When you consume carbohydrates, your body converts most of them into glucose, which increases your blood sugar. The effect of these foods on your blood sugar levels depends on the type and amount of carbohydrates you eat. If you are looking for ways to take charge of your diabetes, choose your carbohydrates wisely. If you feel that controlling diabetes is difficult, then consider joining diabetes management program for personalized help and to reverse your diabetes.
Why Carbohydrates Matter for Blood Sugar?
Carbohydrates play a huge role in blood sugar control. Upon ingestion into the body, carbohydrates get converted into glucose, which goes up in your blood. This effect happens depending on the number and type of carbohydrates you consume. Selecting the right carbohydrates is important if you have diabetes, obesity, or have high blood pressure.
Carbohydrate types
- Simple and Refined Carbohydrates: Sugar, white flour (maida), tapioca pearls (sabudana), bakery items, sweets (mithai), and snacks (namkeen) quickly increase blood sugar.
- Complex Carbs: Foods like whole grains (wheat, sorghum, pearl millet) and vegetables raise blood sugar more slowly.
Selecting complex carbohydrates stabilizes your blood sugar.
Carbohydrate Sources
- Vegetarian foods, most of them are high in carbohydrate. These include grains like rice and wheat, lentils like dals, and all foods made from milk, like milk itself, or the products of milk, fruits, and vegetables.
- Knowledge of the carbohydrate content in these foods helps you manage your blood sugar. Thus, whole grains brown rice and whole wheat serve you better than the refined kind of grains. This is because they are relatively richer in fiber and nutrients.
- There are many examples related to the control of blood sugar: fruit apples and berries are a better choice than bananas and grapes.
Cooking Methods and Carbohydrates
Even cooking processes or styles can readily change the content of carbohydrate in a food. Ingredients like honey, sugar, dates, raisins, and corn flour contain a large quantity of carbohydrates and thus have the potential to increase the level of blood sugar. Deep-frying or baking with a large number of carbohydrate-containing ingredients raises the level of carbohydrates in the meal, but healthier modes of cooking, such as steaming, boiling, or grilling with less carbohydrate-containing ingredients, can help keep the blood sugar.
Understanding Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL)
This will help to make better choices in foods that have a low-glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL). The GI measures how fast a food increases blood sugar. However, the measure considers the amount of carbohydrates in one serving of a food. Therefore, low-GI and GL foods are the best to keep blood sugar levels stable.
For instance, food items such as oats, beans, and most vegetables have a low GI, and thus blood sugar response is elevated in a slow but steady manner. High GI foods, pushing up blood sugar levels quickly, include white bread, sugary cereals, and instant mashed potatoes. This way, one can manage blood sugar by selecting foods with a low-GI index and being careful about the portion size.
Learning about the glycemic index and the glycemic load of different foods can also help maintain the normal stability of blood sugar. More planning toward better carbohydrate choices and general health will be achieved for the better management of diabetes.
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Understanding carb impact is vital for managing diabetes effectively and maintaining health
Mind blowing article with detailed information about carbohydrates