Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: High Carb Diet

Question:
What is considered a High Carb diet?

Answer:
There are many different answers from many different people, but I think that 100 carbs or less are considered low carb, so it would seem that over a 100 carbs would be considered high. I could be wrong. If you're asking from a diabetic standpoint, it would make a huge difference if you were type1 or type 2 though. i eat what i feel is 'moderate' carbs at 100 gm a day a really low carb person would eat far less than that and at the far end of the scale we have Mr Gauntlet who will eat 350 gm of carb a day per the ADA diet he says check the Joslin web site for their Oct/05 release that suggests that a lower carb diet is required than the one the ADA has 'approved' find what is good for you i eat 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats in a day (leaning to the monounsaturated fats ........... and the other good fats, avoiding the saturated fats and the hydrogenized fats)...... this is similar to the 'Zone Diet' or the Four Corners Diet (newer book) Lots of people have very different ideas about that, and also as to what constitutes a low carb diet. If you are in the US and look at the nutrition label on foods, it lists grams of carbs per serving and tells you what percentage of daily intake in a 2000 calorie diet that represents. If you do the math, it turns out they are figuring that a standard healthy diet for non-diabetics includes 315 grams of carbs per day, or 63% of calories from carbs. Actually I'd be interested to hear if other countries use similar nuttition labeling and how the numbers work out from those. Leaving aside the question of whether the Food and Drug Administration really has any idea of what a healthy diet is for non-diabetics, which people can and will debate, you coulld use that as a reference point. Since diabetics generally need to eat fewer carbs in order to control blood sugar, that normal (FDA) diet would clearly be a high carb diet for diabetics. The dispute comes in at where to draw the line below that. A common recommendation of dieticians is for diabetics to eat somewhere in the range of 45 grams of carbs a meal and 15 grams at 2-3 snacks per day, which can add up to 150-180 grams of carbs a day. That is a lot lower than 315, and so compared to normal America, some people would call that a low-carb diet. Yet many diabetics cannot control blood sugar eating that many grams of carbs. So there are diabetic diets like the Bernstien diet, where people are eating maybe 30 grams per day, and Atkins and South Beach, where people eat much lower carb, primarily aiming at weight loss. So in the view of many diabetics , 150 grams of carbs daily is a high carb diet. And of course people choose plans with everything in between. To me the important thing is to find out what works for me. This involves testing blood sugar after eating and seeing how much different foods and varying amounts of carbs cause blood sugar to increase. If my blood sugar stays in a normal range for the next few hours and I don't feel starved or energy deprived (or bloated), then probably I am close to the right amount. But that amount will be different for each of us. Of course I am not trying to lose wieght, but merely trying to control blood sugar, so other considerations could enter into it for other people. I am aware that this response could open the floodgates for all kinds of debate--or perhaps this subject has been beaten to death too many times in the past for people to get to worked up over it again. doctors will use the term low fat - low carbers will call it high carb. my dietitian worked out a diet with me for 200 carbs per day. for the first 6 months I followed that diet to the T lost a lot of weight and was able to get off all medications. My A1C's after diagnoses have always been in the 5%. Eventually I slowly added back foods until I seen them affecting my meter. problem with that is my meter lets me eat way too much and as a result I have stopped losing weight. I think the best thing to do is work with doctors and dietitians that you trust and follow their advice on exercise and nutrition. unless of course you are a medical expert already. exercise is key. This is something we can't agree on. Depends on what kind of diet you are on, I suppose. If you're on a specific low carb diet, then anything over the amount of allotted carbs would be considered high carb. Some people would consider anything more than the normal amount of carbs per day to be high carb. But even there, there is no such fixed number. When I was a vegetarian, my diet consisted mainly of beans, rice, pasta and other vegetables. It was almost all carbs and little to no fat. I'd consider that to be high carb. One where you have to cover it with every drug available and non stop exercise. Seriously though, I see it as a point somewhere where you find bg's and triglycerides hard to manage. Changing amounts and types of carbs (but still maintaining good nutrition) so your bg's stay in normal range is a fairly good aim. I determine my carb levels per meal and snack. I eat no more than I can handle per meal, whether I eat 3 times a day or 12. That may make the total higher than a low carb but each meal will be what I consider low carb. For me a high carb diet is one that brings my blood readings to more than 170, 2 hours after a meal. Yes, I think so too. 100 carbs would be through the roof high carb to me. :-) Depends on your size. Remember that while 2 grams of carbohydrate will raise the blood sugar of a 140 lb person by 10 mg/dl, it only raises the blood sugar of a 280 lb person 5 mg/dl. So what is low carb for me, at 140 lbs is going to be different for what is low carb for you at 280. A lot of us, in practical terms eat something between 60 and 100 grams a day. That seems to be the level compatible with getting enough nutrients and veggies. High carb is enough carbs so that you cannot control your blood glucose to the level you want to achieve. It will depend on your meds, your exercise and the way your body reacts. To me, around 60 is what I can handle on a 3 meal day.