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Fruit

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zippyjojo

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
Interested to hear what your thoughts are on fruit and how much you have? I like to have an apple during the day (because we've got gazillions of the things on fruit trees) and a large orange in the evening. It just seems so crazy to me that an orange is worse for me (diabetes wise) than a mini magnum - my problem is that I've been having both. So what do you do for that sweet kick?
 
Fruit is my downfall, I love it.
I always have some berries on my muesli then try to have just one more piece each day. Difficult in summer when all that gorgeous stuff is everywhere
 
With Type 1, I am happy to eat fruit and take the appropriate dose of insulin.
I have fruit most mornings for breakfast.
 
Interested to hear what your thoughts are on fruit and how much you have? I like to have an apple during the day (because we've got gazillions of the things on fruit trees) and a large orange in the evening. It just seems so crazy to me that an orange is worse for me (diabetes wise) than a mini magnum - my problem is that I've been having both. So what do you do for that sweet kick?

Why is it worse for you?

Do you test your BG two hours after eating?
 
@travellor - I suppose I'm just looking at the basics of how many grams of carb are in the orange compared to the magnum rather than what it does to my blood glucose - never even thought of that!
 
@travellor - I suppose I'm just looking at the basics of how many grams of carb are in the orange compared to the magnum rather than what it does to my blood glucose - never even thought of that!
I thought apples, oranges, mini magnums were fairly similar for carbs?
And there is more complex sugars, and fibre, in the fruit to slow digestion, the magnum is pure sugar, so a very quick hit.
 
I thought apples, oranges, mini magnums were fairly similar for carbs?
And there is more complex sugars, and fibre, in the fruit to slow digestion, the magnum is pure sugar, so a very quick hit.
According to My Fitness Pal a large orange has 22g of carbs whereas the mini magnum almond remix has 14g - but yes, pure sugar with no fibre. I should do a BG with both on separate days to actually see what it does to me.
 
According to My Fitness Pal a large orange has 22g of carbs whereas the mini magnum almond remix has 14g - but yes, pure sugar with no fibre. I should do a BG with both on separate days to actually see what it does to me.

I was looking at the medium sized fruit, or generally I look at the "per 100g" to get a better comparison of carb content.
 
According to My Fitness Pal a large orange has 22g of carbs whereas the mini magnum almond remix has 14g - but yes, pure sugar with no fibre. I should do a BG with both on separate days to actually see what it does to me.
depending on size of orange I will have one or half of one if its very large every few days, thought i'd better check carbs in carbs and cals as I thought they were lower than what you'd seen read.
According to Carbs & Cals and weighed with peel on
140g orange is 8g carbs
230g orange is 13g carbs
345g orange is 20g
Phew! was concerned I may have to give them up 🙂
 
depending on size of orange I will have one or half of one if its very large every few days, thought i'd better check carbs in carbs and cals as I thought they were lower than what you'd seen read.
According to Carbs & Cals and weighed with peel on
140g orange is 8g carbs
230g orange is 13g carbs
345g orange is 20g
Phew! was concerned I may have to give them up 🙂

That sounds low.
I worked on 10 to 15g per 100g.
Apple or orange are similar.
 
I thought apples, oranges, mini magnums were fairly similar for carbs?
And there is more complex sugars, and fibre, in the fruit to slow digestion, the magnum is pure sugar, so a very quick hit.
There is fat in the Mini Magnum to slow it down so probably about the same glucose release rate in general but very much depends on the individual's digestion and testing would be the only way to know which you handled best.
I personally don't think either are ideal if you are trying to manage your diabetes through diet when you have limited insulin production. If I was going to have a large orange (as oppose to a satsuma), I would have half one day and the other half the next or later in the day to give my system a chance to cope with it. Likewise with an apple or a very occasional banana. Limiting the portion size enables the body to cope better in the situation that the OP is in as a Type 3c..... unless of course she bites the bullet and starts on insulin, which will enable her to eat normally.
 
depending on size of orange I will have one or half of one if its very large every few days, thought i'd better check carbs in carbs and cals as I thought they were lower than what you'd seen read.
According to Carbs & Cals and weighed with peel on
140g orange is 8g carbs
230g orange is 13g carbs
345g orange is 20g
Phew! was concerned I may have to give them up 🙂
The problem with oranges in they vary so much in the thickness of the skin, a large orange when peeled can be the same size as a small orange as they often have a thicker skin. Very hard to judge.
A peeled weight would be more useful and easier to compare to an apple.
 
