How Many Carbohydrates Can Diabetics Eat?

Medical Video: Nutrition : How to Manage Diabetes With a Low Carbohydrate Diet

Many factors can affect your blood sugar levels. However, one of the most influential factors is the type and amount of food you eat. Foods that contain carbohydrates (especially) have a large influence on blood sugar levels. For this reason, sufferers are advised to limit their carbohydrate intake. How many carbohydrates for diabetics should be consumed?

How carbohydrates affect your blood sugar

Carbohydrates in the body will be broken down into glucose or sugar, which will then be converted into the main energy by the body. This process is aided by the hormone insulin. However, in diabetics, the insulin hormone does not work properly so that only a little glucose can be converted into energy. As a result, glucose in the blood or blood sugar increases.

This is why carbohydrates are very related to diabetes. When diabetics eat foods high in carbohydrates or high in sugar, their blood sugar levels can rise immediately. Foods high in carbohydrates make the body need to produce more insulin to control blood sugar. However, in diabetics, this process has been disrupted. They are not able to produce large amounts of insulin or insulin is not able to convert glucose into energy effectively.

How many carbohydrates for diabetics are safe for consumption?

Limiting carbohydrate intake in diabetics is proven to help control blood sugar levels. But, that does not mean this makes diabetics only consume very little carbohydrates or even avoid a lot of food.

You can do carbohydrates to a certain extent. A study shows that carbohydrate intake of 20-150 grams per day or 5-35% carbohydrates from total calorie intake can help diabetics in controlling their blood sugar.

Meanwhile, the American Diabetes Association recommends carbohydrates for diabetics that are safe to consume is around 45-60 grams per meal, or 135-180 grams of carbohydrates per day. A low carbohydrate diet might help you control your carbohydrate intake.

In general, all food sources of carbohydrates can increase blood sugar levels. However, how much of these foods can increase blood sugar levels you can more differently each food. For this reason, you need to know what carbohydrate sources you can eat in large quantities and which you must limit.

What foods can be consumed by carbohydrates?

Generally, most of the food you eat every day contains carbohydrates, but maybe you don't realize it. There are two types of carbohydrates in food, namely simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates.

Foods that contain simple carbohydrates should reduce your consumption. This is because simple carbohydrates are more easily broken down by the body so they are better able to make your blood sugar levels rise quickly.

Whereas, complex carbohydrates actually you should multiply the intake. Complex carbohydrates contain fiber and contain relatively low sugar. So, this type of carbohydrate is better able to help you control blood sugar. That way, you can meet your carbohydrate needs from this type of carbohydrate.

Some simple carbohydrate sources that you must limit or avoid are: