When calculating your CWD's insulin dose based on carb intake, do you also subtract the grams of fibre? Just wondering, as I know that some of the books recommend it, although we have never done it... maybe we should?
I remember being told once that you only subtract if it's over 5g of fibre? Sugar alcohols should be halfed and subtracted..... Not many foods in my kid's picky diet are over 5g unfortunately - PB we class as free and occasionally pasta.
We subtract fiber for beans, but not really for much else. Well, I should say that I tend not to subtract for anything else; my dh will subtract some for whole wheat pasta, I think, and maybe a few other things, but it's more than I can keep track of!
I subtract fibre based on experience. The first time I have a food, I generally give the full dose without subtracting fibre. If I go low, I check for fibre content and subtract it next time. Fibre doesn't seem to affect me most of the time, but it does for the occasional food (minestrone soup!? Massive nightmare).
yes only 1/2 of total grams fiber if over 9 grams. a peanut butter fiber bar that my dd likes is 29 g carbs with 9 g fiber so i bolus for 25 g carbs.
We just learned in the hospital that we should subtract fiber if it is over 5 grams so that's what we've been doing.
Nope. I asked the endo about it, and he said it wasn't worth the hassle unless he was eating mega high fiber foods.
Fiber is not digested and thus does not affect blood sugar. Carb counts that exclude fiber are more accurate. So why doesn't everyone subtract it? One reason is that food databases in the US incorporate fiber into the calculations for carbohydrates. Unless you routinely subtract the fiber from the total carbs, your insulin to carb ratios are set to account for the amount of fiber you usually eat in a meal. Because most people eat similar foods over the course of a day or week, including the fiber in your carb counts seldom causes problems. However, if you eat a couple donuts for breakfast one morning and whole grain toast and an apple the next, you might find that your pre-lunch number varies greatly, even if your total carbs and insulin dose were identical. The second meal has much more fiber than the first and thus will not require as much insulin. Here's another example: 15 carbs of glucose tabs are *really* 15 carbs because they contain no fiber. A cup of raspberries, on the other hand, is usually listed as 15 carbs, but after the fiber is subtracted, only 7 carbs remain. For some people, this will make quite a large difference.
We do as well. We are also having a tough time keeping DS 'regular' so we have lots of high fibre options.
After thinking of this some more, I realized that we probably do subtract most fibre because we use the Salter Scale and count the net carbs as listed at the bottom of the display. However, if I'm calculating from the food label I usually don't unless it's very high.
I actually posted this same question a while back . I was confused because someone I know said she always subtracted fiber (she had gestational diabetes). So I called our Endocrinologist to ask what i should be doing. And they told me to go with total carbs, and not to subtract fiber. I know there are some on here that subtract all fiber or only if it's a certain amount. But so far doing total carb counts work for us.
Our endo said nothing about fiber, just carbs. Reading this topic is the first I have heard of anything to do with fiber.
I think I have only subtracted fiber once or twice in 3 years. It just doesn't seem to make that big of a difference...
