How do carbohydrates affect diabetics?
For someone with diabetes who has to maintain control of high blood sugar, a carb is not just a carb. Most of the food we eat is turned into sugar for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas produces a hormone called insulin to help the sugar get into our bodies’ cells. With diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use its own insulin as well as it should, or both. This causes sugars to build to high levels in your blood. One hundred percent of carbohydrates, 50 percent of proteins and 10 percent of fats are eventually turned into sugar for our bodies to use for energy. Foods that have similar carbohydrate content can result in varying blood sugar levels when the carbohydrates are eaten without protein, fiber or fat.
