Carb Calculation
This booklet explains how to count carbohydrates in your diet.
It also discusses how to calculate your bolus insulin dose.
How Do I Calculate the Carbs in My Meal?
You can use food labels to calculate the carbs in your meal.
Anatomy of The Food Label
Almost all packaged foods have labels with nutritional information.
Energy Provided by The Food
These are usually written as calories.
They may be written as kilojoules.
Total energy is not useful in carbohydrate calculation.
Guideline Daily Allowance:
This is important as we will use these to calculate the amount of carbs.
The servings may also be written as a percentage of your Guideline Daily Allowance (GDA) or Daily Value% (DV%).
This is not useful in carbohydrate calculation.
Nutrients, which include micronutrients and macronutrients:
Micronutrients
Sodium
Potassium
Calcium
Iron
Vitamin D
Macronutrients
Fats or Lipids
This can be divided into:
Total fats
Saturated fats
Trans fats
Cholesterol
Proteins
Carbohydrates
This is the figure we are most interested in.
It can be divided into:
Total carbohydrates
Dietary fibre
Sugars
Added sugars
The figure used in carb calculation is the total carbohydrates.
Nutritional information on food labels may be listed per serving, per 100 g, per container, or per item.
Understanding these formats helps make informed food choices:
Per serving
The serving size is 1 cup. This means that for each cup, you get 11 g of carbohydrates.
Per 100 g
This means that for every 100 g, you get 24 g of carbohydrates.
Per item
This means that the whole bar has 17 g of carbohydrates.
Per container
This means that the container has 58 g of carbohydrates.
This is important as we will use these to calculate the amount of carbs.
Serving Size
It is a common way of listing nutritional information.
This usually includes what the manufacturer considers a serving. For example:
One serving is 1 cracker
This means that for each cracker, you get 18 g of carbohydrates.
One serving is 80 g
This means that for every 80 g, you get 35 g of carbohydrates.
One serving is 1/3 of a bar
This means that one bar has 3 servings.
One serving is 1/2 a cup
This means that one cup is equal to 2 servings.