A question on carb counts

Type 2
1

Hi Everyone,
I ran into something new today. I looked at a bag of cereal and discovered it had 26 carbs and it had 14 “other carbs.” Has anyone seen this kind of thing on labels?
What does it mean?
Huggles
MeadowLark

2

Yup! They sure do.
I’ve been searching around the web while waiting for a reply. I found that some people see that on the label and just steer clear:) (me too!) It seems that it has something to do with “fiber carbs” or other stuff in the food that has a carb count. Even Sugar Alcohol has a carb count! ( I didnt know that!) Though I did know that sugar alcohol raises my bloodsugar higher than eating a teaspoon of straight sugar. sigh… and life goes on.
Huggles
MeadowLark

3

So there are a bunch of kinds of carbs. Companies are required to tell us the total amount, the amount of fiber, and the amount of sugar. But there are other carbs like sugar alcohols and glycerin. And fiber can be broke up into soluable and insoluable. After they provide the basics, companies can give as much or as little information as they want about the rest of the carbs. Foods advertised as low carb will often tell about sugar alcohols, for instance. So “other carbohydrate” is the total carb count minus fiber, sugar, and sugar alcohol.

4

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Nutrition-Dieting-939/carbohydrates-other-carbohydrates.htm

http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/main-lowcarb-lobby/422192-other-carbohydrates.html

You may have found these sites already.

“Other carbs” seems to include any carb that is not sugar and not fiber. They could be simple, complex or both. You’d have to look at the ingredients list to try to figure it out.

Personally I focus on the Total Carb number.

But that’s just me.

Terry

5

I agree with Terry. I don’t think we need to do much with that “other carb” number. Total carb and fiber are all I look at usually. And it’s not like these other carbs aren’t in our homemade food, we just don’t put complex labels on food we make ourselves.

If anyone is interested in why nutrition labels look like they do, Marion Nestle has an interesting book called “How to Eat,” and it’s one of the things she discusses.