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Diabetes Management:Fiber and Carbohydrate CountingTranscriptWhen using carbohydrate counting as a tool to help control your blood glucose, thetotal number of carbohydrate grams you eat can make a difference in your diabetesmanagement. But what if some of those carbohydrate grams are grams of fiber?“The simple carbs I can figure out but what I’m having a hard time figuring outis the fiber. When I look at the labels, I have to be honest. I’m not even countingthem because I don’t know how to count them.”Fiber can be found in most fruits, vegetables and grains. As part of a healthy mealplan, everyone – whether you have diabetes or not – should get 20 to 35 grams of fibereach day.Fiber can be soluble or insoluble. Both are good for you. Soluble fiber reducescholesterol levels decreasing your risk of heart disease. Insoluble fiber improvesdigestion by helping food move more quickly through the digestive tract.Although the amount of fiber, both soluble and insoluble, is included in the totalcarbohydrate information on the food label, it is not absorbed by the body in the sameway other carbohydrates are and does not cause your blood glucose to spike as high.So if you eat a high fiber meal and count those fiber grams as carbohydrate, you maynot be getting an accurate carbohydrate count. When you eat a meal with more than 5grams of fiber in it, take the total number of carbohydrates and subtract half the gramsof fiber to get an accurate carbohydrate count.For example, a small bowl of All-Bran® breakfast cereal has 24 grams of totalcarbohydrate, but 13 of those grams are fiber. Half of 13 is 6.5. Subtract 6.5 gramsfrom 24 to get the correct number of carbohydrates to count. In this case, count 17.5grams for your bowl of cereal.Talk to your diabetes care team about when and how to correctly subtract the20%numbergradient meshof grams of fiber from your total carbohydrate values to ensure you’re correctlymanaging your blood glucose.healthclipshealthclipshealthclipshealthclips4% gradient meshThis program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, orsuitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.hc_db_10126_98_en_t00002.pdf © Milner-Fenwick, Inc.healthclips5% gradient mesh
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