Workbook

COUNTING CARBOHYDRATES
Counting carbs is an approach that helps you determine your food bolus. When you eat, you
need to count the carbs and determine a food bolus to match. This approach gives you greater
flexibility because you can match your insulin to your food choices rather than match your
food to your insulin intake! Let’s take a look at why we count carbs and review the basics.
The Basics
Food provides us with three major nutrients from which we get calories: protein, fat and
carbohydrate. We also get vitamins and minerals from food, but these micro nutrients do not
supply calories.
Carbohydrate is the nutrient that raises BG the most and the fastest. In fact, almost all of the
carbs we eat – no matter what type of carb – will end up as glucose in our bloodstream within
approximately 1 to 11/2 hours. This is about the time when the insulin from your food bolus
will be working the hardest (peaking). Of course, some carbs will enter the bloodstream
quicker than others; for example, fruit juice will appear in minutes.
Balancing your carb intake with the appropriate amount of bolus insulin will help keep your
BG on track after eating. To accomplish this, you need to know what foods contain
carbohydrate and be able to estimate how many grams of carbohydrate you are eating at
each meal and snack.
Foods With Carbohydrate
Many foods contain carbs. In general you find carbs in the following:
• Starches (bread, cereal, rice, beans and pasta) and starchy vegetables
(corn, potatoes, squash and peas)
• Fruit and fruit juices
• Milk and yogurt
• Sugar and foods made with sugar (sweets, cakes and biscuits, sugary soft drinks)
How Many Grams am I Eating?
There are two basic methods to counting carbs:
1. Carbohydrate Gram Counting
2. Carbohydrate Portions (CP's)
Carb counting is the more accurate of the two methods and it fits easily with using an Insulinto-Carbohydrate
Ratio (I:C) as seen on page 14. Many people, especially those already familiar
with Carbohydrate Portions, use a combination of both methods.
Animas UK & Ireland My Insulin Pump Workbook 15