Date: Updated in November 2013
By: Serafín Murillo, Dietitian-Nutritionist and Researcher at CIBERDEM (Barcelona Clinic Hospital)
As many of you already know, the increase in blood glucose after meals depends mainly on the amount of carbohydrates ingested.Therefore, the person with diabetes must learn to assess what amount of carbohydrates will take and consequently manage the dose of insulin necessary to metabolize them.
Surely this is one of the most difficult steps in the entire process, because not only should it be known if a food provides more or less carbohydrates, but also being able to calculate the amount of food to be taken.
To facilitate the process, the exchanges or rations system of 10 grams of carbohydrates (HC) has been developed.It consists of dividing food into portions that provide 10g of carbohydrates.For example, a ration of heavy rice once cooked corresponds to 38g of rice.It means that every 38g of cooked rice contributes 10g of HC.
Exchange or equivalences can be made between different foods.For example, a ration of HC in the form of rice for a apple -shaped HC could be changed.This would mean by 38g the amount of rice at a meal to increase by 100g (1 ration of HC) the apple of dessert.
In the following table you can see a list of foods containing carbohydrates.
Next to each food you will find the amount of food containing 1 ration (10g) of carbohydrates.In addition, we show you what is the usual measure of consumption of that food and its carbohydrate content (Example: Media Pizza contains 5 portions, while a medium apple contains 2 portions).You will see boxes where the usual measure information does not appear this is because there is no standard measure, so you should use the scale to know the carbohydrate content.
In addition now, we have incorporated a last column in the table with information about the glycemic index of many of these foods.The glycemic index informs us of the speed with which each food increases blood glucose.You can find more information in the article the glycemic index of food.
To prepare this document, the data of the composition tables published by the University of Barcelona, the Catalan Diabetes Association (2005) and the nutritional information that appears in the labeling of some products have been obtained.
