Carbohydrate Counting

Many diabetics don't realize that not only sugars in foods account for their blood glucose readings, but also carbohydrates.  Diabetics who use multiple-injection therapy or insulin pumps should calculate their carbohydrates before their injection/bolus of insulin.  This is important if you want to keep diabetes in tight control.

Ninety to one hundred percent of of the carbohydrate (starches and sugars) in food shows up as glucose in the blood stream approximately 1 to 1.5 hours after eating.   There are few calories from proteins and fats that yield blood sugar, and the small portions that end up as glucose have their after effects several hours after eating.

Insulin-to-Carbohydrate Rate

Each person requires a certain amount of insulin to use as a given amount of carbohydrate.  This relationship is called the insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio.  A "ball park" estimate can be made based on a person's weight.

1 unit of Regular (Humalog): Grams of Carbohydrates

Calculating an Insulin Dose

To see how to calculate a dose, follow what Jane does to give an injection/bolus of insulin.  For lunch, Jane eats 1 turkey sandwich (30 grams of carbs in the bread), 1 large raw carrot (10 grams carb), and a sugar-free pudding (14 grams carb).  Jane weighs 117 lbs. so her estimated insulin-to-carbohydrate ration (see table above) is 1:15.  Therefore, her insulin dose is 30+10+14=54 grams of carbohydrates, 54 ¸15 = 3.6 units of Regular (Humalog) insulin.