Reading a Canadian Nutrition Facts table
One Canadian rule makes labels simple: Carbohydrate is already the total. How to handle sugars, fibre, sugar alcohols and serving size.
A Nutrition Facts table is the most reliable information you'll get about packaged food, and it's worth more than any reassurance that "there's barely any sugar in it." This page explains how to read a Canadian table for carbohydrate counting: what to count, what to subtract, and the one mistake that doubles a dose.
One rule makes everything else simple
On a Canadian label, "Carbohydrate" is already the total. Sugars, starch, fibre and sugar alcohols are all inside that number. Everything below follows from that.
Start at the serving size
Every number in the table is per serving, not per package. The serving listed is often half of what anyone actually eats. Before doing any arithmetic, compare the serving on the label with the amount on the plate, and scale up or down.
Subtract fibre in full
Fibre is inside the carbohydrate total, and your body doesn't absorb it, so it comes straight back off. Fibre also slows the rest of the meal down; more on that in glycemic index and fibre.
Sugar alcohols: about half
Maltitol, sorbitol, xylitol and erythritol are partly absorbed, and unpredictably. Diabète Québec suggests subtracting half, then watching what your own body does.
Sugar alcohols also turn up in foods marketed as "no sugar added," which is not the same as carb-free. In quantity they can upset stomachs, too.
Sweeteners that never enter the count
Aspartame, stevia and sucralose carry no carbohydrate and never enter the count.
Putting it together
For a packaged food, the working sequence is:
- Check the serving size and compare it with what you'll actually eat.
- Take the Carbohydrate number (the total).
- Subtract all of the fibre.
- If there are sugar alcohols, subtract about half of them.
- Ignore the sugars line: it is already inside the total.
The result is the carbohydrate you'd use with the insulin-to-carb ratio your diabetes team gave you. If a host or relative is cooking for someone with type 1, keeping the package or the recipe is one of the most useful things they can do.