Counting veg

Hi, does anyone out there take insulin for veg and do you follow any hard and fast rules? I'm a vegetarian and found that DAFNE was a bit unrealistic about classing these foods as free, along with things like lentils, when they do clearly raise your BG. From doing some research on american forums they seem to always allow insulin for veg, especially if you're having something like a tomato based stew. What have you found?

Whilst there is some carbohydrate in most vegetables I find that it makes little difference most of the time. I am intrigued by what sjohno says though. As insulin works on carbs, and there are no carbs in meat or fish, why would he need insulin to counteract these?

If i eat a completely free carb meal i have totake insulin for non carb foods. i tend to count 0.5u to a portion of veg up to about 3 or 4 u, but i have done this over time to work out what i need. If i eat the non carb foods with carbs i dont tend to count them as it doesnt seem make much difference. Strange really

Protein and fat all contribute to the glucose level, eventually, however small..............

I have seen quite a lot of folk who do this, mostly on the pump however...........

I believe is someone is on a naturally small amount of background insulin the more chance they will need to consider QA for non carb items due to the 'more insulin, last longer' principal except the less units you take, the shorter they last...............

Thanks for your replies, always good to hear other people's experiences - Alp147, I'm with you on this, if I have say a sunday dinner type meal with potatoes, yorkshire pud, etc. I would bolus for these, but not for carrots, peas, etc. However, if I have just veg based then i would need to take insulin to cover. If I want to have a proper carb free meal for the purposes of checking basal rates I stay away from veg and have something like a plain omelette with cheese - sadly this won't work for you though I don't suppose SJohno; isn't life difficult sometimes..! I definitely think its to do with being on very small amounts of insulin as to how tiny amounts of carbs affect you - are you on a small amount, Sjohno?

sjohno said:
it depends what you classify as small...................in general my pattern for the day is

Breakfast 4CP on a 1:1.5
Lunch 4CP on a 1:1.5
Dinner 5CP on a 1:1
QA 15units at 20.00

My BI has dropped from 17 to 15 in the past year BUT I still had to take QA for non carb foods even when I was on a BI of 17

must make life that little bit more a pain in the bum..........

I love eggs, and the fact they do nothing to my blood sugar............

I do count Veg. If you look at frozen Veg you do find that there is a small amount of Carbs.
A lot of the Vegetables I eat are fresh so you don't know but if you search on-line (Google, etc) you can find websites that provide Carb contents for Veg.
A boiled onion (With.Without Salt) contains 10.2g per 100g, while Brussel Sprouts (Boiled) contain around 8.7g per 100g.

I believe that there will be a small sugar content in all Vegetables which result in a need for them to be counted.

So would you be sitting down to 100g minimum of these vegetables........................?

I would think you wouldn't so your counting would only be small fractions of a carb portion right..........?

This would suggest a high sensitivity to carbs.........

If I have 3 or 4 pieces of veg, when you count them all together they can make 2 or 2 CP and when I'm on a ratio of 2:1 it can make a difference to my control.

I count everything, even things like tomato sauce as a number of small carbs add up to several CPsm

I find any meal difficult as some foods absorb quicker and may result in a hypo if you use the same ratiom. I count as much as possible to try and keep my BG in range.