For those of you who count carbs and calories, this chart may come in handy. It is from my go-to Betty Crocker diabetes cookbook by way of the International Diabetes Center in Minnesota. The rule of thumb is to not exceed 4 carbohydrate choices per meal. I try to keep the evening meal under 2 carb choices to enable the addition of a bit of dessert. Also, I have added the tag “Special Diet” to all diabetes-allowed recipes, for those of you who want an easy reference.
I make sure I eat 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight and 35 grams of carbohydrates total each day. That’s very low. I had type 2 diabetes 6 years ago and today my A1C level is 5.6, which is normal.
I completely cut out anything with flour, sugar, starch (except the occasional potato) and it did the trick. I only miss it when I read Ellie’s FYCEs.
The part about fiber is important because high fiber foods like whole grains and legumes have a lot of carbs, but they get digested more slowly, make you feel full longer, and don’t cause such big spikes in blood sugar as things like white bread and potatoes.
My doctor told me that I should subtract grams of fiber from grams of carbs. So, if that bit of food has 14 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of fiber, it’s just a net 8 grams of carbs.
I did the Atkins diet once upon a time and I recall that being part of the carb-counting method.