# Are all carbs created equal?



## pottersusan (Aug 23, 2015)

I've been following a low FODMAP diet for nearly a fortnight now. (FODMAP stands for Fermentable, Oligo-saccharides, Di-saccharides, Mono-saccharides and Polyols and is the diet you need to follow to identify what is causing irritable bowel syndrome)
I am using nearly 50% less insulin as a result and am not having the amazing spikes in blood glucose readings that I was getting (unless I have something like marmalade ). I'm counting my carbs just as I was before, but getting incredibly different outcomes and adjusting my insulin to carb ratios as I was having multiple hypos every day.
There's one brief thread about this on the forum. Is there any other experience or knowledge about this out there?
If this is the 'usual' response of a diabetic to low FODMAP people should be warned! Or it may be just me and my rather empty insides!!
I haven't had any luck with my conversations with the experts.


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## grovesy (Aug 23, 2015)

GLycaemic Index suggests that not all carbs are the same.


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## HOBIE (Aug 23, 2015)

If you eat "Sticky toffee pudding Cake" Or if you ate the same carb value in "Porridge".  Big difference


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## pottersusan (Aug 23, 2015)

So I suppose when you eat the porridge side of the equation all the time the effects are magnified.
Normally we all eat some slow and some fast acting carbs, so it averages out.
It's certainly 'food for thought'


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## Vicsetter (Aug 24, 2015)

Carbohydrates are organic compounds that contain single, double, or multiple sugar units. Simple sugars are only one or two sugar units long and are typically sweet tasting whereas complex carbohydrates are thousands of sugar units long and have a starchy taste.

Eating a simple carb will elicit rapid response in blood glucose level.  Simple carbs are things like sugar and white flour based products.
Eating a complex carb will exlicit a slower response in blood glucose (or none at all).
There are also non-digestible carbs, like cellulose, wheat bran and our favourite sweeteners, maltodextrin, and the polyols (used extensively in chewing gum).  Like their name suggests they are not converted into food by the human body (you need multiple stomachs like a cow to process cellulose).

Your FOODMAP diet is intended to help you avoid certain foods which trigger your IBS and has nothing to do with your diabetes!  For instance allowed foods are: jam, golden syrup, icing sugar and glucose.  Whilst you may be able to get away with eating any of these, they will not do your diabetes any good.


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## Worcester_Matt (Aug 24, 2015)

Vicsetter said:


> Your FOODMAP diet is intended to help you avoid certain foods which trigger your IBS and has nothing to do with your diabetes!  For instance allowed foods are: jam, golden syrup, icing sugar and glucose.  Whilst you may be able to get away with eating any of these, they will not do your diabetes any good.



I've considered the FODMAP diet as I'm currently in the process of being diagnosed with IBS (it's likely I have it, but they're still ruling things out). I don't think we can say it has nothing to do with diabetes. Anything we eat and do has something to do with our diabetes. 

On the second point, this is perhaps where type 1 and type 2 diabetics fundamentally differ. The advice I've been given by my DSNs and dietician is that I should aim for as normal a diet as possible. I'm free to eat low GI or low carb diets if I want to, but in two months no one has suggested I do so (at the last count I've seen four doctors, three nurses and a dietician). As far as I understand it, for type 1s we basically have to manually do what our bodies would do automatically.


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## pottersusan (Aug 24, 2015)

With my strange plumbing (and lack of things... Like a stomach!) I have to eat about 3000 calories a day to maintain my weight - which is about 50% more than the average woman! I am limited on the volume I eat so have to eat calorie dense foods like carbs and fats. I wish I didn't have to eat so much of these things cos it would make diabetes management much simpler.


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## Northerner (Aug 24, 2015)

pottersusan said:


> With my strange plumbing (and lack of things... Like a stomach!) I have to eat about 3000 calories a day to maintain my weight - which is about 50% more than the average woman! I am limited on the volume I eat so have to eat calorie dense foods like carbs and fats. I wish I didn't have to eat so much of these things cos it would make diabetes management much simpler.



Isn't it interesting (hopefully this will not sound flippant) that so many have gastric band surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs in order to eat less, yet you have had yours removed and you need to eat more! I can't imagine how difficult it must be for you Susan. Diabetes is hard enough without having to be so forensically particular about what you can eat.


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## pottersusan (Aug 24, 2015)

I used to stand in shops looking for the low calorie option. My poor brain still has problems dealing with the fact I now need the high calorie option! And FODMAP doesnt help cos a lot of things are out of bounds at the moment... I'm just off for my second dinner of the evening!


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## pottersusan (Aug 24, 2015)

Perhaps I should borrow your picture, Northerner!


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## Vicsetter (Aug 24, 2015)

Worcester_Matt said:


> I've considered the FODMAP diet as I'm currently in the process of being diagnosed with IBS (it's likely I have it, but they're still ruling things out). I don't think we can say it has nothing to do with diabetes. Anything we eat and do has something to do with our diabetes.
> 
> On the second point, this is perhaps where type 1 and type 2 diabetics fundamentally differ. The advice I've been given by my DSNs and dietician is that I should aim for as normal a diet as possible. I'm free to eat low GI or low carb diets if I want to, but in two months no one has suggested I do so (at the last count I've seen four doctors, three nurses and a dietician). As far as I understand it, for type 1s we basically have to manually do what our bodies would do automatically.



The FOODMAP diet is specifically for treating IBS, it is not for treating diabetes.  There are a number of experts (inc Dr Bernstein) who would advocate avoiding fast acting carbs if you are diabetic, whether you can compensate correctly with fast acting insulin or not.  Certainly a lot of the allowed foods on the FOODMAP list would not be good for T2s.


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