Carbohydrate Counting
Carbohydrate counting is not a diet, it is a way of planning your carbohydrate intake to manage your blood sugar levels. It places importance in keeping the carbohydrate content of your meals and snacks consistent from day to day. Eating the same amount of carbohydrate for your meals and snacks everyday ensures better blood glucose control. The American Diabetes Association and many health professionals use carbohydrate counting to teach patients how to control their blood glucose. Carbohydrate counting ensures that you can have variety and flexibility in your diet and most importantly can follow your traditional diet.
What is a Carbohydrate Serving?
A carbohydrate choice is a serving of food which contains 15gms of carbohydrate. Look at the food label and measure how much you will be eating. There are 2 things to locate on the food label; the serving size, and the number of gms of carbohydrate per serving.
Some Tips & Suggestions
- Substitute brown rice for white rice. Generally people with diabetes are told to avoid rice altogether. This is a misconception. You can eat rice in reasonable quantities as long as the total carbohydrate for that meal does not exceed your limit.
- Instead of eating only rice, try other grains such as cracked wheat, barley and quinoa (available in most stores and very high in protein). Use them like you would use rice in pulaos etc.
- Avoid starchy vegetables. When using potatoes, yams or other starchy vegetables, always remember to cut down on the amount of rice/roti eaten at that meal. Better still, select green vegetables in place of starchy ones.
- Use green vegetables freely and prepare them in a small amount of oil.
- Try to cook with a minimum amount of oil. Use olive or canola oils as they are high in monounsaturated fats which are good for your heart. Avoid ghee, butter and cream in cooking.
- Switch to skim or 1% milk and yogurt. When making desserts like kheer, use 1% milk or evaporated skim milk and use artificial sweeteners. Whole milk and yogurt and products made with them like paneer are high in saturated fats, which raise cholesterol in your blood. Try making your own paneer, chenna with low fat milk.
- Tofu is a good source of high-quality protein especially for vegetarians. Try using it in place of paneer for making dishes like palak paneer.
- Avoid coconut milk/cream or use less than called for in the recipe. Coconut milk is high in saturated fat.
- Use 100% whole wheat chapatti flour for making rotis/phulkas. Avoid putting any ghee/oil when making rotis.
Carb Counting Food List
Remember 15g Carb = 1 Carb choice)
Resource
Carbohydrate Counting for Traditional Indian & Pakistani Foods