Food carb content confusion.

[Alan jones]

Having completely out of the blue been given an HbA1c level of 83, 10 weeks ago, it's taken me some time to come to terms with the diagnosis. Confusion around diet and GI and carbs, exercise and drink have taken all of my energy. I was a BMI of 25.4 I've got that down to 23.9 just by cutting out most of the alcohol and white bread along with portion control. My questions are around fruit, what can I eat and size of, but more pressingly should I be looking at the carbohydrate value or the sugar level on food packaging..

 

[Leadinglights]

Having completely out of the blue been given an HbA1c level of 83, 10 weeks ago, it's taken me some time to come to terms with the diagnosis. Confusion around diet and GI and carbs, exercise and drink have taken all of my energy. I was a BMI of 25.4 I've got that down to 23.9 just by cutting out most of the alcohol and white bread along with portion control. My questions are around fruit, what can I eat and size of, but more pressingly should I be looking at the carbohydrate value or the sugar level on food packaging..

You need to look at the carbohydrate content as ALL carbs convert to glucose so look for that on the packaging or internet where you will find carb values of 'non packaged foods.
Fruit is tricky as often it depends on how ripe it is but broadly speaking tropical fruits are high carb so many will avoid, apples, pears, oranges in the middle and berries are lowest. A portion would be a half or one 1 depending on your tolerance or 80g of berries. Just a rough idea.
The book or app Carbs and Cals have carb values of a whole range of foods so you can compare.
Have a look at this link which may give you some ideas and could be suitable depending on what medication you have been prescribed if any.
https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

My questions are around fruit, what can I eat and size of, but more pressingly should I be looking at the carbohydrate value or the sugar level on food packaging..

The human body is pretty skilled at breaking down starch chains, so while if 2 items have the same overall total carbohydrate, then it is possible (and perhaps even likely) that the item with the higher amount of ‘sugar! in it (especially if it’s actually glucose) might absorb faster. The quandaries come with other imponderablles, like fat content - which can slow down carbohydrate absorption. Plus sucrose (table sugar) is a disaccharide, and isn’t actually all that quick on average. Sometimes stated as a GI of 60. Several breakfast cereals (eg plain cornflakes) have a higher GI than 60.

For fruit, it will depend on you as an individual. Personally I am OK with apples and pears (if I have the right dose of insulin). Oranges are a bit quicker. And more sunshiney tropical fruits like pineapple, banana, mango, grapes etc are quicker again.

Berries are generally the most BG friendly for T2 members here.

 

[Alan jones]

You need to look at the carbohydrate content as ALL carbs convert to glucose so look for that on the packaging or internet where you will find carb values of 'non packaged foods.
Fruit is tricky as often it depends on how ripe it is but broadly speaking tropical fruits are high carb so many will avoid, apples, pears, oranges in the middle and berries are lowest. A portion would be a half or one 1 depending on your tolerance or 80g of berries. Just a rough idea.
The book or app Carbs and Cals have carb values of a whole range of foods so you can compare.
Have a look at this link which may give you some ideas and could be suitable depending on what medication you have been prescribed if any.
https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/

Thank you very much for this. Medication is 4x500mg Metformin per day.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you very much for this. Medication is 4x500mg Metformin per day.

Following a low carb approach is perfectly suitable and is a way many find successful as metformin only gives a helping hand alongside diet.