By Wendy J. Meyeroff
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
“I’ve stopped smoking. I’ve stopped drinking. Now I can’t eat either?!”
That’s the reaction many people seem to have when they’re first diagnosed with diabetes.
It’s a major misconception. “You can have carbohydrates and some sweets. The key is how you do it,” says Dee Cary, R.D., C.D.E, a dietitian at Charlestown, a community in Maryland built and managed by Erickson. That means planning plus adapting, to new ways to eat.
The Importance of Carbohydrates
Many older people are not aware of a change that occurred in dietary recommendations in 1993. “Instead of focusing on sugar intake, the American Diabetes Association told dietitians to help patients focus more on carbohydrates. It’s recommended that carbohydrates should be about 50 percent of diets for people with diabetes,” says Cary.
Simple carbs are sugars that absorb quickly into your system, including table sugar, fruit juices, and honey. Complex carbs, which are preferred in diabetic diets, are starches. The latter break down into sugars slowly, so they don’t spike blood glucose as quickly as simple sugars. Whole wheat bread, wild rice, and oatmeal are good complex carbohydrates.
“The latest classifications are to break foods down into sugars (such as table and milk sugars), starches (e.g., potatoes, beans, and various grains), and fibers, like oat bran,” says Patti Geil, M.S., R.D., C.D.E., a diabetes educator based in Lexington, Ky.
Beware of Carb Confusion
There are several methods for planning your carb intake. One is through servings, also called “exchanges.” “On a 1,500-calorie diet you may have five or six starch servings each day and each serving is equal to 15 gms of carbohydrates (90 gms total),” says Cary.
You can opt for “carb counting,” in which you aim to consume a pre-determined number of carb grams throughout the day. “Generally it’s 275 grams for men daily and about 225 grams for women,” says Geil.