[shel]

Do you use the dry or wet portion size when measuring the carbs in grains such as oatmeal? My dry portion of oatmeal is 1/4 cup, but when cooked there's quite a bit more volume. Which to use? Thanks!

[Gary_W]

Dry.

The water is carb-free You just count the carbs of the things that have carbs in them. If you made your oatmeal with milk, you'd need to measure the carbs in that and take those into account as well.

[Evermont]

Hmm...

While it's true that water has no carbs, the water changes the volume of the oatmeal so grams of carbs per cup is different for dry and cooked.

I've seen nutritional listings both ways. It is unfortunate if they don't specify because people will get the wrong answer.

This USDA site has a handy search feature. Type in "oatmeal" and get 91 different answers, cooked, dry, different brands, with and without milk, honey, etc.

[soso]

27g serving (dry) a third of a cup is 19g or carb (inc 4 g fibre) according to Nutritiondata.. so just add the carbs for your milk and you are away...

[Gary_W]

Originally Posted by Evermont

Hmm...

While it's true that water has no carbs, the water changes the volume of the oatmeal so grams of carbs per cup is different for dry and cooked.

I've seen nutritional listings both ways. It is unfortunate if they don't specify because people will get the wrong answer.

This USDA site has a handy search feature. Type in "oatmeal" and get 91 different answers, cooked, dry, different brands, with and without milk, honey, etc.

I realise that

The OP said 'my dry portion of oatmeal is....' If you weigh that and take the carbs off the packet, you're done no matter how much water you add. As long as you eat it all

It becomes complex when you're making oatmeal for the family in one big pot, as then you have to work with the 'wet' weight and work out the carbs from that. Which is a lot more of a pain in the rear end IMO.

[Evermont]

You're right Gary - good point.

[Gary_W]

Originally Posted by Evermont

You're right Gary - good point.

Nice of you to say so. Me being right doesn't happen often

The place where the wheels comes off my carb counting wagon is stews and curries. If I make a stew with beans, potatoes, onions, peppers, meat etc it becomes very tricky. Even if you weigh every carby ingredient then weigh the complete pot of stew when it's cooked and do the maths, if you take 100g of it and then another 100g of it, the two will have differing carb loads because one load will have more potatoes, one load more meat.... There comes a point where you have to wing it and see what works

[Ohana]

ok, I am still really new to carb counting and I was always wondering how to do stews and homemade soups and stuff other than just guessing how much I made and how much I took out... Jeez - that didn't sound easy - so my plan was to only stick with recipes that had the nutritional value and breakdown...

BUT- my kitchen scale does go to 11 pounds. I never knew WHY but maybe the big pot of stew is exactly why!

Thanks Gary... its like a new door has been opened... a very heavy, mathmatically dense, and still kinda fuzzy door, but a door nontheless.

[Evermont]

Originally Posted by Gary_W

Nice of you to say so. Me being right doesn't happen often

The place where the wheels comes off my carb counting wagon is stews and curries. If I make a stew with beans, potatoes, onions, peppers, meat etc it becomes very tricky. Even if you weigh every carby ingredient then weigh the complete pot of stew when it's cooked and do the maths, if you take 100g of it and then another 100g of it, the two will have differing carb loads because one load will have more potatoes, one load more meat.... There comes a point where you have to wing it and see what works

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?

[Gary_W]

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.

[Gary_W]

Originally Posted by Ohana

ok, I am still really new to carb counting and I was always wondering how to do stews and homemade soups and stuff other than just guessing how much I made and how much I took out... Jeez - that didn't sound easy - so my plan was to only stick with recipes that had the nutritional value and breakdown...

BUT- my kitchen scale does go to 11 pounds. I never knew WHY but maybe the big pot of stew is exactly why!

Thanks Gary... its like a new door has been opened... a very heavy, mathmatically dense, and still kinda fuzzy door, but a door nontheless.

You'll do fine; it's a big bewildering load of stuff at first. You can't keep on top of every aspect of it, but the little bits of effort put in weighing stuff make life a lot easier in the long run. Yes it's effort, but effort is preferable to feeling poorly.

Keep in mind that I've been doing the diabetes thing for around 14 years now. For the first 12 years of that I had no idea what carb counting was! I still lived, albeit nowhere near as well as I do now. This place has taught me an awful lot.

[Caravaggio]

I must say that I have great respect and admiration for people who are able to count carbs (whether by choice or circumstances) as I tried but found that it gave me headaches, stress and higher blood sugar. My head starts to throb just thinking about it. I have no idea how you do it!

One of my goals in dealing with my diabetes is to avoid (or postpone it as best I could) the day that I would be forced to count carbs.

[Gary_W]

Originally Posted by Caravaggio

I must say that I have great respect and admiration for people who are able to count carbs (whether by choice or circumstances) as I tried but found that it gave me headaches, stress and higher blood sugar. My head starts to throb just thinking about it. I have no idea how you do it!

One of my goals in dealing with my diabetes is to avoid (or postpone it as best I could) the day that I would be forced to count carbs.

It's not too bad. Thing is, if you use insulin, you have immediate motivation to learn how to do it. Your chances of spending most of your life feeling OK improve dramatically if you learn how to use insulin correctly, and the few minutes spent on carb counting seem insignificant in comparison.