19 Comments
If you were about to eat a medium-sized red apple and were unable to measure the exact size of the apple or look up the carb count, for how many grams of carbs would you realistically bolus?
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I would rarely eat an apple at a restaurant or someone’s house without my phone to help me with carbs. I chose about half of what the FDA said. Fruit can be hard since it’s ripeness determine’s it’s sugar.
actually the ripeness does not affect the amount of sugar in the fruit. The sugar and carbs will be the same no matter how ripe the fruit. Ripeness affects how quickly we are able to breakdown the sugar giving the illusion of more sugar with riper fruit since the sugar is more easily broken down and spikes numbers faster.
Kimberly, is it the same for say, banana?
You can always reach out to a nutrionist. It says on all websites that sugars increase along with ripeness. A website of www. diabetes.glucose.com/bananas mention that Green or unripe bananas contain less sugar and more resistant starch
I would not eat the apple to begin with. Too much sugar, can get the micronutrients from vegetables.
I only eat very small amounts of fruit at a time. If I’m taking my dog for a 15-20 minute walk sometimes 1/4 of an apple or banana.
My response is 14 to 18, BUT…
I regularly eat an apple every day, and have done so during my 66 years living with diabetes.
What has become apparent to me, is carb count depends heavily on species of apple and the degree of ripening.
I have no idea how many carbs are in an apple, but it doesn’t matter. Granny Smith apple with peanut butter replaced cake/cookies/etc as an acceptable dessert after my diagnosis about a decade ago. I know that (for me) a small/medium apple with a little PB requires 4-6 units of insulin given at least 15 minutes up front and at least 1 unit being delayed over the following hour – depending on how liberal I am with the PB. I usually achieve a straight line with a just a little hump on my Dex with this, though at other times exercise/stress levels/time of day/how long my Omnipod has been on/(the wind, the sun, the stars) can wreak havoc with BS and need to be accounted for after the fact.
My favorite fruit combination is Granny Smith + PB also!!
57 years and I can’t estimate carbs so I always weigh on Gram Scale and look up value
I usually cut fruit in halves and save the other half for later or another mealtime. I found the little fruit cups of 4, sweetened with stevia and monk fruit extracts made by Dole. One fruit cup is 9 grams of carb with no sugar, no artificial sweetners, no GMO. The fruits are pineapple, peaches, cherries, and pears. Great for a lunch box, snack, or delicious dessert.
There is a wide variance of “medium” out there.
useful discussion. Would like to see more discussion of carbs in real life.
I always just use 15grams, although often the apples are bigger than that. When buying apples I look for smaller ones, as close to 4 oz as I can find. Organics, my preference tend to be smaller.
I’d probably eat half an apple only, and i find half a small apple needs to be bolused for as ~15 carbs. I mostly eat fruit like this if I’m low, or heading low. Interesting reading all the comments!
Apples bring my BS up quite a lot. 1 whole medium Apple I need around 3 units boluses early. For me that is around 30g of carbs. I may have to follow up with more if the Apple was extra sweet.
When I was first diagnosed I was told to use 15 grams for the carb count of a medium apple.
I never bolus for an apple. I have never had blood sugars rise significantly or at all in my 29 Yrs. of being a type 1 diabetic.
Other – I wouldn’t bother trying to eat an apple or bolus for it since it’s impossible to match insulin to a high carb food like an apple. Haven’t touched sugary fruits since discovering very low carb eating.