I must be thick but I'm still not understanding about sugar

[Alex123]

I've read postings about counting sugars but I still don't understand so could someone please explain in words of one syllable for me.

As an example if an items says

10g carbohydrate
4g fibre
5g of something that ends in ose (which I believe most sugars end in)

What is my net carbohydrate count?

I know I deduct the 4 fibre giving a net of 6 carobhydrate but what about the 5 .......ose? If it is a sugar do I assume it is counted in the carbohydrate count or not.

Sorry to be dense but I really need to get my head around this.

Thank you. Alex

[tofi]

Some foods come with sugars in them. Nobody adds the sugars. They are natural.

Carrots grow in the ground and have a high sugar content.
Milk coming directly from the cow has a high sugar content.
Watermelon right out of the rind has a high sugar content.
Orange juice squeezed right from fresh oranges has a naturally occuring sugar content of 26 teaspoons of sugar per liter.

None of those has sugars (fructose, dextrose etc) added. They just ARE in the foods. That's why none of those foods are on the usual LC food list. Because they are HC (High Carb).

But some foods DO have sugars of various kinds added: fructose, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, dextrins, sucrose, glucose, maltose & the other -oses, corn syrup solids & many more.

So when you read those labels:
Total carbohydrate____10g
.................fibre_______4g
...............Sugars______6g

You subtract the fibre to get an Effective Carb Count of 6 grams and that's what you count: 6 grams per serving (and watch the serving size).

The sugars may be natural but they are still there. And if some kind of sugar is in the first 3 ingredients of a processed or "created" food, you'd be better off making another choice.

[Alex123]

Thank you Tofi - that makes it clearer. I have been looking at labels and trying to decide if I should be taking the 4 from 10 giving 6 and then adding the 5 giving a net carb of 11.

[Nessaleah]

I'm new and still learning how to keep track of carbs. I'v never heard of subtracting fibre grams from the carb count. I don't get it? Can someone explain the how's and why's of subtracting fibre grams?

[I mean it!]

Fiber is a carbohydrate, but it passes through the body undigested (think wheat bran). Since it is not digested or used by the body as fuel, it is subtracted from the total carbohydrate count.
For example:
La Tortilla Factory Whole Wheat Low-Carb/Low-Fat Tortillas
1 Tortilla (62 gram)
Total Carbohydrate 19gram
Dietary fiber 14 gram
Net carbohydrate 5 gram
So when counting your carbs for the day, you will only count this as 5 carbs per serving.

Hope this helps, Carlene

[Meggen]

Please remember you can not subtract fibre in all countries. The UK for instance already subtracts the fibre when they list the carb counts. If you do live in the US though, you subtract the fibre from the total carb count to give you ECC (effective carb count) as carlene stated.