The Anatomy of a Nutrition Label

When was the last time you read a nutritional label? No, really. When was the last time you looked at it; analyzed it, and understood what it all meant? The answer is typically either "never", or "it's been a long time". Why? Because for most people, it just doesn't matter enough to care; so they think.

As a Type 2 diabetic; or any diabetic for that matter, it's a different story. Just as how some folks count calories; some diabetics count carbs. I don't. Oh, I understand the carbs are there; and I do know how many (roughly) most anything I eat has. But I don't count them. But I do scrutinize one section of that label more than most... The Total Carbs section.

As an otherwise healthy, underweight diabetic, I care nothing of the calories; and little of the fat (more about that later). I need to know 3 things that's on that label that ultimately tells me whether it's a "go" or a "no go". Weirdly, "Sugar" is NOT one of them. Nope. I'm looking at the Total Carbs, the Fiber, and the Sugar Alcohol.

Total Carbs is made up of the sum of the Fiber, Sugar, and Sugar Alcohol. We we determine how likely and by how much a food will spike our blood glucose, we need to understand the factors involved. Let's step aside for a moment and talk about the three classifications that ALL foods will fall into; FATS, PROTEINS, CARBS. Let's dispatch with the Fats for a moment. Fats will not raise your glucose levels at all; very minimal. Therefore, when we eat fats, we may open up other issues, but a spike in blood glucose levels isn't one of them. Eat your fats with relatively little guilt, unless there's another reason why you shouldn't in.

Next is Proteins. Proteins are very complex and your body is slower to process; thus a protein doesn't spike your blood sugar but by about half; and it's even less than that because of the nutritional value of the protein.

What's left is the carbohydrate...that quickly causes spikes in your blood glucose levels and is the primary nemesis of a diabetic. But remember, we mentioned NET CARBS earlier. So, here's how this works.

To get your net carbs, take the total carbs and subtract ALL of the fiber and then HALF of the sugar alcohols. BTW, sugar alcohols aren't sugar at all, but a classification of artificial sweeteners that do not aggravate or create a spike in your blood glucose levels. Some folks will tell you to subtract them all. I learned from the beginning to subtract just half from that total carb number.

If you look at a food; and the total carbs is 35; don't freak out yet. If 12 of those carbs is fiber, we're down to 23 Net carbs. If 10 of those carbs are sugar alcohols, we can subtract 5 more carbs. We are at a Net Carbs reading of 18 carbs. Now, to me, this is still high, but it's half of the 35 we started with. Serving size is critical though. You always want to be aware of the true serving size; otherwise, even with the net carbs, you're going to find yourself in a bad way.

Two of my favorite foods; pork rinds and Vienna Sausages, are foods that you wouldn't normally equate as part of a healthy diet at all. However, for me, they are in some ways, the perfect diabetic snack. They are mostly fats; which again for me is not that bad, and zero carbs. A serving of pork rinds will give me roughy 80 calories; a couple of grams of fats, and absolutely NO sugar spike due to the total absence of carbs. The same holds true for for the vienna sausages. I'm not here to convince you they're good for you. I'm here to tell you that as a diabetic, they don't spike my blood glucose levels and thus are a good way to fill in some diabetic guilt-free calories. And this is why fiber is such an important factor in diet. It won't spike your blood glucose, and it helps pull that sugar out of your body.

Go grab a few things out of the cupboard and start reading those labels. You'll be surprised at many things; some better for you than you expected, others not as good for you as you hoped. We'll pick up this discussion again soon, but we're about a 4 minute read into this post and I don't want you drifting off.

Till next time; when we'll take about sugar alcohols in more detail, and begin the dialog on the glycemic index and the glycemic load index and why those matter.

Cheers.