Contents:
- Medical Video: Nutritional Calculations : How to Teach Carb Counting
- How much carbohydrate is common?
- What foods contain carbohydrates?
- How much carbohydrate in this food?
- Use food labels
Medical Video: Nutritional Calculations : How to Teach Carb Counting
Counting carbohydrates or "carb counting"Is a meal planning technique to manage your blood glucose levels.
Carbohydrate calculations help you track how many carbohydrates you eat. You set a limit for the maximum amount of carbohydrates eaten, and with the right balance of physical activity and medication, this can help keep your blood glucose levels within normal limits.
How much carbohydrate is common?
How many carbohydrates you eat depends on individual conditions. Finding the right amount of carbohydrates depends on many things, including how active you are, and what medicines you are taking. Some active people can eat more carbohydrates. Other people may need to have less carbohydrates to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
Finding balance for yourself is very important, so you can feel better, do the things you enjoy, and reduce the risk of diabetes complications.
To get started, make sure the carbohydrate levels range from 45-60 grams when eating. You may need more or less carbohydrates when you eat depending on how you manage your diabetes.
You and your health care team can find out the right amount for you. Once you know how many carbohydrates to eat, choose your food and portion size.
What foods contain carbohydrates?
Foods that contain carbohydrates or "carbo"Are:
- Grains such as rice, oatmeal, and barley
- Wheat-based foods such as bread, cereals, pasta and crackers
- Starchy vegetables like potatoes, peas and corn
- Fruit and juice
- Milk and yogurt
- Dried beans such as pinto beans and soy products like vegetarian burgers
- Sweets and snacks such as soda, juice drinks, cakes, cookies, sweets and chips
- Non-starchy vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, broccoli and cauliflower have little carbohydrate but are generally very low.
How much carbohydrate in this food?
Reading food labels is a great way to find out how much carbohydrate is in food. For foods that don't have labels, you have to estimate how many carbohydrates are in them. Having a benchmark of carbohydrates in mind will help you estimate how many carbohydrates you eat.
As a rule, 15 grams of carbohydrates are in each of the ingredients below:
- 1 small size fresh fruit (4 oz)
- ½ cup of canned fruit or frozen fruit
- 1 slice of bread (1 oz) or 1 (6 inches) tortilla
- ½ cup of oatmeal
- ⅓ cup of pasta or rice
- 4-6 crackers
- 1/2 hamburger bread
- ½ cup of black beans or starchy vegetables
- ¼ from large baked potatoes (3 oz)
- ⅔ cup plain yogurt free of fat or sweet with sugar substitute
- 2 small cookies
- 5 cm square brownies or cakes without frosting
- ½ cup cream
- 1 tbsp syrup, jam, jelly, sugar or 2 tablespoons light syrup honey
- 6 chicken nuggets
- 1 cup of soup
By counting carbohydrates, it's easy to forget about protein and fat in food. Always include sources of protein and healthy fats to balance your food.
Use food labels
Calculating carbohydrates is easier when there are food labels. You can see how much carbohydrate in the food you want to eat and decide how much food you can eat. The most important thing is to calculate carbohydrates with portions and total carbohydrates.
- Look at the portions. All information on the label is about one portion of this food. If you are going to eat a larger portion, then you will need to multiply two or three of the information on the label.
- Look at grams of total carbohydrates.
- The number of carbohydrates on the label includes sugar, starch, and fiber.
- If you try to lose weight, see how many calories. Comparing products can help find which calories per portion are lower.
- To reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, see saturated fat and trans fat. Look for products with the lowest amount of saturated and trans fats per serving.
- For people with high blood pressure, see sodium. Look for foods with a little sodium.
