diabetic and carbs

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socalkay wrote: »

I would suggest that, rather than just that one number, try reading up on the Glycemic Index (and Glycemic Load) approach to selecting food. It's based on 35 years of research into nutrition for diabetics and provides fairly clear guidelines for making selections that keep your blood sugar on an even keel. Unfortunately, we don't have Glycemic labeling on food packaging in this country but you can still apply the principals. Just try googling stuff like 'glycemic index and fruit'.

http://www.gisymbol.com/about/frequently-asked-questions/

^^THIS^^ I'm a type 1 diabetic and I follow a more low glycemic index for selecting foods. After all these years I've also learned which carbs effect me personally. I've found what can bother me as a diabetic might not bother another. Avoid "white" carbs and choose from the slow carbs (low glycemic). Lots of info and books to help you and also low glycemic recipes too.

Most of my diabetic patients in the hospital get put on a 60-75g of carb per meal diet. I think that is a little on the high side, but they are all usually getting pre meal insulin. I would say about 50 grams a meal is a good number. If you are trying to lose weight, then I would cut it down a little more.

you need to be asking this to your health care professionals and not people who are not intimately familiar with your medical history

I am a type one diabetic and have been so for 27+ years, so I just have a total number from my dietitian that I -try- and stick to daily.

As I type two, it is more important to spread it out more equally over three meals and two snacks. From what I know, it is recommended to have 30-45 carbs per meals (three per day) and two snacks at 15 carbs each.

awnurmarc wrote: »

I'm not a health professional of any kind. I'm just trying to understand why diabetics are being told to consume carbs.

because your body needs them. based on your natural insulin levels and insulin resistance, your body may need more or less than what you produce naturally.

awnurmarc wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm keeping my carbs down to about 20 a day to lose some weight. That lets me get some veggies in. If carbs were actually a threat to my health I cannot imagine eating higher carbs per meal. What is the motive for ingesting carbs if they are a health danger?

I'm not a health professional of any kind. I'm just trying to understand why diabetics are being told to consume carbs.

Because our bodies still need carbs, even if we're diabetic. I don't consider very-low-carb diets appropriate for me (I'm a type 1) because of the tendency for low-carb diets to produce ketones (which will make it more difficult for me to determine if I'm in ketonurea because of a low-carb diet or if I am not receiving any insulin and need to take action to prevent DKA). I try to keep my net carbs to around 150g.

azulvioleta6 wrote: »

The general recommendation is 30 G/meal x 3 meals/day, plus ONE 15 G snack, so around 100 G/day.

If you want to be insulin dependent, you can eat more carbs.

Obviously you should be discussing this with your endocrinologist and nutritionist.

Please remember this. Insulin-dependent diabetes does not mean that the person is a type 2 diabetic and is taking insulin. IDDM (type 1 diabetes) is an entirely different condition that results from the autoimmune destruction of the pancreas. We do not have the freedom to simply not take insulin. If we don't take any insulin, we'll die.

Technically, those on insulin can consume more carbs, because we have a ratio that approximates how many grams of carbohydrates one unit of insulin will typically cover. Many of us still follow reduced-carb diets in order to keep our blood sugars within desirable range.

To the OP, how many carbs you can consume per meal and per day depends on how insulin resistant you are. I recommend that you get a meter and test strips (Walmart sells a brand where 50 test strips are less than $20) and use the meter to experiment with how much your BG rises between the time you begin your meal (your fasting BG) and 1-2 hours after eating the meal. If you noticed that, for example, consuming 60g of net carbs per meal will easily spike you 80+ mg/dL, then you might see if consuming 50g of carbs might lead to less of a spike. You might also notice that you could only spike 20mg/dL with those carbs and might be able to eat more without a huge spike. You won't really know how much you could eat until you start testing your BG to find out.