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Diabetes

Putting Carbohydrate Counting into Practice

Product Statistics
Produced in collaboration with
Catalog #: DB-42
Duration: 20 minutes
Format(s): VHS videocassette DVD Closed Captioned
Language(s): English or Spanish

Summary

This video reviews the basic elements of carbohydrate counting, demonstrates how to put carbohydrate counting into practice, and examines common roadblocks to success. The video also reinforces the use of pattern management, emphasizing the importance of record-keeping to assist in making adjustments to the treatment plan when necessary.

Details

Carbohydrate:

  • nutrient found in many foods
  • body turns it into glucose, a basic form of sugar, to be used for energy

Having a meal plan:

  • balances carbohydrate with your exercise and diabetes medications
  • can help you keep your blood sugar in your target range
  • gives you more choices and greater flexibility in what you eat

Carbohydrate is one of three main nutrients found in foods, the others are protein and fat.

Carbohydrate:

  • it's important to know which foods contain carbohydrate
  • sugars and starches are the two main types of carbohydrate
  • some of these foods also contain fiber, which is an important nutritional element
  • similar amounts of carbohydrate have the same impact on your blood sugar level

Staying within your recommended carbohydrate goals will help you keep your blood sugar in your target range. Making healthy food choices helps you protect your overall health.

Work with your diabetes care team to determine a target blood sugar range that's right for you.

Establish your recommended daily carbohydrate goals for each meal and snack and a total for the day. Decide on your target blood sugar ranges before or after meals, or maybe both.

Goals are based on:

  • your eating habits
  • your weight or weight goal
  • exercise you do
  • medication you take
  • your overall health

Review your food and blood sugar records to look for blood sugar patterns, and make adjustments to your treatment plan when necessary.

Try to stay as close to your carbohydrate goal for each meal and snack as possible, ideally within seven grams.

Two methods used to carbohydrate count:

  1. counting carbohydrate choices
  2. counting grams of carbohydrate

Carbohydrate choices involves learning common foods and their portion size equivalent to 15 grams of carbohydrate. A good tool to use to learn foods and their portion sizes is the ADA exchange lists.

Carbohydrate gram counting is a more specific method using the actual number of carbohydrate grams per serving size you consume. It's a very useful tool for intensive blood sugar management.

What a day's worth of carbohydrate could look like.

Keep good records. Write down:

  • each food
  • how much
  • when you ate it

Weighing and measuring your food, reading food labels, and being able to break down recipes help to ensure that you're eating the correct portion sizes, or correctly estimating the number of grams of carbohydrate.

Learning how to estimate portion sizes.

Nutrition Facts label found on packaged foods.

Fiber:

  • most fruits, vegetables and grains have fiber
  • soy beans and peanuts are high fiber foods that are also a good source of protein
  • fiber is not converted to blood sugar by the body
  • foods that contain fiber generally contain both kinds of fiber
  • eat 20-35 grams of fiber daily
  • two different kinds: soluble and insoluble

Soluble fiber helps reduce your cholesterol levels, decreasing your risk of heart disease.

Insoluble fiber improves digestion by helping move food more quickly through your digestive tract.

Common problems you may encounter as you learn to use carbohydrate counting.

It is important not to ignore the amount of protein and fat you eat.

When cooking combination foods, add up the carbohydrates in each of the separate ingredients and divide the total carbohydrate by the number of suggested servings on the recipe to get the carbohydrate value in a serving.

Use nutrition books to find the amount of carbohydrate in foods. Remember that these are average amounts. (Examples are given.)

Reviewing your records will help you see more clearly if carbohydrate counting is helping you achieve your blood sugar goals, and how your exercise or medications affect your blood sugar levels as well.

Patterns out of your target range will appear when elements of your treatment plan get out of balance.

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