People who have diabetes often can control their blood glucose levels by following a careful diet plan. Carbohydrates are especially important for diabetics, because 90 percent of all carbohydrates are converted into blood glucose, Health.com reports. By counting carbohydrates, you can control your blood glucose levels and help prevent diabetes-related complications such as retinal damage, atherosclerosis and peripheral neuropathy. Counting carbohydrates requires a certain amount of planning and the ability to look up nutritional data using the packaging on most food products or databases with nutritional information.
Step 1
Determine a method of carbohydrate counting that works well for you. There are two main ways to count carbohydrates, Health.com explains. You can either count grams of carbohydrates or carbohydrate servings. One "serving" of carbohydrates is equal to 15 g; both methods work the same, so it is a matter of preference.
Step 2
Set a total carbohydrate goal for each day. First, determine how many calories you should consume each day. Ideally, on a diabetes diet, half your calories should come from carbohydrates, EndocrineWeb explains, so divide this total daily calorie intake by 2 to get your total calories from carbohydrates. Finally, divide this last number by 4; each gram of carbohydrates has four calories, so this will give you your total grams of carbohydrates each day. If you are counting based on carbohydrate "servings," divide your grams of carbohydrates by 15.
Step 3
Space your carbohydrates evenly throughout the day. You don't need to be exact, but each meal should contain between 45 and 60 g of carbohydrates, the American Diabetes Association says. Allotting a specific quantity of carbohydrates for each meal makes it easier to plan.
Step 4
Look up the nutritional information for each food you are about to eat. Most retail foods contain the number of grams of carbohydrates in each serving on the packaging. Otherwise, you will need to use a database such as TheDailyPlate to look up nutritional information.
Step 5
Adjust portion sizes of the foods you eat at each meal to match your carbohydrate goal.
