Vegetables and Carb Counting

[Worcester_Matt]

Hi all,

Does anyone know of any good resources that give you reliable information about what vegetables you need to include when carb counting and what vegetables you don't? The nutritionist I saw obviously made clear that "starchy vegetables" must be counted, and there are obvious examples of that. But, for example, do tomatoes need to be counted? What about sweet peppers? I love cooking things from scratch, but it can be difficult to get any reliable information on what I need to count and what I don't.

Incidentally, the nutritionist said that Heinz tomato soup doesn't need to be counted for insulin purposes. Does this extend to all soup (unlikely)? And what about the tomatoes in a tomato based sauce I make from scratch? I want to get as good control as possible, but I'm finding it hard to get clear and reliable information on carb counting.

Thanks in advance 🙂.

 

[Robin]

Whaaaat? Try googling Heinz tomato soup, nutritional information. A single serving tin contains 21.5g of carb, of which 14.8g is sugar! That would be 2 units of insulin for me!
I bought a pocket book called 'food and diet counter' when I was first diagnosed, that has the carb info for most fruit and veg, (and everything else like instore baked goods that don't display their nutritional info on the label) I've found it invaluable for things like red peppers, and other ingredients like that when I'm cooking from scratch.I think a lot of people use 'carbs and calories' which I'm sure is recommended somewhere on here, and I believe there's an App for it as well.
for the record, my book gives an average portion of red pepper as 160g, of which 10g is carb, but I normally ignore the carbs when Im cooking it, because I never use anything like that amount in a dish that's going to serve 4 people
For ready made stuff, like soups, or packets like flour, rice, pasta etc, I look at the nutritional info panel on the side of the packet and calculate it from there.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

This is the thread about Carbs & Cals, Matt - https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/carbs-cals.8822/

I had a look at the hospital's copy of the book and it wasn't very useful for me because my diet is so limited - loads of pics of meals I'd never eat. So I'm not sure how useful it is if you are cooking from scratch, but maybe someone who has it would be able to tell you.

I don't tend to count the carbs in veg (other than potatoes, obviously), tbh, but I don't need a lot of insulin anyway, so I'd be adding something like an eighth of a unit for them and it would be silly.

Have you done DAFNE? You can buy their booklet which lists carbs in common foods - http://www.dafne.uk.com/374.html - but I don't know if it includes veg - the (I suspect much older) version I have doesn't, but it's much shorter than the one in the link.

 

[trophywench]

Collins Little Gem CALORIE counter. It doesn't just tell you Cals - it gives Fat, Protein, Carbs & Cals per 100g/100ml. They do a Carb counter book too but that is a lot vaguer - eg ' A third of a baguette' What? - how long or fat was the ruddy baguette - they could be 3ft with a diameter of 2 inches or a foot long with a 8ins girth!

 

[KookyCat]

I use carbs and cals or tesco online shopping website it lists the nutritional value for everything so it's quite useful! Bolus wise I don't bolus for greens, tomato, cauli in fact most veg, unless I'm making something that is all veg (like a veg loaf), I do however bolus for parsnip, squash, and aubergine (I only eat aubergine in aubergine Parmesan or in lasagne where I use it instead of pasta). I discovered through trial and error what I had to include and exclude. On the soup front, I'd have to bolus for Heinz tomato soup, but I don't bolus for a small bowl of my homemade roasted garlic and tom soup because I don't add sugar/anything else. I recently discovered that my problem with Pret a Manger carb values (I go hypo every time) is because they count all the veg, so a veggie wrap with falafel comes out at around 60g of carb, I actually only need to bolus for the wrap and about 50% for the falafel, so I have to remember that for me it's more like 40g. I'd guess everyone is different, mostly because a T1 at my clinic was disgusted that I didn't bolus for veg when I eat a fair bit of it, she has to bolus for all veg so was trying to convince me I was wrong!

 

[trophywench]

I don't need much if any allowance for veg - but though it has always been my fave I'd hardly relate Heinz tomato soup to a veg of any description LOL Anyway isn't a tomato a fruit?

I'll sort of add up the obvious carbs in my dinner then I might add another 5 for peas/carrots and (Bisto) gravy, or 10 if it's peas/carrots gravy and stuffing. If it was a leafy veg or green beans, I wouldn't add anything whether I had gravy or not.

I'm sure - in the overall scheme of things - I really don't need to be any more exact. If I ever find I need to be - then I'll have to try, won't I?