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Alert: Product and Recall NoticesCarb vs. Sugar: How to understand nutrition labels
Growing up with type 1 diabetes meant that much of my young life was spent hearing the quote “you can’t eat sugar.” Typically, it was because it is the first thought people have when it comes to diabetes. But there is so much more than sugars. Total carbohydrate grams are what help tell the whole story.
Myth: Carbohydrate grams don’t matter. Sugar grams are the only thing that increases blood sugar.
Fact: Both sugar grams and carbohydrate grams have a direct impact on blood sugar.
How your body works
The foods we eat break down when digested and much of what we eat breaks down into glucose. (Exceptions to this rule are proteins like meat, poultry and fish, and non-starchy vegetables). Insulin is needed when we eat anything that breaks down into glucose – the insulin either comes from your pancreas, or you need to take insulin from a pump/shot.
Where this gets tricky is that it’s easy to think that glucose is sugar only, which is not the case. What makes it even more confusing is that they are both on the nutrition label and we know that is where we are supposed to look for our carbohydrate information.
Understanding nutrition labels
Carbohydrates are actually comprised of three nutrients: carbohydrates, fiber, and sugar. You may, and will see, foods that are very low in “sugar” but high in carbohydrate.
Example 1
Let’s look at a popular unflavored old fashioned oats label. Here we see that the total sugar is 1 gram. Looks great right? This item is practically sugar free! That’s not entirely true, because sugar grams are not what we would base our insulin/medication needs off of. This requires us to look at the carbohydrate serving and for this type of oatmeal it is 27 grams of carbs. That is far different than 1 gram!
Example 2
Here is the nutrition label for a standard sugar free cookie. Many would think since it is sugar free they should be able to eat as many of these as they want. We can see that just because there are no sugars listed there are still carbs that we would need to treat for.
The next time you are faced with the “you can’t eat sugar” quote, now you are equipped to say having diabetes means I need to take insulin or medication to help my body with the carbohydrates that I eat. And this may better help you explain that you still need to account for sugar free items when the next person offers it to you!
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About Author
Cheryl Cormany
Training and Education SpecialistCheryl Cormany was diagnosed with diabetes at 6-years-old. Even though she was diagnosed at a young age, she has thrived with diabetes through many stages of life. From childhood, to adolescence, through college and now as the mom of three boys she loves to share her diabetes journey with others. In 2005 Cheryl found her way to a career helping others with diabetes when she joined Medtronic as an inside sales representative. Her career has taken her through many facets of the company. She now serves as a clinical program specialist, working on educational programs for healthcare providers. She is happy to share some her diabetes experiences with the readers of the LOOP Blog.
As a type 2 diabetic. How many cards should I be eating per meal. And how many in total I er sa u?
Hi, there. This would be a great conversation to have with your healthcare team, as there is no one size fits all answer. Your healthcare team will be able to make recommendations based on your specific needs.
I’m trying to figure out how carbs equate to sugar.. is it 1 to 1? In other words, should i count carbs on nutrition label same as sugar since the body converts it? Sorry I’m just confused.. my sugar is high for some reason just from a bagel and tuna salad the whole day…hmmmm and i usually don’t eat bread
Sherry, generally, you will count carbs. We do recommend following up with your healthcare team, as they can give a more specific answer to your individual needs.
Pretty pointless Q&A when just about every answer provided is “This is a good conversation to have with a dietician or nutritionist”.
Why invite questions/comments?
You should state, please feel free to comment but for any questions have the conversation to with a dietician or nutritionist.
We appreciate the feedback, David.
I successfully went from type 2 to pre diabetic, now back to being type 2 because I got lazy again with food! I am in the UK. One of my things before was looking at food labels and picking the ones that had the conversion from carbs to sugar per 100gms that was the lowest, is my reasoning wrong that if it’s slightly high in carbs but the way it converts to sugar makes it better?
Thanks for reaching out, Dee. This is a good conversation to have with a dietician or nutritionist. They can make the best recommendations based on your individual needs.
I’m borderline diabetic per my A1C results. My doctor said not to worry. Still, I would like to know how many grams of sugar an average person (non-diabetic) should eat daily. When I read different sites, including ones for diabetics, they say 30-40 grams of sugar per day for a woman. Is that just added sugar or total sugars?
So if a product says there are 16 grams of carb of which o.5 grams sugars does that mean that it’s good to eat on a low carb diet or is it the 16 grams of carbs that still count so don’t eat it.
