Carbohydrate counting is a diet planning method typically recommended for people with diabetes, insulin resistance, or other conditions that impact blood sugar. Carbohydrates raise blood sugar more than protein and fat. Monitoring your intake and spreading carbohydrate intake throughout the day can help balance your blood sugar. The American Diabetes Association recommends starting at 45 to 60 g carbohydrates per meal. Adjustments may be needed, depending on your daily caloric needs, level of activity and medication schedule. Carbohydrate counting used in conjunction with healthy dietary guidelines can help add flexibility to your diet while balancing your blood sugar.
Sources of Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are found in many food sources, including grain products, fruits, starchy vegetables, milk, desserts, snack foods and some beverages. Grain products include bread, bagels, cereal, rice, and crackers. The USDA's "2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans" recommends making one-half of your grains whole grains, but for carbohydrate-counting purposes all carbohydrates are considered equal. All fruits contain fructose or fruit sugar and starch, a complex carbohydrate. The starchy vegetables are potatoes, corn and peas. Beans are considered protein sources, but they also contain a significant amount of carbohydrate. Milk contains lactose, or milk sugar. All these foods contain sugar or starch so they raise your blood sugar.
Serving Size
One serving of carbohydrate is approximately 15 g carbohydrate. Thus, each meal should have three to four servings of carbohydrate to give 45 to 60 g per meal. One serving of carbohydrate is equivalent to one small slice of bread, one small piece of fruit, 1/2 cup cooked cereal, starchy vegetable, canned fruit, fresh fruit or ice cream, or 1/3 cup cooked rice or pasta. One cup of milk contains 12 g carbohydrate, but that is still considered one carbohydrate exchange. You can learn to estimate how many servings of carbohydrate your meals contain by paying attention to serving size and reading labels.
Label Reading
The Nutrition Facts label on prepackaged foods always has a "total carbohydrate" listing. Consider that number when determining how many carbohydrate servings are in that particular food item. Under the total carbohydrates is "dietary fiber" and "sugars." It is important to increase fiber intake and limit foods with added sugars, but those numbers do not impact carbohydrate counting. You always need to take the serving size into consideration. Initially, it may help your efforts if you use measuring cups to help you learn to eyeball it, but you can use other visual cues. For example, 1 cup is approximately the size of a fist and 1/2 cup is equal to half a baseball.
Sample Calculation
For lunch, you consume one-half a tuna sandwich, one large apple, a small salad with oil and vinegar and 1 cup of milk. The sandwich bread contains 32 g total carbohydrate, 4 g fiber and 3 g sugar. The 32 g total carbohydrate gives 16 g per slice, making it count for one serving of carbohydrate. Add two servings for the apple and one for the milk. The salad did not have starchy vegetables, so it does not count toward the total. Thus, four servings of carbohydrate are in this meal, providing approximately 60 g.
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