I was newly diagnosed at age 21 with type 1 about a month ago, and it has been quite overwhelming, but I’m starting to get the hang of things. I’ve been reading everything I can find on diabetes (and have become pretty good at identifying the garbage that’s out there on the internet). There are still some things that aren’t quite clear to me, and I would be so grateful if anyone can help me with this one as it’s been bugging me.
I have been carb counting as precisely as possible until I went to a diabetes education appointment last week. I was told that some foods I had been counting for (mainly vegetables, peanuts, and almonds) have such little impact on blood sugar that they are “free,” and despite having some carbs, I can eat them without factoring them into the equation. I’m assuming this has to do with their low score on the glycemic index. I think I read somewhere that anything below 20 on the glycemic index has little affect on blood glucose, so are these all “free” too? Can PWD just snack on these foods without worries? I know that cooking vegetables makes their carbs more readily available, increasing their score on the glycemic index, so if they are cooked should I count them then? Also, what if I am just really craving peanuts or something and eat a whole bunch? How would I count for this situation?
If anyone can add any insight, I would appreciate it a lot. Thank you.
The traditional diet recommended by educators is a high carb diet. For me, I was told to eat at least 60 grams of carbs in a meal. And yes, something like non-starchy veggies or nuts are insignificant compared to such a meal. The errors you may counting carbs are much larger than these factors.
But many of us eat low carb diets. And if you are only eating 10-20 grams of carbs in a meal then these things add up. And many things like nuts which contain few carbs actually contain protein which also contributes to a blood sugar rise.
Since you are newly diagnosed I would recommend that you just start simple. Get the big things right before worrying about the details of cooked or not cooked etc.
Brian is exactly right. If you’re eating a plate of pasta, the carbs from say, a bell pepper, will be pretty much swallowed up by the giant mass of carbs in the pasta. But if you’re eating a low carb diet, as many do, then the 10 or 15 carbs in the typical red bell pepper could be half or more of the total carbs you are allowing yourself for that meal. Context is everything where diabetes is concerned.
Those of us who work hard at understanding this beast—and you clearly belong to that club—eventually figure out that the one-size-fits-all rules and guidelines the medical establishment lives by just aren’t very useful in the real world. Each physiology is individual. As one of our long time members says, if you want to treat diabetes by the book you’ll need a separate book for each diabetic. And just to drive the point home one last time, context is key.
And just to pile on to his other point as well, take small steps. Don’t try to learn it all at once. The brain won’t let you, anyway; eventually it will become saturated and demand a breather. Take it one day at a time. Diabetes isn’t going anywhere and neither are you. To repeat another of our favorite aphorisms, “Diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint.”
I second what @Brian_BSC and @David_dns write to you. I want to encourage you to commit to continue learning all you can about diabetes, food, and exercise. Knowledge is truly power and diabetes is an exceptional disease in that human intelligence, appropriately applied with persistence and a good attitude will allow you a much better chance to live a high quality life free from the worst that this scourge can inflict. Be smart. Be persistent. Be well!
Katie, everything you have gotten here to this point is spot on. And, you are doing exactly what you need to be doing. You are studying, learning, experimenting and being curious about the advice you are given.
I think everyone here would agree that the key to successfully managing diabetes is you. Not just that you need to understand how the disease works how to count carbs and proteins and do the math. All of that is important, but the truly important thing to learn is how all of that works for you. After all it really is all about you. Your doctor and your CDE and all the great folks here at TU diabetes are not you. No matter what we know, no matter what we’ve learned in school, no matter what we’ve done in our own treatment none of this is exactly right for you.
When someone asks me “can you eat that” I look at them and say “well, it depends”. That’s because there isn’t really a way to answer that question yes or no. If this is true for myself how can I give you a definitive answer regarding how it is for you?
Keep plugging away at it Katie. I did exactly the same thing you are doing. It took me several months to feel like I knew anything and it took a couple years before I began to really feel comfortable about my knowledge regarding diabetes and my own body. Today at 5 1/2 years into this thing, I’m still learning new stuff every day.
There are very few foods that are truly “free”, diet soda and diet Jello being two of them. There are several foods that are very low in carbs, as your CDE said. However, I would not call them “free” because unless you are having just a bite or maybe 5-6 nuts, they do add up enough to impact your BG, which kind of defeats the purpose of “free” foods being something you can grab and eat without concern. Meat, cheese, nuts, eggs, and nuts are very low in carbs, anywhere from 2-6g per reasonable serving. But you should still take a shot if you are having any significant amount. Cooking veggies really doesn’t impact the carbs much. I have had Type 1 for 32 years and I don’t follow glycemic index, I just count total carbs and deduct half the fiber grams if I know what they are. After a year or so of shots, you can look at transitioning to a pump, where you can easily give yourself just a tiny bolus to cover even very low-carb foods, which is really wonderful.
I have to take issue with one small part of that: cooking matters for some foods, not for others. Some foods’ carb content does increase noticeably with cooking. That’s not my opinion, but my meter’s.
Katie, welcome! I was diagnosed 1 year ago at the age of 24. Your question resonates with me because I had so many similar questions when I was diagnosed. What everyone else has said is really helpful - I’ll just add one thing, which is that sometimes things like these can be viewed as an experiment. For example, I can eat one 1/4 cup serving of salted almonds with no noticeable effect on my blood sugar. If I do bolus for the handful of grams of carbs in that serving, it drops me. So I do nothing. But that won’t be true for everyone and some people may have to bolus for the same amount of almonds. It can even change over time for the same person. So you will have to do some experimenting and find out what works for you. Good luck!