John, this is a good conversation to have with your healthcare team or a nutritionist/dietician. They can provide the best recommendations based on your needs and goals. Good luck to you.
Is my doctor the one one who decides the amount of carbs I should be getting per meal?
Yes, Cheryl. This is a great conversation to have with your healthcare team.
Just to be clear: (1) are net carbs based on grams only ?
(2) if the fiber daily value % exceeds the carb daily value % . . . but the
carb grams exceeds the fiber grams, which is more important ?
I’m type 2 so my question is when the label has carbs and sugar is the sugars already added to the total carbs or are both separate contributions? Ex oatmeal has 26 carbs and 9 sugar is the carbs from the sugar added to the 26 carbs ? Thank you
Bob, labels may vary, but in our examples, the added sugar was included in the total carbohydrates. We hope this helps.
What are the carbs that arent listed on the label. I couldn’t find an explanation of them. ,
Thanks for reaching out, Jules. This is a good conversation to have with your healthcare team or nutritionist. Information can vary and we want to ensure you get the best information possible.
XXXXXX bars say to deduct all the sugar alcohols. But some sources say only deduct 1/2 from the carb count. Help which is correct?
Marilyn, this is a good conversation to have with your healthcare team, as nutrition needs vary by person. Good luck to you.
Carbs are not the reason of sugar. And we need to understand this whole mechanism work differently. Our poor diet and lifestyle make us prone to many life threatening diseases. Carbs are good for body but if taken in balance . But is also true that diabetic patient do need to take care of carbs intake. This post would definitely help understand this fact.
Im completely confused. I found out I was diabetic, my blood sugar was 303. Within 3 weeks of diet & exercise , I got my blood sugar down to 152…
So my question is ( What’s worst sugar or carbs)
I’ve found food with no added sugar, but 40 grams of carbs, they almost sound pretty screwed up.
This is a great discussion to have with your healthcare team, Terry. Everyone has different needs and they are better able to assist in finding what’s works for you.
Terry this is how dietitian at Denver Health told me to count carbs in portion size a portion size is 15 grams of carbs you are allowed to 60 grams of carbs for breakfast 60 grams of carbs 4 lunch and 60 grams of carbs for dinner end m30 grams of carbs for snacks three times a day
Carbs break down into sugars that’s why you pay attention to the carbs
Also for every two grams of protein you can take off one carb I hope this helps
Do you subtract sugar alcohols from the carbs as you do fiber??
This would be a great question to discuss with your healthcare team. They better know your needs and can provide you the best advice.
Ivan add those together and it is a no no to eat
what this label means
CARBS 21 g 15%
added sugar 36 g 23%
It means don’t eat it.
How do you do it I was 29 when I Found out that I was Type one and I am 35 and it so hard to do my Suger have been in the 35 all the way to 700 I fight it everyday but carbs is so hard for me to do
You should see an Endocrinologist if you haven’t already. PCP’s do not specialize in diabetes. You can ask your doctor to set you up with a dietician as well. Seeing an Endocrinologist I believe is your first very important step. I’m type 1 also. Started out as type 2. I’ve had diabetes for 36 yrs.
Hi Jana, when you started off with type 2 diabetes, how long did it take to turn into type 1? I’m currently in that same situation as you.
Carlos, you don’t “turn” from one type to another. T1D is an auto-immune disease where the body attacks the beta cells of the pancreas, rendering the pancreas practically unable to produce insulin. T2D is a progressive disease, where the pancreas may gradually get “burned out” or the body stops responding to the amount of insulin the pancreas is producing. Maybe what you and Jana were thinking of is transitioning to using insulin. Having to use insulin doesn’t mean you “turn” into T1D. It means your body is no longer producing enough, so you need external supplementation.
Yes, I’m a diabetes educator 🙂
You can’t just look at the total carbs either. Dietary fiber does not affect your blood sugar and must be subtracted. Is this not correct? Also “sugar alcohols” must be deducted as well. The question I haven’t gotten an answer to is “Are sugar alcohols the same as sugars” on the food labels?
No and they react like a laxative.
I never read the sugar content. Never have. I only read the carb grams. Then, depending on what the food is… i.e., a sweet potato with the same amount of carbs as a white potato processes much better. Same with brown rice vs white rice. Good article here. Thank you!