Diabetes Talking

Question:

(in response to a post of mine) Hi, is there anything like an exchange unit of carbs used in Germany (1 ‘carb unit’ = 12 grams of carbs)?

I’m not sure whether your geography is screwed up, or whether your English is.. I have an account than ends .uk  I’m in the UK.  I assume, because you have an account that ends nasa.gov, you’re in the US.  You can no more assume that because I’m in the UK that I know what’s done in Germany, than I can assume because you are in the US, you know what’s done in Mexico. But I think you know where I am … because I remember vaguely that in Germany, there is a concept of a ‘unit of CHO’ – 12g of CHO, and foods are listed as being Xg = 1 ‘unit of CHO’ (there was an old system in the UK where the ‘unit’ was 10g CHO. So I wonder if you just missed out a few vital words: e.g.  ’is there anything IN THE UK like … The answer is: yes, at least there used to be, a quarter of a century ago.  Then we used 10g CHO as the basic unit.  Which is fine, if you find that 1 unit of Humalog covers 1 unit CHO (as I now do) and a pain, if you find (as I did) that 1 unit of Regular covers 1.25 units units/ Some of us find that 1 unit covers 10g at breakfast, and 15g at lunch and dinner.  …. all of which goes to show that using an artificial ‘unit’ of CHO, rather than real grams, is a bit silly (i.e. it’s useful, and mirrors what most people do in their minds, but assumes that all people find the same ratio of insulin to CHO, and therefore doesn’t do what should be done, and encourage each to work out their own ‘unit’.) There are booklets which give you the amount of different food containing 12 g of carbs (eg 80 g of banana)Then you only proceed with the amounts of these units: Having 1 banana of 180 g makes 2 (+1/4) ‘carb units’ to be covered by insulin / included in meal schedule. I have encountered the famous food pyramid several times which refers to ’servings’ as a unit (without a clear definition). Is that a fixed unit (defined in (fl)oz, grams, calories or whatever), or is it relative due to the individually different total daily intake? Greetings,

– Pat Reynolds    "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"    (T. Pratchett)

Response:

I had some cauliflower recently and tried to look it up on your list. It was not there. I tried persimmons, and it was not there. I know I looked for other foods in the past too. Can you tell me about cauliflower? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Reinhard, No, Mendosa’s glycemic index list is by far the best one. It is, in fact, the ONLY complete listing. It lists everything that has been tested by the scientists. The only things "missing" are those that have never been tested. It is also just as well organized as Mendosa is. It is aligned perfectly. Perhaps you need to have your web page display differently. Is there a better glycemic index list than the Mendosa one? I find several items missing in it. It also looks very messy, it’s not aligned at all. Rick Mendosa, a Writer on the Web: http://www.mendosa.com/ Office: 660 Nobel Drive, Suite 3E, Santa Cruz, CA 95060-3152

Response:

Sorry, I forgot to sign the above post. Dr Matt            International Diabetes Website http://www.idi.org.au

Response:

Reinhard, No, Mendosa’s glycemic index list is by far the best one. It is, in fact, the ONLY complete listing. It lists everything that has been tested by the scientists. The only things "missing" are those that have never been tested. It is also just as well organized as Mendosa is. It is aligned perfectly. Perhaps you need to have your web page display differently. Is there a better glycemic index list than the Mendosa one? I find several items missing in it. It also looks very messy, it’s not aligned at all.

Rick Mendosa, a Writer on the Web: http://www.mendosa.com/ Office: 660 Nobel Drive, Suite 3E, Santa Cruz, CA 95060-3152

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – (…) So if 100g of a typical apple has 15.25g in it, and you weigh it and find you’ve got 210 g, well, thats just 2 times the 100g (2x 15.25 is 30.5) and one times the 10g (1 x 1.525 is 1.525) add them together and you get 31.725. If unsure whether to go with percentages, or my method, try these sums, and see which is easier for you: If 100g of something has 12.34g CHO, and the portion is 354g calculate 12.34% of 354, or (3 x 12.5) + (half of 12.5) If 100g has 4.3g CHO, and the portion is 120g 4.3% of 120, or (1 x 4.3) + (2 x .43) – or a quarter of .43 – or just ignore it. Yes, my way is more inaccurate – but who needs to know that they are getting 43.6836 rather than 43.75 g CHO in the first example, or getting 5.16 with the percentage message in the first example, as opposed to my approximation of 5.13 in the second.  Indeed, who needs to know that they are getting 44g rather than 43g?  Most of us work to much rougher figures.  So rather than working with 12.34%, or ‘12.34g in 100g’, we work with ‘12%’ or ‘12g in 100g, 1g in 10g’, and so on. Best wishes, — Pat Reynolds

Hi, is there anything like an exchange unit of carbs used in Germany (1 ‘carb unit’ = 12 grams of carbs)? There are booklets which give you the amount of different food containing 12 g of carbs (eg 80 g of banana). Then you only proceed with the amounts of these units: Having 1 banana of 180 g makes 2 (+1/4) ‘carb units’ to be covered by insulin / included in meal schedule. I have encountered the famous food pyramid several times which refers to ’servings’ as a unit (without a clear definition). Is that a fixed unit (defined in (fl)oz, grams, calories or whatever), or is it relative due to the individually different total daily intake? Greetings, — Lutz Rast