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Spaghetti bolognese for tea

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mum2westiesGill

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
My hubby is making a spaghetti bolognese for tea but.....he's putting dolmio sauce and passata in it arghhh not because I don't like them in it but because they both have carbs in and I know I won't be counting them in my carb count. Secondly my portion of spaghetti is usually around the 100g ish in weight mark but I will be counting the carbs for this. I'm also having garlic bread the circular pieces and a muller corner fruit yogurt.
 
Why are you worried about the Dolmio sauce? The carb count will probably be negligible but if it bothers you that much you could look at the packet. Is he putting the whole jar in and will your portion contain half of that? Or can you estimate how much of the jar you will be having on your plate and work out the carbs? Then if you add it on to your total and it makes a difference of less than a unit of insulin it probably isn’t worth counting. 100g pasta will probably be about 35 carbs, garlic bread is 10-15 per slice, the yogurt you can read off the pot. Job done.
OR don’t count the sauce and see what effect it has on your blood sugar, if you get good readings afterwards (or at least no worse than the majority of other days) then you know you don’t need to count it in future.
 
T1 is really about math. Read the labels. Inject. If an hour later your BG has risen, Inject again, Repeat till libre says you are level and stop

This might upset some regulars but it's how we manage our BG... may not work for everyone ??

Gill doesn't use Libre and doesn't want to go to bed with active insulin on board.

@mum2westiesGill I would say, ignore the Dolmio and passata in your portion. It is unlikely to add up to more than 1 unit of insulin and it is better to be a bit high at bedtime as too low, If your BG is slightly higher at bedtime, that just means you won't need to eat any biscuits.
 
We agree with this. Sometimes our advice can seem extreme but it's just how we manage our BG (perhaps poorly). Still hate Dm but haven't died yet after 20 years
I too manage my diabetes through my Libre but you have to understand how it works and Gill wasn't even managing to scan every 8 hours to collect the data from it, mostly losing overnight data but then she was worrying about the information it was providing and being tempted to respond to that data when it wasn't appropriate or being confused about the discrepancy between finger prick and Libre readings.
It is a great system but it isn't suitable for everyone.
 
Why are you worried about the Dolmio sauce? The carb count will probably be negligible but if it bothers you that much you could look at the packet. Is he putting the whole jar in and will your portion contain half of that? Or can you estimate how much of the jar you will be having on your plate and work out the carbs? Then if you add it on to your total and it makes a difference of less than a unit of insulin it probably isn’t worth counting. 100g pasta will probably be about 35 carbs, garlic bread is 10-15 per slice, the yogurt you can read off the pot. Job done.
OR don’t count the sauce and see what effect it has on your blood sugar, if you get good readings afterwards (or at least no worse than the majority of other days) then you know you don’t need to count it in future.
I counted the dolmio sauce and the passata sauce as negligible but the spaghetti which I wanted and weighed out came to 177g which was 56g of carbs plus the garlic bread which was 20g of carbs plus the muller corner fruit yogurt which was 18g of carbs then the mr kipling angel cake which was 20g of carbs so altogether 113g of carbs but I matched my insulin to the 113g of carbs and I've never been told to do low carb
 
Gill doesn't use Libre and doesn't want to go to bed with active insulin on board.

@mum2westiesGill I would say, ignore the Dolmio and passata in your portion. It is unlikely to add up to more than 1 unit of insulin and it is better to be a bit high at bedtime as too low, If your BG is slightly higher at bedtime, that just means you won't need to eat any biscuits.
Thanks @rebrascora but wait until you see my full carb count which I've just posted
 
Thanks @rebrascora but wait until you see my full carb count which I've just posted
That carb count seems fine Gill, since that is what you wanted to eat.
Just because I eat low carb, doesn't mean I think everyone should. I think you made a good call re ignoring the carbs in the sauces with all those other carbs. DAFNE guidance would be not to count the carbs in the sauce.

If it was me and I was having spiralized courgette or carb free noodles with the bolognaise then I would have to count the carbs in the sauce because they would be the only carbs I was eating, so they would become significant.

Will you update us with your bedtime reading?
 
That carb count seems fine Gill, since that is what you wanted to eat.
Just because I eat low carb, doesn't mean I think everyone should. I think you made a good call re ignoring the carbs in the sauces with all those other carbs. DAFNE guidance would be not to count the carbs in the sauce.

If it was me and I was having spiralized courgette or carb free noodles with the bolognaise then I would have to count the carbs in the sauce because they would be the only carbs I was eating, so they would become significant.

Will you update us with your bedtime reading?
Thank you so much for your kind reply @rebrascora - yes I will update you with my bedtime reading. My before tea reading at 18:47pm was 6.3 - 113g of carbs - 11.0 units of humalog for food - hands up as well I did have 1/2 a tumbler glass of red wine
 
Don’t worry Gill - we’ve never been told that it’s necessary to do low carb either. My daughter could quite easily eat a meal like that. She once decided that she really liked one consultant at the hospital because the lady had told her “if you want doughnuts, eat doughnuts!” Meaning that you can pretty much eat what you like as long as you count it and bolus correctly. (Probably not meaning that it’s OK to eat doughnuts every day lol)
It’s possibly true that blood sugars would bounce up and down a bit less if you ate less carbs, and if you eat an enormous carb-fest you can end up needing more insulin than you think you will, but we don’t eat like that every day and if the blood sugars go up too high briefly then we don’t worry about it as long as they come down again. You have to do what works for you and what you can fit into your life without sending yourself batty trying to get everything perfect all the time (because that isn’t possible 🙂 )
 
I counted the dolmio sauce and the passata sauce as negligible but the spaghetti which I wanted and weighed out came to 177g which was 56g of carbs plus the garlic bread which was 20g of carbs plus the muller corner fruit yogurt which was 18g of carbs then the mr kipling angel cake which was 20g of carbs so altogether 113g of carbs but I matched my insulin to the 113g of carbs and I've never been told to do low carb
Where do you put it all, I don't think I could actually eat that much at one meal not just because of the carbs but the quantity. 50g black bean pasta is my limit in one go.
 
hands up as well I did have 1/2 a tumbler glass of red wine
Good for you! 😉 I would have cooked some of it into the bolognaise sauce too.... but perhaps ypur husband did that?
Great premeal reading too!
 
Where do you put it all, I don't think I could actually eat that much at one meal not just because of the carbs but the quantity. 50g black bean pasta is my limit in one go.
My son is the same lol we can both eat for England lol.
 
Good for you! 😉 I would have cooked some of it into the bolognaise sauce too.... but perhaps ypur husband did that?
Great premeal reading too!
Thanks @rebrascora ! Maybe he did put some in the bolognese he's one that just throws anything in :D but I must admit it tasted delicious. Thanks for saying about my premeal reading. 21:18pm and I'm just having a 16g bag of quavers.
 
yes I will update you with my bedtime reading. My before tea reading at 18:47pm
I'll do my bedtime reading at around 22:47pm then it will be 4 hours after tea and most of my bolus will have worn off and I will be able to have a better guess if I need biscuits although sometimes I can't resist them.
 
Perfect!
 
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