs the nurse told me to eat fifty or less at each meal I choose to eat less than that. However when I eat very little carb my BG goes down to three. I am guessing that is because of the glicazide that I take. So I think its not a one size fits all scenario x

 

[grovesy]

There is not set

I do eat carbs the nurse told me to eat fifty or less at each meal I choose to eat less than that. However when I eat very little carb my BG goes down to three. I am guessing that is because of the glicazide that I take. So I think its not a one size fits all scenario x

Yes it is likely the Glicazide.

 

[Mark Parrott]

As you are on meds, you may need to eat a few more carbs to prevent a hypo. I'm not on meds, so in theory, can't hypo. I keep my carb intake as low as I can. Most GP's & DSN's still promote the Eat Well Plate, but research shows that this is not ideal for most type 2 diabetics.