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Understanding carbs

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Leslene

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi being a newbie to diabetes and finding it a bit of a shock, i'm also finding it hard to sort out my diet. I don't understand what carbs are and if i'm eating the right things in the right portions.

I eat vegetables i.e broccoli cauliflower carrots cabbage onions mushrooms peppers and peas,
meats like steak chicken (without skin) lamb pork beef
But i also eat rice pasta potatoes and white bread are these not good if trying for low carb?

Everything seems so confusing at the minute. Only been diagnosed 10 days so everything is so new.

Anyone got some advise please?
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
Rice, pasta, potatoes and white bread are all carbs and will turn to glucose in the system. If you self test your bloods you can test these food to see what happens to your blood glucose levels. Pasta sends mine up but I can tolerate a small portion of white basmati rice. Try swapping potato for sweet potato, white bread for something like Burgen bread.
Others will give you different advice, but we are all different and have to find what works for us as individuals.
 
Welcome.
If you still want to eat pasta , rice , and bread you will need to experiment with type and portions and see how your body reacts to it by testing your blood sugar(glucose), levels.
 
Hi, Leslene. Yes, the high carb stuff is the rice, pasta, bread & potatoes (as well as cakes, pastries, etc). Testing is crucial to see how these foods affect you.
 
Nutrition tables are useful for identifying carbohydrate content of most foods, usually per 100g and per portion.
 
If you like pasta then try Shiitake noodles, texture takes a little getting used to but rinsing & dry frying make them very good. Oh, and they are zero carb
 
The bread and potatoes and pasta are certainly not good and neither is sweet potato - it's very high.
Here's the carb contents per 100g:
Potatoes, new, boiled - 14.9g
Potatoes, old, baked - 18.0g
Sweet Potato, baked - 27.9g
Bread (varies in carbs) but generally over 40g
Pasta, fresh, boiled - 31.8g
(Source - Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset)

The veg and meat you are eating is low carb, but you can also usefully add fish, particularly oily fish to your diet as well as eggs and some cheeses. You've got a, initial steepish learning curve, but you'll get there and get used to low carbs in a month or so. Your diet doesn't have to be boring - it just takes a bit more time to work out and develop. You'll soon find that there are plently tasty things you can eat.
You'll get loads of support here, so don't be backward in coming forward!

One other thing. Consider getting a blood glucose test meter if you haven't been supplied one. Testing your BG before and after meals will give you an excellent indication as to how foods affect your BG levels. You don't have to do it every meal.
 
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I can personally tolerate Roast Sweet Potatoes roasted, roast potatoes, and new potatoes.
 
grovesy said:
I can personally tolerate Roast Sweet Potatoes roasted, roast potatoes, and new potatoes.
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Oh you are so lucky! I've more or less given up on the spuds as even half a baked potato puts my BG up, I can manage a couple of small new ones but try to avoid them. As far as sweet potatoes go, I had a ready meal a few days ago that looked ok but I didn't realise how much sweet potato was in it and my BG rocketed to the highest for ages.😱
 
Hi Leslene, welcome to the forum. Loads of advice to be found here. 🙂
 
I can tolerate sweet potato better the regular potato, but still have to watch my portions.
 
Dave W said:
Oh you are so lucky! I've more or less given up on the spuds as even half a baked potato puts my BG up, I can manage a couple of small new ones but try to avoid them. As far as sweet potatoes go, I had a ready meal a few days ago that looked ok but I didn't realise how much sweet potato was in it and my BG rocketed to the highest for ages.😱
Click to expand...
If my husband is having baked potatoes I pinch half of the skin, which is the best bit!
 
Leslene said:
Hi being a newbie to diabetes and finding it a bit of a shock, i'm also finding it hard to sort out my diet. I don't understand what carbs are and if i'm eating the right things in the right portions.

I eat vegetables i.e broccoli cauliflower carrots cabbage onions mushrooms peppers and peas,
meats like steak chicken (without skin) lamb pork beef
But i also eat rice pasta potatoes and white bread are these not good if trying for low carb?

Everything seems so confusing at the minute. Only been diagnosed 10 days so everything is so new.

Anyone got some advise please?
Click to expand...
Hi leslene it is confusing...think many of us felt like that when first diagnosed...basically carbohydrates are sugars and starches which provide energy for us “Carbs” as they are now commonly called can be beneficial or a disaster to diabetics... the liver digests carbohydrates by breaking them down into simple sugars... or glucose which stimulates the production of insulin in the pancreas. The insulin functions to get the sugar into the body’s cells to be used as energy... the two different types of carbs affect the production of insulin differently...when digesting simple carbohydrates insulin levels spike faster and the carbs are used up more quickly for energy...there are two different types of carbs which affect the production of insulin differently...when digesting simple carbohydrates...white rice...white bread...potatoes and starchy vegetables insulin levels spike (rise) and the carbs are used up more quickly for energy...since T2's are insulin resistant we want to avoid this... another type of carb called complex carbohydrates take longer for the body to digest and are most commonly found in leafy green vegetables some breads ... brown rice...pulses...foods with unrefined grains like brown rice retain complex carbs... unlike refined heavily processed foods mentioned above...of course we are all different in what foods we can tolerate...and many find they can tolerate some of those foods that many other diabetics have to avoid...this is where testing comes in...it will demonstrate which foods spike (raise) our BG levels...hope I haven't confused you...there is so much information available...as you say it's early days yet...but...you will get there...it gets easier once you do your homework...keep at it.
.
 
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If it was me I keep to LOW CARBS, Good luck. High carbs do the damage, well done for sticking to veggies 🙂
 
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