Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have the greatest effect on blood glucose, especially within a few hours of being eaten. Although fat and protein can affect your blood glucose when eaten in large amounts, it’s carbohydrates you need to watch.

Carbohydrate Counting

With insulin pump therapy, you must take a bolus insulin dose for the carbohydrates you eat. To determine how much insulin to take for any given meal or snack, you need to count the carbohydrates in that meal.

Information on nutrition labels can help you determine how many grams of carbohydrate are in a particular food. There are also several books available that list the grams of carbohydrates in many foods. As you begin to learn carbohydrate counting, try to estimate the carbohydrates in the food you are eating and then look at the food labels to see how close you are.

When you start out on a pump, your endocrinologist, family doctor, or diabetes educator will give you an insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio to guide your carbohydrate counting. This may need to be adjusted based on the results of your blood glucose readings after you eat.

Practice Makes Perfect

Carbohydrate counting is not an exact science. Sometimes it takes trial and error to work out the correct meal bolus for certain foods. If you’re unsure of how certain foods will affect your blood glucose, test your blood glucose two hours after you eat. If your reading is too high or too low, adjust your meal bolus the next time you make that food choice. Remember to consult with your healthcare professional prior to making therapy adjustments.

A Word on Alcohol

Alcohol can cause low blood glucose and should always be consumed with food. The carbohydrate content of different types of alcohol can be found in carbohydrate counting books.