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Carbohydrates in food are primarily what gets converted to glucose (sugar) which ends up in your bloodstream. If you limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat, you will limit the amount of glucose in your bloodstream. Also, if you are taking insulin, you need to know how many carbohydrates you are eating. By Counting Carbohydrates you can take the correct amount of insulin for your body to process those carbohydrates. Too much insulin means your blood will contain too little glucose (a low), too little insulin means too much glucose, (a high). Both can and will hurt you.
Being good at Counting Carbohydrates is an extremely important skill for any diabetic to have. A digital 'add and weigh' food scale that is accurate to the nearest gram is an excellent tool for a diabetic to determine the carbohydrate totals of foods they will eat.
A book such as 2009 CalorieKing Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate Counter is an extremely useful tool, also.
If you can keep your glucose at low levels, your diabetes is under control. This would be demonstrated by an A1c level below 6.5% however many type 2's strive for an A1c under 6.0%. Good control also means having a minimum of highs and lows, a as steady a glucose as you can (low Standard Deviation) What that means is, the risk from Diabetes Complications has been reduced to about the same as for people without diabetes. You are not cured, whatever you have done to get your glucose under control, you must continue to do. Diet, exercise, medications is the treatment triad for diabetes.
Take it from me, the level of worry is greatly reduced.
-Lloyd
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