Whether you have recently been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, or have been managing it for years, you probably know that what you eat has a big impact on your blood glucose (blood sugar).
Carbohydrates in food cause blood glucose to rise after meals quicker than foods with protein or fat. This is because carbs are broken down into glucose that enters your bloodstream the quickest. But that doesn’t mean you have to remove all carbs from your meals—they are also important sources of other nutrients like fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and they are the main source of energy for our body, muscles, brain, and other organs.
Related: Ask the Experts: All About Carbs
There’s no set number of carbs that everyone with diabetes should eat. The eating plan and carb amount that works for you will depend on your age, gender, activity level, treatment plan, and health goals. It will also depend on your current eating habits, food preferences, and budget.
Depending on your current eating habits, making some changes to how many carbs you eat may help you manage your blood glucose. But there’s no need to make major changes to your eating plan all at once.
Work with a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) or certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES) to determine the amount of carbs that is right for you, and come up with an eating plan that meets your needs.
Tips for managing blood glucose while eating carbs
Whether you want to reduce your carb intake or not, doing one or more of these tips can help you manage your blood glucose:
- Choose carbohydrate foods that are a good source of fiber, like starchy vegetables, beans, fruits, or whole grains, and pair carb foods with fat and/or protein. Fiber, fat, and protein help slow the digestion and absorption of glucose from carb foods, so your blood glucose will rise more slowly after a meal. Eating foods higher in fat and protein before eating carb foods in a meal may also help slow the effect on your blood glucose.
- Go on a walk or do some other physical activity after a meal for 10–30 minutes. Physical activity helps your body use blood glucose after a meal.
- Eat the same amount of carbs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day. Consistency in your eating pattern can make it easier to predict highs and lows in blood glucose and help medications manage blood glucose consistently. This tip is especially important if you are using insulin.
- Gather data! Check your blood glucose before eating and two hours after eating different carbohydrate foods to see how they impact your blood glucose. Everyone is different, and some foods may affect blood glucose with a lower or higher reading than someone else.
Try different combinations of food, too. This will help you see how different foods affect your blood glucose. For example, an apple alone may raise blood glucose more than an apple with peanut butter, which provides fat and protein. Gathering this data will help you understand how your body responds to different foods so that you can make informed food choices that work for you.
Carb Counting
If you are counting carbs, here are portion sizes of some common foods that are equal to about 15 grams of carbs:
- 1 ounce bread product: 1 slice, 1 small dinner roll, 1/2 small (6 inch) pita, small (6 inch) tortilla.
- 1/2 cup cooked cereal like oatmeal or grits
- 1/2 cup starchy vegetables like mashed potatoes, corn or winter squash
- 3 ounce baked potato or sweet potato (1/4 large potato)
- 1/3 cup plantain or cassava
- 1/3 cup cooked grains like rice, quinoa, barley or millet
- 1/3 cup pasta (any shape)
- 1/2 cup cooked beans, peas or lentils
- 3 cups popped popcorn
- 1/2 cup fresh, canned (no syrup) or frozen fruit (unsweetened)
- 1 small fruit (small apple or orange)
- 1 cup of berries, melon or papaya
- 2 Tablespoons dried fruit
- 1 cup of milk or plain yogurt
Trying to cut back on carbs? Here are some tips:
If you do want to lower your carb intake, these tips are easy ways to cut back, without sacrificing your favorite foods:
- Reduce: Reduce the portion size of carb foods in your meal. Cutting back on the amount of rice, pasta, or other carb foods in your meal is an easy way to reduce carbs without giving anything up. The Diabetes Plate is a great visual to manage portion sizes, without any counting or measuring. Simply limit your portion of carb foods to about one-quarter of your plate. This is the quality carb section of the plate.
- Remove: If a meal has more than one carbohydrate food, remove one. For example, a burrito may include rice, beans, and a tortilla. Leaving out the rice won’t impact the flavor, but it will cut down on the carbs. Or, you could ditch the tortilla and make a vegetarian breakfast burrito bowl.
- Replace: If you’ve reduced or removed carb foods from your meal, you can replace them with lower carb alternatives. For example:
- Replace some or all of the spaghetti in a dish with eggplant meat balls with zucchini noodles.
- Replace some or all the rice in a dish with cauliflower rice.
- Replace a carb side dish, like mashed potatoes or corn, with a non-starchy vegetable side, like a small salad, roasted radishes, or baked broccoli.
- Replace sugary drinks like soda, sweet tea, or juice, with water or unsweet tea.
Stay Connected
Want more articles like this? Sign up for Diabetes Food Hub’s e-newsletter for diabetes-friendly articles, ideas, and recipes from the ADA’s Nutrition & Wellness team delivered to your inbox every month.
