Be Happy Dieting!

counting carbohydrates in your daily food intake will indeed help you to maintain a control over your blood glucose level. More than any other nutrient, carbohydrates can raise your blood glucose level because the carbohydrates in your food are broken down by the body into glucose to use for energy. Healthy foods such as grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat milk are also carbohydrates that provide energy, minerals, vitamins and fiber. If an excess amount of carbohydrates are administered to the body, your blood sugar level can reach harmful levels. Counting carbohydrates is the ideal way to keep track of how many carbs you eat.

Checking your blood sugar levels before and after meals will keep you informed if you are eating too many carbohydrates compared to your insulin level. The basics of counting carbohydrates can be learnt easily in a relatively short time by any individual as you initially only need to know the foods that contain carbohydrates and the amount they contain. You don’t need to know about carbohydrates in all the foods and only knowledge about foods you consume frequently would be enough. Counting carbohydrates in the foods that you eat most and determining how many carbs are in your usual portions is a definite start. You will have to make adjustments in your carb count if you eat multiple servings of a particular food. Writing down everything you plan to eat and picking out the foods that have carbs is a way to measure how much of each carbs you will be eating. Once you are more familiar with counting carbohydrates, checking your blood sugar level before and after each meal can give you a rough estimate whether the amount of carbohydrates in the foods you consume match with the body’s insulin levels.

Starting out is probably the hardest part about learning to count carbohydrates. Once you know the amount of carbohydrates in a single serving of your food, it won’t be so overwhelming. Even the individuals who use counting carbohydrates should stick to a healthy diet.

It is essential to keep in mind of the other types of food you eat as well, set aside from counting carbohydrates in food. Adults usually eat 6 ounces of meat so it might be advisable to limit the saturated fats that are eaten like bacon, cream, butter and high fat meats.If you have a high intake of meat and fats, it would cause weight gain and other problems such as heart disease.Counting carbohydrates gives you more flexibility in the choice of foods you eat and will help you maintain your blood glucose levels within the target range.