How to Read Food Labels for Diabetics
If y'all eat packaged foods, a convenient way to figure out how much carbohydrate is in your food is to use the "Nutrition Facts Label." The "Nutrition Facts Label" is found on the outside of the container.
To count carbohydrates, look at 3 things:
- Serving Size
- Number of Servings Per Container
- Grams of Total Carbohydrate per serving
The full carbohydrate tells how many grams of saccharide are in one serving. Be careful when reading the label. There tin be more than than one serving in the package, so if y'all consume more than 1 serving, you volition demand to multiply the grams of carbohydrate accordingly.
Now let's practice using a sample nutrient label:
-
What if you eat more than, or less than, i serving? Let's practice with this example label.
- The serving size listed is three pieces (or 90 grams if you lot are weighing the product).
- The grams of total carbohydrate per serving is xxx grams.
- If yous consume 6 pieces, that is 2 servings. You would be getting sixty grams of total carbohydrate (1 serving = 30 grams of total carbohydrate, 2 servings = 60 grams of total carbohydrate).
- Or, if you merely eat one piece, then you would only get 10 grams of carbohydrate. (If 3 pieces equals 30 grams of carbohydrate, then each piece must be ten grams of carbohydrate.)
Recall, when you are learning to count carbohydrates, measure the verbal serving size to aid train your eye to see what portion sizes await similar. When, for example, the serving size is i cup, then mensurate one cup. If you measure out a cup of rice, so compare that to the size of your fist. In the future you would be able to visualize the rice in comparison to your fist. Keep doing this until yous get a adept idea of the weights and volumes of dissimilar foods. Measuring foods at home can also make you feel more comfortable with estimating portion sizes in restaurants.
Nutrition Facts labels list a breakdown of the total carbohydrate from dietary fiber, sugars and sugar alcohols. This can be confusing.
On Nutrition Facts food labels, the grams of dietary cobweb are already included in the total carbohydrate count, but because cobweb is a blazon of sugar that your body can't digest, the fiber does not increment your blood sugar levels. Yous may decrease the grams of cobweb from the total carbohydrate. View this example Nutrition Facts label showing fiber.
On a nutrition food label, decrease the fiber from the total carbohydrate amount.
When you read food labels, the grams of sugar are already included in the total carbohydrate amount, so you do not demand to count this sugar amount separately. The grams of sugar listed include both natural sugars, from fruit or milk, and added sugars.
On a nutrition food label, the total saccharide includes the sugar.
Some Nutrition Facts labels may also list sugar alcohols under full saccharide. Sugar alcohols may exist found in products that are labeled "sugar-free" or "no sugar added." Merely don't be fooled – sugar alcohols are even so a form of carbohydrate, and they withal affect your blood carbohydrate levels, if non as dramatically. Usually about one-half of the saccharide booze is counted every bit saccharide. Larn more than about counting sugar alcohols.
When counting carbohydrates, include half of the sugar from the carbohydrate alcohol.
View an example of a Diet Facts label showing how to count saccharide alcohols.
Self-cess Quiz
Self assessment quizzes are available for topics covered in this website. To observe out how much yous take learned almost Understanding Carbohydrates, take our self assessment quiz when you have completed this section. The quiz is multiple choice. Please cull the single best answer to each question. At the terminate of the quiz, your score will display. If your score is over seventy% correct, yous are doing very well. If your score is less than 70%, you lot can render to this section and review the information.
Source: https://dtc.ucsf.edu/living-with-diabetes/diet-and-nutrition/understanding-carbohydrates/counting-carbohydrates/learning-to-read-labels/
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