Interested to hear what your thoughts are on fruit and how much you have? I like to have an apple during the day (because we've got gazillions of the things on fruit trees) and a large orange in the evening. It just seems so crazy to me that an orange is worse for me (diabetes wise) than a mini magnum - my problem is that I've been having both. So what do you do for that sweet kick?
I realise that you are not insulin dependent, so not particularly carb counting - rather more "carb aware" than trying to accurately determine the carb content.

I have a lot of fruit with my breakfast, but of course I do carb count and bolus accordingly. I always have a portion of stewed apple (no added sugar, just annually picked, peeled and frozen to provide throughout the year. I also have an orange most days, if very large it's half for me and half for my wife. The carb count for these 2 fruits is a bit vague: no real idea what the type of apple is that grows for free *other than they are dessert apoles), so I assume 10gm CHO per 100gms, or 10%. The oranges generally come from a supermarket and in a net bag with a label that usually claims 9% peeled; various apps give quite a lot of variation on that, the highest I've seen is 16% - which I don't believe. Some apps show a picture with the peel on (does anyone eat loads of orange peel?); carbs and cals state 6% unpeeled which broadly matches the 9% as eaten. I also eat c.50gms of blueberries, c.100gm fresh or frozen red berries and banana for breakfast. Sometimes kiwis, when they are a reasonable price. When the apples are ripe from the tree I often have a small apple with my lunch -as well.

Jaffa oranges (72-77 mm) from Tesco, in a bag of 5, averaged 203gm wt each, which at 6% would make each around 12gm CHO (close to a mini magnum!). So your 22gms CHO (from My Fitness Pal) for a large orange at 6% as sold would make that almost 370 gms unpeeled. Quite a monster, so it might be worth weighing the orange you actually eat and establishing how big your evening fruit portion is.

I generally assess red fruits at 6% and most other fruits at 9%, except bananas which I generally assess as 20% peeled. I weigh all portions, which might seem a faff but it's just become a routine for me and the few minutes spent doing that, recording and adding up just fit into my routine that often needs 40 minutes pre-bolus for breakfast anyway.

As already said I find fruit has a pretty high GI and so digests reasonably promptly. I do NOT agree that magnums provide a very quick hit; that is absolutely not my experience for almond, milk and dark chocolate coatings (I dislike the sweetness of white chocolate, so never eat those). I find they cause a spike after about 2 to 3 hrs and I often take a split bolus for the magnum enjoyed at the end of my evening meal; Libre 2 gives me a reasonable confirmation of the relative slowness of digestion; whether that is because I have no pancreas and need Creon to allow digestion to happen, I don't know. But my instinct is that neither chocolate nor ice cream will be quick hits - despite their high sugar content; I certainly wouldn't reach for either as a hypo response or even deterrence when my BG is falling. But we are all different and respond differently to particular foods.

I have drifted away from needing that sweet kick over the last 2+ years and tend to prefer cheese, olives and nuts - washed down with a glass of wine. When I do have a dessert I can, of course, bolus for it.
 
According to My Fitness Pal a large orange has 22g of carbs
I've not used My Fitness Pal, but if it shows info in US terms or lists fibre as part of the total carbs, you might need to subtract the fibre from the carbs.

American food labels include fibre in the carb count, while UK and European food labels list fibre separately. This means when carb counting foods based on American-style labeling, the fibre needs to be subtracted to get an accurate (as far as diabetes is concerned) carb count.

This is also something to be aware of if using Google to find carb values of different foods. Usually, the giveaway is if fibre is spelled the American way (fiber).
 
There is fat in the Mini Magnum to slow it down so probably about the same glucose release rate in general but very much depends on the individual's digestion and testing would be the only way to know which you handled best.
I personally don't think either are ideal if you are trying to manage your diabetes through diet when you have limited insulin production. If I was going to have a large orange (as oppose to a satsuma), I would have half one day and the other half the next or later in the day to give my system a chance to cope with it. Likewise with an apple or a very occasional banana. Limiting the portion size enables the body to cope better in the situation that the OP is in as a Type 3c..... unless of course she bites the bullet and starts on insulin, which will enable her to eat normally.

About 10g of fat per bar.
 
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