How Food Labels Can Help
Food labels are easy to read, and they list a food's ingredients, nutritional information, and calories. So anyone concerned about eating healthy can learn a lot from them. For people with diabetes, food labels also may provide information they need to know to keep their blood sugar on track.
For example, if you are using the constant carbohydrate or the carb counting meal plan, you can look for carbohydrates on the food label. It will tell you how many grams of carbs you are about to eat. The number of carb grams on the label applies to one serving, so be sure to multiply that number times the number of servings you're eating or drinking.
If you're using the carb counting plan, knowing the amount of carbs you've eaten can help you determine how much medicine to take.
Someone on an exchange plan also might use food labels. How? By looking at the food's breakdown of carbs, protein, and fat. It can help the person know how to classify this food — as a starch, fruit, vegetable, meat, or fat. This lets people keep track of how many servings of a food they eat that day.
Food labels also show you how much sodium (salt) is in a food. This is important because some people who have diabetes also have high blood pressure. Too much salt, or sodium, can worsen blood pressure problems.
On food labels, you'll also find information on the amount of fat, the type of fat, and the total calories in a food. It's a good idea for everyone, including people who have diabetes, to keep an eye on these. Eating too much of certain fats can make someone more likely to have heart and blood vessel problems. And eating too many calories can cause you to gain too much weight. If you're curious, your parent, doctor, or nutritionist can help you figure out how many calories you need each day. Use them well!
Write it Down
As you've probably noticed, meal plans mean a lot of keeping track — of the carb grams or the exchange servings you've eaten. To make that easier, you might want to write down what you eat and your blood sugar readings on a record sheet.
Your mom or dad can use this record to help you balance food and insulin so you stay on track. And because it's written down, you won't have to say, "Uh, I don't know" when someone asks you what you ate or what your last reading was!
Date reviewed: April 2016