Aa
Net carbs? what do they mean?
Heya. Ive been looking at this 'net carb' stuff and I cant seem to find out anything thats easy to understand. How does it fit into a diabetic diet? Anyone know a quick easy way to sum it all up for me in a non-confusing way? Thanks =)
Hi Lurius,
Net carbs are getting lots of attention these days because of all the Atkins dieters, but it's actually long been an important concept for diabetics who do carbohydrate "counting" and then try to match our insulin to the amount of carbos we're eating.
Foods that have carbos typically have a combination of carbos that we can metabolize (and therefore will affect our BG) and those that we can't (fiber). We subtract fiber from total carbs to get net carbs. (I'll also address the issue of "sugar alcohols" but first consider the basics with fiber.
If you look at the wrapper on packages of bread for example, you might see that Total Carb is, say 18gm and perhaps 2 gm of fiber. The "net carb" is 16 grams. If you're counting carbs, you'd take insulin to cover 16 grams in this example and not 18 grams. Those 2 grams might well not be something that a person who's taking shots can account for and so many folks simply ignore such small numbers. Pumpers can fine tune their insulin doses down to fractions and will often account for every gm of fiber. Even DMers taking shots, however, should account for 10 or more grams of fiber.
Now sugar alcohols (mannitol, sorbitol, anything-itol) --typically used as sweeteners in alleged low-carb or sugar free foods -- are a bit less straightforward and are the source of much confusion. Even for Atkins dieters, and even tho' the food labelling will subtract out all the gms of "itols" to come up with their net carb numbers, for diabetics taking insulin those sugar alcohols can't really be ignored. A good starting rule of thumb is to subtract HALF of the gm of sugar alcohol.
So here's another example. I'm looking at a box of low carb Ice cream bars where in large HAPPY LETTERS & NUMBERS, the box declares 5gm net carb per serving. Here's the nutrition label:
Total carb per serving 9gm
Dietary fiber 2gm
Sugar alcohol 2gm
As a pumper, I bolus for 9 minus 2gm fiber minus 1 (of the 2) gm of sugar alcohol = 6gm.
In this example, the amount I must bolus for is pretty close to what their HAPPY LETTERS & NUMBERS say.
But look at this example .. from a low NET carb chocolate energy bar. In their HAPPY LETTER & NUMBERS, they proclaim 4 gm net carb! (gee it looks "Free!!"). And here's the labelling:
Total carbs 27
Sugar alcohol 22
Fiber 1
For "them," net carbs is a HAPPY 4 (27 minus 22 minus 1) !! For a diabetic the net carbs is a noticeable 15 (27 minus 11 minus 1).
And to add to the confusion, there are plenty of diabetics who seem to have to "cover" 100% and not 50% of the sugar alcohols in food. How do you know which type YOU are? Trial and error is all we have.
So, in sum .. it's always safe to subtract the fiber grams (soluable and insoluable) from the total carbs to get a diabetic's net carbs.
Try a few different foods with sugar alcohols to determine if you can safely count only 50% of them or if you must count it all. And do be careful with those sugar alcohols. They don't make us drunk, but they do work like a laxative.
One more source of confusion is that here in the US, the fiber gms are understood to be SUBTRACTED from the total carbs shown. Thus we say that "Total minus Fiber equals Net" I've been told by pals that in Canadian labelling, the "total carbs" has already subtracted out any fiber grams, tho' the fiber might still be listed. I think that in Canada, "Total PLUS Fiber equals REAL TOTAL!"
I hope this helps. It takes a lotta words to explain it, but once you get the basic idea, you'll be able to interpret the food labels. I've made the mistake of buying a CASE of what I had thought were low carbo snack bars only to find my BG skyrocketing. I had been tricked by the HAPPY LETTERS & NUMBERS and had failed to read the required nutrition labelling. I gave those snack bars away but it was an expensive lesson for me.
Net carbs are getting lots of attention these days because of all the Atkins dieters, but it's actually long been an important concept for diabetics who do carbohydrate "counting" and then try to match our insulin to the amount of carbos we're eating.
Foods that have carbos typically have a combination of carbos that we can metabolize (and therefore will affect our BG) and those that we can't (fiber). We subtract fiber from total carbs to get net carbs. (I'll also address the issue of "sugar alcohols" but first consider the basics with fiber.
If you look at the wrapper on packages of bread for example, you might see that Total Carb is, say 18gm and perhaps 2 gm of fiber. The "net carb" is 16 grams. If you're counting carbs, you'd take insulin to cover 16 grams in this example and not 18 grams. Those 2 grams might well not be something that a person who's taking shots can account for and so many folks simply ignore such small numbers. Pumpers can fine tune their insulin doses down to fractions and will often account for every gm of fiber. Even DMers taking shots, however, should account for 10 or more grams of fiber.
Now sugar alcohols (mannitol, sorbitol, anything-itol) --typically used as sweeteners in alleged low-carb or sugar free foods -- are a bit less straightforward and are the source of much confusion. Even for Atkins dieters, and even tho' the food labelling will subtract out all the gms of "itols" to come up with their net carb numbers, for diabetics taking insulin those sugar alcohols can't really be ignored. A good starting rule of thumb is to subtract HALF of the gm of sugar alcohol.
So here's another example. I'm looking at a box of low carb Ice cream bars where in large HAPPY LETTERS & NUMBERS, the box declares 5gm net carb per serving. Here's the nutrition label:
Total carb per serving 9gm
Dietary fiber 2gm
Sugar alcohol 2gm
As a pumper, I bolus for 9 minus 2gm fiber minus 1 (of the 2) gm of sugar alcohol = 6gm.
In this example, the amount I must bolus for is pretty close to what their HAPPY LETTERS & NUMBERS say.
But look at this example .. from a low NET carb chocolate energy bar. In their HAPPY LETTER & NUMBERS, they proclaim 4 gm net carb! (gee it looks "Free!!"). And here's the labelling:
Total carbs 27
Sugar alcohol 22
Fiber 1
For "them," net carbs is a HAPPY 4 (27 minus 22 minus 1) !! For a diabetic the net carbs is a noticeable 15 (27 minus 11 minus 1).
And to add to the confusion, there are plenty of diabetics who seem to have to "cover" 100% and not 50% of the sugar alcohols in food. How do you know which type YOU are? Trial and error is all we have.
So, in sum .. it's always safe to subtract the fiber grams (soluable and insoluable) from the total carbs to get a diabetic's net carbs.
Try a few different foods with sugar alcohols to determine if you can safely count only 50% of them or if you must count it all. And do be careful with those sugar alcohols. They don't make us drunk, but they do work like a laxative.
One more source of confusion is that here in the US, the fiber gms are understood to be SUBTRACTED from the total carbs shown. Thus we say that "Total minus Fiber equals Net" I've been told by pals that in Canadian labelling, the "total carbs" has already subtracted out any fiber grams, tho' the fiber might still be listed. I think that in Canada, "Total PLUS Fiber equals REAL TOTAL!"
I hope this helps. It takes a lotta words to explain it, but once you get the basic idea, you'll be able to interpret the food labels. I've made the mistake of buying a CASE of what I had thought were low carbo snack bars only to find my BG skyrocketing. I had been tricked by the HAPPY LETTERS & NUMBERS and had failed to read the required nutrition labelling. I gave those snack bars away but it was an expensive lesson for me.
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