Scales For You

Diabetics learn that the carbohydrates in food have the most impact on the blood sugar. A gram scale is a must for measuring carbs in odd-sized foods like fruits, unsliced bread, soups or casseroles. The formula for finding the amount of carbohydrate in a serving of food is:

1. Weigh the food to find its total weight in grams
2. Find the food’s carb percentage in one of the food groups. (You can find the information in Appendix A of Using Insulin.)
3. Multiply the food’s total weight in grams by its carb percentage.

The result of this multiplication gives the number of grams of carbohydrate that the food contains. For example, one gram of apple has 0.13 grams of carbohydrate, so 100 grams would have 13 grams of carbohydrate. Therefore, 13% of any apple’s weight is carbohydrate (most of the rest is water).