Good carb/bad carb/no carb/low carb ??!!

So many different views on carbohydrates.  Give me your opinion  and reasoning please.  I am not sure which way to go.  Right now I don't count carbs, I just eat small portions after or in with my protein (shakes with fruit).  Carbs don't upset my pouch and I don't dump.  (I wish I had never found out about the dumping:-( 

Open discussion needed

Thanks everyone

Candy

Carbs not good for us: potatoes/pasta/rice/bread...anything esp white or high on the glycemic scale like corn/peas

Carbs good for us: green leafy kind or things like broccoli (assuming you can tolerate the crucifer veggies)

IF eating fruit, use the actual fruit (even if frozen) and NOT juice...juice will go straight to your system.

As to why I keep low carb (and I count ALL carbs, not just NET carbs because all carbs affect my blood sugar). I have been counting/watching carbs for almost 15 years. My blood sugar levels do much better when I avoid carbs or watch which carbs. Example, honey, while a carby sweetner, does NOT affect my blood sugar as much as regular sugar will.

MY reason for watching carb intake WAS just because of my diabetes, NOW it's due to my WLS, the DS absorbs more carbs than anything else.

 

I do stay away from white "junk' white carbs, no nutrition there.  I never had diabetes but I was heading in that direction for sure.   Thanks for your answer.

Question about peas  - I made split pea soup in my crock pot- (peas, carrots,  onion, celery, ham broth) would that be considered to be made of bad carbs or veggies??!! I had it for lunch a few days last week.   I am confusing the situation lol

To me, carbs are carbs, regardless of good or bad. If something like peas and veggies are high in fiber I feel less guilt about eating them. I really have a hard time with beans and peas however because they are higher in carbs than green veggies. That's why I say protein first, green veggies and the lowest carb fruit you can find. No bananas but blueberries and strawberries are fine. Am I making any sense?

--gina

You make complete sense Gina lol  Thanks for the answer. 

Candy

Since split pea has NEVER been on my list of foods to eat, I have no idea of their glycemic value. I do know that green peas (like spring peas) are high up. Their sugar content makes them a veggie to stay away from most if the time.

I tend to eat broccoli and green beans mostly.

peas, carrots,  onion, celery, ham broth

Ham broth...maybe use a ham bone and get some ham in there too?

Peas (split), a cup had 41 carbs, and is a 13 on the glycemic scale.

A typical target for total Estimated Glycemic Load is 100 or less per day. If you have diabetes or metabolic syndrome, you might want to aim a little lower. If you are not overweight and are physically active, a little higher is acceptable.

Carrots, uncooked: 1 cup: 12 carbs, a 3 on the glycemic scale. Carrots, cooked: 1 cup 12 gams, a 1 on the glycemic scale   Onion, uncooked: 1 cup 15 carbs, a 5 on the glycemic scale. Onion, cooked:21 carbs, an 8 on the glycemic scale (notice that cooking makes the onions worse than eating raw)   Celery: 1 cup 4 carbs, a 1 on the glycemic scale.   While none are white/flour like carbs, it is very carb heavy....maybe add more ham to the pot????   Liz

I don't know much about the glycemic scale.  It is interesting- I will read up about it.  I understand the concept of affecting blood sugar, just dont know specifics about it.  There was a small amount of ham in my soup, I did use a ham bone from a spiral ham after I cut the meat off the bone.  I got sick on ham a few months ago when I tried it.  I should try it again.  I felt sooo bad that it has scared me away.   Same with ground beef and chicken, need to try again.   When I have something that makes me puke it leaves a long time aversion to it.  I HATE TO THROW UP!!  Thanks Liz for taking the time to look up my ingredients. 

Do you add up your "load" to stay under 100 for the whole day?  So a cup of the soup would be 13 or less,because some of the cup is the veggies that are lower than the split peas?  Is that logic accurate?

For something like the soup, add up everything you put in it and then figure out about how many servings...and divide the Godawful large total by the number of servings. Do the same with the carbs...the total and then divide by the number of servings.

This is the closest I could find for homemade soup with most of the ingredients you put in it (minus the celery):  Homemade Split Pea Soup W/ Carrots, Onion W/Ham

One cup seems to have a LOT of carbs, esp for one meal. 30 grams in one cup. Since I count all carbs not net, I don't know how to adjust for that. I had to count all due to the way my blood sugar handled carbs.

For the glycemic index, you can read about it here: http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm But as everything, it's all about YMMV (your mileage may vary). Amazingly enough, honey has a much higher glycemic index than most fruits but honey barely budges my glucose levels, most fruits make them go nuts, esp bananas.

 

 

I feel better about my soup, I found this blurb about split peas on http://www.glycemicindex.com/

When you add legumes to meals and snacks, you reduce the overall GI of your diet because your body digests them slowly. So make the most of beans, chickpeas, lentils, and whole and split dried peas.

I will check out the other site you gave me.

Thanks again

Candy