Carbohydrate Counting for a Diabetic Diet | Roswell Park Nutrition

0:00 hi my name is peg and I'm one of the clinical dietitians at Roswell Park today we're going to talk about an introduction to carbohydrate counting for people with diabetes the first thing you need to do in order to count your carbohydrates is to determine your caloric goal first you find your weight in kilograms by dividing your weight in pounds by 2.2 for example if you weigh a hundred and fifty-two pounds you divide that by 2.2 you come up with 69 kilograms then you take a quick calculation by the number of kilograms times 29 and that's a multiplier used to determine your maintenance calories your carbohydrate goal for the day is approximately forty to sixty percent of

0:46 your total calories carbohydrates support activity they give you energy so I want you to think of your carbohydrate base as your fuel for the day now where do carbohydrates come from well they're in starches breads pastas rice potatoes corn simple sugars and desserts I have cut potato or 1/3 cup of pasta or rice or a tablespoon of sugar honey or maple syrup are all examples of one carbohydrate choice so this is a sweet potato this is about a cup this would be two carbohydrate servings this pasta is actually a half cup of cooked pasta so it's slightly more than one serving of pasta and this baked potato is

1:33 approximately 1/2 cup of potato if you don't eat the skin so this would be one serving of baked potato now a cup of milk or a serving of yogurt without added sugar is also a carbohydrate serving we have some yogurt here and this is just a plain yogurt and on the back the label says carbohydrate 12 grams so this is a no added sugar choice of yogurt which is a great choice and then this yogurt is called fruit side and this one has told total carbohydrates 26 grams and the added sugars are 12 grams so this is almost two servings of carbohydrate so you see the difference

2:18 carbohydrates are also in fruits a medium orange a medium apple a cup of berries four ounces juice or a half cup of canned pears in their own juice are examples of one serving of fruit now I only have one fruit sample here and this is cantaloupe and this is approximately a cup so one cup of melon is also one fruit serving every 15 grams of carbohydrate equals one carbohydrate choice so when you read a label every 15 grams of carbohydrate is one choice so I said that twice so you can remember that so when we looked at this yogurt the label says 12 grams of carbohydrate so that's approximately one serving of carbohydrate and in the one with the added sugar

3:03 the total carbohydrate is 26 grams so again that is two carbohydrate servings whether there are added sugars or not your total carbohydrate is what matters in your body all carbohydrates break down into sugar some enter the bloodstream faster than others these are called high glycemic carbohydrates some choices are donuts or pastries a low glycemic carbohydrate and ters the bloodstream slowly plain yogurt is an example of a low glycemic carbohydrate so counting carbs and staying within your carbohydrate range for the day is a vital goal in achieving glucose control here's a choice of a 2,000 calorie eating plan with four carbohydrate choices per meal and three carbohydrate choices for a snack so if you look at

3:51 some of these meals like for example the breakfast has two slices of toast where one slice of toast is a carbohydrate choice four ounces of juice is a choice and the six ounces of low-fat yogurt is a choice and you should always consult your dietitian and ask for a referral or a consult and we can help you out a little bit further but this can give you an introductory method to how do you start to count carbs you you