 Carb Counting And Diabetes
Carb counting does not guarantee the eating of a healthful meal. Carb counting provides the assurance that the body’s insulin resources can provide the body’s cells with all of the glucose that will be produced by the counted and eaten carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates have an important nutritional value. Carbohydrates serve as a source of fuel. If a body fails to receive an adequate amount of carbohydrates, the muscles of the body lack fuel: they lack the ability to generate movement. If a body fails to receive a sufficient number of carbohydrates, the body organs can not function efficiently.
At the same time, medical science has come to realize that not all carbohydrates are alike. Medical science now separates carbohydrates into three different categories. Simple sugars are carbohydrates. Starches are carbohydrates. Fibers are also carbohydrates.
All of the above compounds contain the same three elements—carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. In all of those carbohydrates, long chains of the three named elements contain material from which the body can benefit.. The digestive system thus works to break down the chains in each ingested carbohydrate, and to access its beneficial contents.
The breakdown of sugars and starches leads to the creation of glucose. Glucose provides cells with energy. Yet glucose in the bloodstream can not pass quickly and easily into the cells. The body uses insulin from the pancreas as a way to transport glucose into the body’s cells.
Obviously, the absence of insulin prevents the entrance of glucose into the body cells. Diabetes is a medical condition that is caused by the absence of insulin. Some diabetics are born without the ability to make insulin. Other older diabetics have lost the ability to make the amount of insulin that is needed by each of their bodies.
Carb counting involves the creation of a balance. The amount of ingested carbohydrates must correspond to the amount of insulin available in the body system. The diabetic should not eat so many carbs that his or her system (aided by the addition of administered insulin) can not handle the resulting rise in glucose in the bloodstream.
Carb counting determines the expected increase after a meal, a meal containing foods with significant carbohydrate content. Carb counting permits reasonable assessment of how much glucose will enter the bloodstream, following ingestion of the counted carbohydrates. Carb counting indicates the extent to which the diabetic must act to lower the expected blood glucose level.
Carb counting can help a family’s “cook” to plan a meal that will deliver the proper number of carbohydrates to any diabetic family member. Normally, a diabetic can learn from his or her physician how much insulin to take, following the ingestion of a given amount of carbohydrates. In other words, the physician can tell the patient how many units of insulin are needed, if that patient wants to balance his or her insulin with a given amount of ingested carbohydrates.
If, for example, the person preparing a meal for a diabetic knew how much insulin he or she received each day, then that meal planner could prepare meals that would have the proper amount of carbohydrates. The wise “cook” would not make a meal that was loaded with carbohydrates, because the diabetic would not have the ability to utilize all of the glucose made from those carbohydrates.
By the same token, a wise cook would not deprive the diabetic of fiber rich, vitamin rich or mineral rich carbohydrates. Those are digested more slowly than the simple sugars. They do not “flood” the bloodstream with glucose. By counting carbohydrates, the wise “cook” can safely add healthful carbohydrates to any meal.
The above example focuses on meal planning in the home. Diabetics do not always eat at home. Sometimes, they eat at a restaurant, or they eat in a school or workplace cafeteria. There are small charts that a diabetic can carry on his or her person when dining at a restaurant. Using the carbohydrate counts on such a chart, a diabetic has the ability to choose the foods that he or she can digest and handle properly.
Sometimes, a diabetic finds that he or she wants to ignore the suggested foods that have been disclosed by a carb counting chart. Sometimes, a diabetic eats more than the desirable amount of carbohydrates. In that case, the diabetic would probably plan to put added insulin in his or her body. That diabetic would illustrate a point made earlier.
The above example underscores the statement made at the start of this article: Carb counting can not guarantee the eating of a healthful meal. At the same time, carb counting should not be used to measure the extent of a diabetic’s “sin.” Instead carb counting should be used as a tool for determination of the ideal foods and the ideal food portions in any given meal.
All of the above examples have concentrated on the selection of single foods. Sometimes, a cook wants to make a soup, or a casserole or some other dish that requires the mixing of foods. In that case, the cook should plan to study the available software. There is software with programs that allow a cook to count the carbohydrates called for in any recipe.
Some programs indicate how a cook can substitute for various carbs in any one recipe. Still, not every cook prepares a meal from a written recipe. In many parts of the world, the cook does not use recipes; the “cook” in a family might well rely on the experience the he or she has acquired. In that case, software that allows for the creation of recipes might not be sufficient. Such software is usually not written in more than one language.
What then is the solution? Diabetes is found among every ethnic group. Diabetics speak many different languages. Diabetics and cooks the world over would benefit from the release of software that aided the creation of ethnic dishes. Such software could benefit diabetics who live in places where the family cook disdains reliance on a written recipe. | 
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