Diet for Diabetics and Counting of The Carbohydrates (Carbs)

Diet for Diabetics

This is a critical topic to count how many carbs a patient with diabetes can take each day. Unfortunately, this is the most common question for diabetic patients.

Most important than the number of carbohydrates/day is keeping the blood glucose in the target range.

One should keep in mind for calculating the carbs, age of the patient, activity or exercise level, and food preferences. Also, note the medications and any other medical issues.

This is not necessary for people with diabetes to take low carbs in the diet.

These are two methods that will help to decide on the diet for diabetics.

1. Plate method.
2. Carbohydrates counting.

Plate method:

This is the most simple method and is more useful for the newly diagnosed case of diabetics.

This is clear from the following diagrams.

Diabetic diet carbs calculation, simple idea

Carbohydrates counting method:

Once you have mastered the plate method, then you can try counting the carbohydrates in grams. This method will calculate carbohydrates in grams in your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

These are simple methods shown in the following table.

American diabetes association’s recommendation for diabetics is not to eat <130 grams of carbohydrates per day.

The simple formula is 45 grams each meal and 15 grams at each snack (45+45+15+15 = 120 grams/day).