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Originally Posted by Evermont  I guess I agree with you more than I've said. At least that's my general sense of it.
Silly me, I don't even count carbs. No surprise that one who MUST count them would have a deeper appreciation of it.
The soup/stew challenge interests me. It's not unlike the salad dilemma. Made trickier with all the cooking...
Is BG increase linear with quantity of the final product? I mean, would 1/4 serving result in 1/4 the rise in BG as a full serving? If so I might ignore carb count, except to estimate for insulin if that's needed and start with a very small 'dose' of soup (e.g. 1/4 serving) and note the BG measurements for a given recipe. Use that as a starting point and work up to a full serving (or 1.5 servings if it's really good soup  ) You're going to have variations but you'll have a history with a recipe to lean on. Is that how it works? |
The way I do it is with a carb ratio, so for me in the evenings 1u of Apidra insulin covers 14g of carbs. This in itself is far from an exact science, as stress etc can of course alter your needs.
When I'm serving a stew that has a variety of veg in it plus potatoes, I try and fish the potatoes out and weigh them. They have around 16g of carbs per 100g of potatoes. They are the most 'carb evil' part of the stew. The rest of it, I just weigh and call it 10g of carbs per 100g of stew and this tends to work. It is close enough for jazz. Most stews are <20g of carbs per 100g of stew, most closer to 10 IMO. If you come across an unknown one, then a guess of 15g carbs per 100g is a pretty safe-ish bet. You have to eat a lot of it to go THAT far wrong.
Some folks will throw their hands up in horror at this, but I set my pump alarm to test at the 2 hour point after eating. The above method tends to get me about right (and it is as accurate as you can get with a stew due to varying contents of the spoon!) and if I'm off by a little I correct with insulin or a snack at the 2 hour point. Life tends to work OK.
With soups that you whizz, it's easier. You can weigh and carb count all the stuff that goes in. Say all the contents comes to 100g of carbs. You then weigh the soup in the pot at the end. Say it weighs 2KG due to the water content. You know that every 100g of the soup you eat has 5g of carbs.
It's all good fun.
Interestingly with all the talk of low-carb eating on here at the mo, I have to say as a T1 who eats 200-250g of carbs each day, it's the low carb high fat meals that give me the most trouble. The nice, slowing effect of fat that is useful to a gentle BG rise in a T2 can make me go hypo due to the insulin working faster than the food. The worst hypos (IMO) are those you get 2 hours after eating a large meal when the insulin has got ahead of the food. You have to treat the hypo and know full well that all that food will come and get you later as well. Yes, you can slow insulin response down with a pump or with multiple bolus shots to cover a single meal. But for me, 'regular' carb consumption vs low carb has always been easier. It is why the I get a little irritated when low-carb diets are immediately recommended by some folks on here to T1's who experience problems. Whilst it may help, there are 101 other things to consider when insulin shortage as opposed to insulin resistance is your main problem.
