Carb ?

[Kosmo29]

okay I am pre-diabetic and want to start eating as if I was diabetic (get an early lead) How many carbs per meal and or how many per day. Difference in complex and simple and amount? Thank you!

[MCS]

I find it difficult to count carbs, so usually I just avoid them all toegether. When I do eat carbs, I eat things like, whole grain flat breads, lots of nuts and veggies, protien.

If you have choice always go with the whole grain products and test, test, test, not all whole grain products are created equal.

[jps]

Tough question because it will vary for everybody, hence the need for frequent testing.

I went about 8 months at less than 60 grams per day and stayed below 30 in any one meal. I didn't differentiate between type of carb back then, but I tended to steer clear of complex carbs.

Now I allow myself up to 100 carbs per day and I don't worry if I go over a little bit or if I only eat 20 per day. But that's because I now differentiate between carbs. I believe there are good carbs and bad carbs. The more I read, the more I am convinced that this whole mess is caused by too much refined/processed carb. Evolutionarily, this type of carb is "new". Our bodies aren't very efficient with it. At least for many of us.

Now I basically eat carbs that aren't processed - fruits, veggies, nuts, etc, as much as I want. No sodas, no juices. I still have to have my beer occasionally though :) It really is a caveman type diet, but I find it easy. If the food were available to a caveman, I want to eat it. If it wasn't available, I stay away. The exceptions I have for this are dairy (cheese and milk) and the occasional beer. But I go crazy with the fruits, meats, vegetables and nuts.

A good starting point for a prediabetic? I'm not sure, I guess it depends on how many you normally ingest. Slashing of carbs from the normal American diet is a good thing no matter how you slice it, diabetic or not.

You might want to try sticking to around 40-50 carbs per meal and allowing 10 carbs per snack. That's not too hard and I'm pretty certain it's a pretty big decrease in what most American's are used to eating. See how you feel and modify as needed. If you listen, your body will tell you how it's working for you.

But seriously, you might want to contemplate carb quality every bit as much as carb quantity. In other words, I think going with 200 grams of quality carbs such as fruits and veggies is far healthier than 100 grams of carbs in white bread and Pepsi.

[fgummett]

+1 what jps said! :top:

Here's a post I made earlier today in another thread discussing low-carb...
My personal view is that not all carbs are bad for us -- just the refined and concentrated ones found in so many of our processed and packaged foods these days... broccoli has carbs but in order to get the same amount of sugar from broccoli as from a bottle of cola, you'd literally have to eat of ton of it.

Real whole food, is my order of the day... preferably local and in-season, grown/reared on nutrient rich land. This means eat whole food, which naturally includes a balance of fat and protein... don't be afraid of fat... its gotten a bad rap.

There are obvious things to watch out for like candy, cola, cakes and sweets... next in line are the "white" foods like bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, breakfast cereal... but even something assumed to be healthy like orange juice has about as much sugar as a cola... fat reduced milk has a higher proportion of lactose (sugar) and so it goes on. That does not mean you need to feel deprived or hungry to eat this way, not by any means.Basically I stick to real whole foods so I no longer count carbs or calories... nothing adulterated, processed or packaged.

I'd estimate that I am on less than 40g digestible carbs (not including fibre) per day... but that is just an estimate.