Sugar free products and net carbs often come up in the same conversation. Why? Because if you are diabetic and are counting your carbohydrate grams daily, net carbs is important to know so you can figure out EXACTLY how many carbs you are consuming with each meal and snack.
What Does Net Carbs Mean?
Late 1990's and early 2000's, the food industry itself came up with a new way to market sugar free products. It became known as counting net carbs in your daily totals (instead of total carbohydrates).
Research and testing had already determined, sugar alcohols, the sweetener of choice in sugar free products, did not raise blood sugar levels like regular sugar products. This is because regular sugar hits your blood stream and spikes immediately. Sugar alcohols though, pass through the digestive system differently causing minimal sugar spikes over a longer period of time.
Manufacturing firms eventually coined the phrase "net carbs" to signify the approximate amount of the sweetener which does actually get converted to glucose in the bloodstream. This number then is what is used to determine the carbs ratio for any carb counting program.
How Does It Work?
If you are on a daily carb counting program (many type 1 diabetics are) by your doctor or nutritionist, this information should be covered by them. If it is not, bring it up. You must understand it and how it fits into your daily diet.
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Find the nutrition label and look for the line "total carbohydrates" and "sugar alcohols". First take the sugar alcohol number and divide it by 2. Then subtract this answer from the number on the total carbohydrate line.
Total carbohydrates 10 grams
Sugar Alcohols 10 grams (on label) divided by 2 = 5 grams
Divide 5 grams (sugar alcohols) into 10 grams (total carbs) = 5 grams.
This then is the number you will be using for your measurement for that meal so you can get the correct carbs to insulin ratio.
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Exceptions To This Rule
Several exceptions do exist to this rule. You must also always check this information:
What Does Net Carbs Mean?
Late 1990's and early 2000's, the food industry itself came up with a new way to market sugar free products. It became known as counting net carbs in your daily totals (instead of total carbohydrates).
Research and testing had already determined, sugar alcohols, the sweetener of choice in sugar free products, did not raise blood sugar levels like regular sugar products. This is because regular sugar hits your blood stream and spikes immediately. Sugar alcohols though, pass through the digestive system differently causing minimal sugar spikes over a longer period of time.
Manufacturing firms eventually coined the phrase "net carbs" to signify the approximate amount of the sweetener which does actually get converted to glucose in the bloodstream. This number then is what is used to determine the carbs ratio for any carb counting program.
How Does It Work?
If you are on a daily carb counting program (many type 1 diabetics are) by your doctor or nutritionist, this information should be covered by them. If it is not, bring it up. You must understand it and how it fits into your daily diet.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Find the nutrition label and look for the line "total carbohydrates" and "sugar alcohols". First take the sugar alcohol number and divide it by 2. Then subtract this answer from the number on the total carbohydrate line.
Total carbohydrates 10 grams
Sugar Alcohols 10 grams (on label) divided by 2 = 5 grams
Divide 5 grams (sugar alcohols) into 10 grams (total carbs) = 5 grams.
This then is the number you will be using for your measurement for that meal so you can get the correct carbs to insulin ratio.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Exceptions To This Rule
Several exceptions do exist to this rule. You must also always check this information:
- If the sugar alcohol level on the nutrition label already says 5 grams or less, do not cut this number in half. Subtract this number as is from your total carbohydrate line
- check the ingredient label for the kind of sugar alcohol which was used. If the name erythritol is on the ingredient label do not divide this number in half. Subtract all of this number from your total carbohydrates. This is because erythritol does not get digested in the digestive system at all so the entire total will count.
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