Food & Diabetes

What do you think of the notion of drinking vinegar everyday? Now wait a minute, don’t be so fast to say “not for me.” People around the world have been imbibing in this sour tasting liquid for over six thousand years.    

The glycemic index tables are the key to unlocking the health benefits of a low GI diet. This newly revised and updated edition of the Shopper's Guide has everything you need to know in order to use the glycemic index to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease; to lose weight; or to improve your overall well-being. With the following features, the Shopper's Guide makes it easier than ever to incorporate low glycemic index foods into all of your meals:

How to take the mystery out of carb counting & improve your blood glucose control

"How do I manage my blood glucose levels?" "What do carbohydrates have to do with diabetes?" "What are carbohydrates and why are they important?" If any of these questions sound familiar, then it's time to pick up The Complete Guide to Carb Counting.

Forty years ago, while busy being a rebellious teenager, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I didn't know the difference between a carrot stick and celery rib. All that really mattered was how I could sneak a hot fudge sundae.

Not all carbohydrate foods are created equal, in fact they behave quite differently in our bodies. The glycemic index or GI describes this difference by ranking carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. Choosing low GI carbs - the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels - is the secret to long-term health reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes and is the key to sustainable weight loss.

These chain restaurant sites provide a nutrition analysis of their menu items to help you plan and balance fast food meals, whether you are dieting, controlling your blood sugar or eating healthy. We hope this information will help you make better decisions about balance, variety and moderation in your diet, and improve your overall control.

Your daily carb requirement is based on your daily calorie need. Carb amounts play a major role in setting your carb boluses. It is best to make gradual changes in how many carbs you eat and adjust your insulin gradually as you go.

Fill in the blanks below to determine how many grams of carbohydrate you need each day by hand or use our interactive Carb and Calorie Estimator.

Packaged foods have a "Nutrition Facts" label that provides nutritional information, including the number of calories and the grams of protein and fat. These labels also give the exact number of grams of carbohydrate contained in a serving and the size of this serving. For those with diabetes, food labels are extremely helpful for carb counting and for determining appropriate insulin doses for these foods.

What consumers get from food labels:

A few foods like table sugar and lollipops are entirely carbohydrate, so their weight on a gram scale will be exactly the same as the number of grams of carbohydrate they contain. Most foods, however, have only part of their total weight as carbohydrate. The carb content of these foods can be determined by food labels, reference books or software, or a scale and a list of carb factors.

These rules lets you match your meal carbohydrates with insulin for better post-meal readings. However, carbohydrates are also needed to raise a low blood sugar. For this, there are two helpful guides:

1. One gram of carbohydrate raises the blood sugar about 3, 4, or 5 points for people who weigh 200 lbs., 150 lbs., and 100 lbs., respectively.

2. The glycemic index, protein content, and fat content of foods can modify the speed and strength of Guide 1.