What Are Net Carbs And How to Calculate Them

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Following a low carb diet is not all about counting carbs in your diet, but checking the fiber content of your food items too. A very common side effect of low carb diet is constipation 🙁 , as there is very less fiber in low carb foods specially the non-vegetarian ones and if you are a vegetarian or vegan doing a low carb diet then as it is it’s very difficult to maintain the balance between appropriate calories intake and carb content. So the savior here proves to be fiber in the foods. Those who do low carb check Net Carbs in a food item. Now what is this Net Carb ??

What Are Net Carbs And How to Calculate Them

Net Carbs represent the total carbohydrate content of the food minus the fiber content. These are the carbs which don’t directly impact blood sugar level. Foods with low Net Carbs are less likely to interfere with weight loss. To check the approximate number of Net Carb grams we need to look at the information provided on a food label (grams of total carbohydrates minus grams of fiber).

But why only fiber?

Although Fiber is a carbohydrate, but since it isn’t digested, it doesn’t matter in the total carbohydrate we eat. It affects blood glucose in a positive way by slowing the impact of the other ingested carbs and as fiber isn’t digested in the small intestine and so isn’t broken down into glucose and absorbed into the blood thus doesn’t trouble the already troubled dieters. 😉 So the concept of net carbs is that not all carbohydrates affect the body in the same manner.

How to calculate Net Carbs?

To make things easy let me explain. A 1-cup serving of cooked broccoli provides 11.2 grams of total carbohydrate and 5.1 grams of fiber so the net carb of it will be 6.1 grams.

List of commonly used vegetables with Less than 5 Net Carbs

These serving sizes of vegetables have up to 5 grams of net carbs (carb minus the fiber).

Some spices and Net Carbs

Net Carbs In Dairy

Diabetics take into account sugar alcohols also and reduce that too for Net Carbs. (Though I don’t do it as I fear getting too many carbs in doing that 🙂 )

For more details , check the below links –

“http://onlylowcarb.com/gramcount4.htm”

“http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/whatveg.htm”

“http://www.atkins.com/AtkinsDotCom/media/Master/Programs/2013-carb-counter-(1).pdf”

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