I am still learning about this type 1...our six year old grandson has been diagnosed...I am struggling!! When someone asks about him, I tell them he is type 1 diabetic and they all will start giving me sugar free hints...I say we don't count sugar in a food but carbs...they look at me like I am crazy because all they know is type 2. But really why do you not look at sugars more closely? If his body turns carbs into sugar then what does his body do with the sugar content in a food?
Why carbs instead of sugars?
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The body processes all carbohydrates by turning them into sugar. The type of carbohydrate creates a timing delay - that's all. Sugar (in particular glucose) goes straight into the bloodstream and will register on our meters in fifteen to twenty minutes. Cereal grains can take a couple of hours to be converted by the digestive system before they register - but they end up as glucose too.
So when looking at food lables, the bit that says:
So when looking at food lables, the bit that says:
- Carbohydrates 20grams (of which sugars 15 grams)
Actually, starches hit me FASTER, personally. I avoid starches more than sugars, or could, at first!
Makes sense. Starches are just a bunch of glucose molecules strung together. They get separated almost immediately during digestion and from then on, they're just glucose.
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That is because we are designed to digest carbs (starch), for sugar (table sugar) we first have to brake it down into its two sugar parts Glucose and fructose then absorb the glucose. We digest starch faster than table sugar
PS our meters do NOT measure fructose, high fructose in our blood does the same damage as hi glucose does.
It is actually dependent on how many copies of amylase gene we have. The more copies, the more rapidly we split starches .. ie, GRAIN foods ... I really need to look at that, vis a vis archeology and ethnology ... my father's ancient ancestor (per his Y chromosome haplogroup at least) is supposed to be part of the group that spread agriculture. And we know where THAT got us ...
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That got us into civilizations and more than doubling of the average lifespan of the species
.Regards,
Rad
Actually, I don't think so. Evidence suggests that the immediate effect was making us shorter, fatter and sicker. This happened approximately 10,000 years ago. The thing you mention are much later than that, especially the longer lifespan which only happened very recently and had little or nothing to do with diet.That got us into civilizations and more than doubling of the average lifespan of the species
Regards,
Rad
Basically, that happened during the last century or two and was almost entirely based on finding cures for various pathogen-driven (not chronic, diet related) diseases. Meanwhile, diseases more likely related to diet/environment like CVD, cancer and respiratory diseases took off like rockets and became a much larger percentage of causes of death.
Changing Causes of Death
Yes, the two are NOT incompatible -- more ppl of reproductive age, more reproduction (and of course NO contraception!!!), and higher population density without any germ theory or sanitation to speak of ... crowing, filth, epidemics ... but STILL rapidly growing, sedentary population. And yes, shorter stature.
For individuals, perhaps, it was an improvement. For humanity ... ?
For individuals, perhaps, it was an improvement. For humanity ... ?
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Nana, this digressed a bit for you but wanted to be sure you got what you needed. All Sugars are carbohydrates. Don't think of sugar as the white stuff in the bowl all the time. Think oranges (sweet) and banana's and potato's and milk...all of them and many more contain sugars. Galactose in milk, fructose in fruit, etc etc etc. When working with your grandson the total carbs are the important number. Manage the total carbs and keep 'em down and you will be doing right with sugars for your grand son. Hope that helped. Scott
Type 1 and type 2, as well as offshoot types like LADA and MODY, all convert carbohydrate into fuel the body can use like glucose, but all types have processing malfunctions. Every non-diabetic person also converts all carbs this way, but they are not impaired like we are, so their blood sugar doesn't rise when they eat carbs.
Table sugar is only part of the carbohydrate family, and you must count it along with everything else - there's no difference in Tristan's body - without his insulin, he cannot process carbs of any kind.
If this is confusing to other people, that isn't your problem, as long as you have it straight in your mind.
Table sugar is only part of the carbohydrate family, and you must count it along with everything else - there's no difference in Tristan's body - without his insulin, he cannot process carbs of any kind.
If this is confusing to other people, that isn't your problem, as long as you have it straight in your mind.
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Yep, that was confusing at first. I thought, ok he has to limit the sugar intake and he'll be ok. The dietitian explained that it's the carb content that we have to watch out for, minus the fiber content. If a food contains 30 gms. Of carb and 6 gms. Fiber, subtract 6 from 30 so that food is 24 gms. Carb.
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Tinss, this works for me but there are several people around here that it does not work for. some people, like myself, count carbs minus the fiber some people count all the carbs. How do you know which to do? Eat it and test before and after and for a few hours after and see what it does to you. If it spike the crap out of you avoid it, if it works well and doesn't spike you add it to your diet. Scott
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I guess it's all about a bit of experimentation, we had store-bought pizza and wings yesterday because I couldn't cook due to frozen water pipes. My son had 2 slices and his father also bought him bbq chicken breast and I prepared spinach salad with homemade dressing. After 4 hrs. He did a blood sugar reading and it was 10.8. Pretty high and I believe it's the pizza! 2 slices of a med sized pizza must of had over 60 gms. Of carbs and his diet allowed him 70-80 grams of carbs for dinner time. What the heck do they use to have so much carb in a slice. The chicken was only seasoned with herbs and his dressing was an olive oil and vinegar mixture with basil and oregano. Pretty carb free. Most cheeses I noticed are carb free too but I guess not the restaurant ones. You're right Yakfishingfool, testing foods is the way to go.
But all the wonderful pizza toppings are loaded onto a very high-carb crust, and the crust is what wreaked havoc on his blood sugar. Scrape off the toppings and throw away the crust - he can have his pizza that way.
Any time you're eating somebody else's cooking, it's a little dicey carb-wise. You never know what ingredients are in the sauces & things, and if they taste sweet (like bbq sauce), then they're prob'ly loaded with sugar.
You need to get a carb counting booklet or use some of the ones online like CalorieKing, and start acquainting yourselves with what constitutes high carb. Anything made with grain is going to be a huge offender, and that includes corn, wheat, rice, oats, barley and all the other grains, whether or not they're whole grains. So go easy on all the breads, pasta, chips/crackers, etc.
Any time you're eating somebody else's cooking, it's a little dicey carb-wise. You never know what ingredients are in the sauces & things, and if they taste sweet (like bbq sauce), then they're prob'ly loaded with sugar.
You need to get a carb counting booklet or use some of the ones online like CalorieKing, and start acquainting yourselves with what constitutes high carb. Anything made with grain is going to be a huge offender, and that includes corn, wheat, rice, oats, barley and all the other grains, whether or not they're whole grains. So go easy on all the breads, pasta, chips/crackers, etc.
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