Carbohydrate counting - What you need to know.

Carbohydrate counting is when we know how much carbohydrate is in amount of food. So often people get confused between the carbohydrate value and the calories of a food. So just to clarify, carbohydrate and calories are two different concepts. carbohydrate is when you're accounting the total carbohydrate of the food, for example, a portion of rice, or a slice of bread, or a bowl of pasta or bowl of porridge, you want to know how much carbohydrate you're eating. So some people have been advised to reduce the amount of carbohydrate in their diet. So if you're following a low carbohydrate diet, for example, and you want to know how much carbohydrate is in a portion of food, what you can do is number one, look at the value of the packaging. A lot of the foods will have carbohydrate values listed at the back of the packaging but remember there is a difference between uncooked and cooked food because of the water volume that the carbohydrates absorb so that's really important that you understand the difference. The other way we can know more about carbohydrate counting is by using lots of new apps called carbs and cals apps or my fitness pal or even just the low carb program which is going to support you with understanding how much carbohydrate is in foods. For some people, carbohydrate counting is all about knowing how much insulin to give and this is for people living with type 1 diabetes. They need to know exactly how much insulin they need to give for the food that they're eating and that's where carbohydrate counting is really really useful. So if somebody is living with type 1 diabetes and they've been advised to take a certain amount of insulin for a certain amount of carbohydrate, they need to know how much carbohydrate is in their meals. So if they're having a bowl of cereal, or if they're having porridge in the morning, they will weigh out the amount of carbohydrate they're eating and then calculate according to the different methods that they've been taught, either by using the apps and the books, or by looking at packaging, or some people are taught using household measures because they don't always have apps or they don't have books to hand and household measures are really really useful to learn how to know about carbohydrate counting. Carbohydrate counting can be quite challenging when you're eating out so in restaurants or at somebody's house and you don't know how much carbohydrate is in a food so for example if you're having a Chinese takeaway and they've added lots of sauces in there there's hidden carbohydrates or if you're having a stew it's very challenging to know how much, what different types of carbohydrates are added, such as potato, or if they've added any pasta in this, or any rice in this stew. And that's when it becomes more challenging for people. But there are lots of really, really, really useful resources out there, such as the carbs and cows app, the carbs and cows books, and also lots of different apps that have been produced just for help people understand, and will estimate as close as possible to how much carbohydrate is in a food. But often we don't encourage people not to guesstimate because guess can be quite far out to what you need to give. And if you're giving yourself the wrong amount of insulin that can lead to other problems such as hypoglycemia where your blood glucose can go quite low. So it's really useful to learn a little bit more about the commonly eaten carbs, know how much carbohydrate is in these foods such as a slice of bread, a bowl of pasta or bowl of cereal, a bowl of rice, how much is in a spoon, a serving spoon. So this is things that we teach people about the commonly eaten carbs. Even things like fruit juices, fizzy drinks, colas, chocolates, biscuits, really useful to know how much carbohydrate is in these foods so that when you are eating them, you know exactly how much insulin to give. Just going back to type 2 diabetes, it's not something that we usually teach people living with type 2 diabetes, but I think it's really, really useful to know how much carbohydrate you're eating, even if you're living with type 2 diabetes, because if you have better knowledge of how much carbohydrate is in food, you can better manage your type 2 diabetes. So anybody, whether you're living with type 1 or type 2, it's always useful to know how much carbohydrate is in the food. And then that's the only way you can then follow a low carbohydrate diet by adding up all the carbohydrates you've eaten per day. you