The Science of Carbs
Carb counting, carb cutting, carbo-loading, low-carb: Carbs, short for carbohydrates, are a ubiquitous part of the diet vernacular, especially for people with diabetes. Focusing on the challenges of counting carbs and planning meals may have kept you from asking a basic question: What is a carbohydrate? Here’s your chance to break down those carb-laden muffins, potatoes, lattes, and carrots into their basic carbohydrate components so you know just what you’re eating—and how your body deals with it.
All of the foods you eat contain a mixture of carbohydrates, protein, and fat that your body converts to either energy or raw materials essential for life. Carbohydrates are particularly good at providing quick energy, and understanding them is key to managing diabetes because they are broken down directly into glucose, the sugar that people with diabetes have in excess in their bloodstreams.
As the word carbohydrate implies, these molecules are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Simple as that sounds, these three components can be joined together, like Tinkertoys, in many ways and serve many purposes. The body can both get carbohydrates from food and make its own carbs.
Comments
Carb-Counting
In this months issue of Forecast Magazine relating to “The Science of Carbs” on page 37 at the bottom, you give a web address for: A more detailed carb chart at;
www.forcast.diabetes.org/carb-counts. This address is a broken link. The address should have been;
http://forecast.diabetes.org/diabetes-101/carbohydrate-counts.
Thanks for explaining more about carbs and how they work. Eating the proper foods is difficult. Finding a dietitian that understands diabetics and the food we eat is difficult. They usually give textbook information that doesn’t relate to the patient and never listens to what the patient is saying about the food we eat. As a result I go back to the way I understand and it doesn’t work. I have been a diabetic 16 years and have been struggling to keep my A1c below 7. I know that I am not eating well most of the time.
You mention many times in the magazine about a health care team, unfortunately it doesn’t work. I have a primary care physician that does it all. He is a good doctor but not an endocrinologist or dietician. The dietician didn’t help me and the endocrinologist that my insurance would pay for, though he got me on tract, was useless.
Thanks for listening to my comments and thanks for putting out a fine magazine.
George N. Betourney
North Adams, MA
betourney@roadrunner.com
low carb gluten free recipes
Any (quick & easy) low carb gluten free recipes for those with Type 1 and also Coeliac? Thanks
Post new comment