Last month’s Be Smart: Control Your Diabetes Seminar at the B.B. King Museum was a presentation centered on identifying carbohydrates, proteins and fats from Caroline Turley, RDLD, director of dietary at Mid-Delta Home Health.
She began by asking, “Do you know?” and proceeded to talk about how the body handles those three main nutrients and the differences between carbohydrates, proteins and fats. “When you look at all of the foods you eat, all of it can be divided into those three groups,” she said.
Turley said once you identify which foods fall into which category you can have a better understanding of how much to eat of each kind. She identified carbohydrates as a ‘trouble/hot spot” so she spent a large portion of her time on that nutrient.
She asserted that carbohydrate is just another word for sugar and it is derived mainly from starches, fruit and milk and the body burns it for energy. Turley stated the benefit of eating three times a day without skipping meals and consuming the same amounts of foods at the same time each day. “Give your body time to have a pattern, to have a plan,” she said.
Turley noted that the body doesn’t differentiate between baked sweets and starchy vegetables. “A sugar is a sugar, but you’re going to be healthier to get the nutrients and the fiber from the carbohydrates,” she said. Turley endeavored to teach the group how to count the carbohydrates. In that way, an occasional cupcake or brownie would not negatively affect their health.
Turley also talked about proper food preparation, “The way you prepare your foods make a big ‘fat’ difference,” she quipped.
Her demonstration also involved food models that represented portion size and identifying which foods fall into each category. “So that you can have better understanding of how much to eat of each kind,” she said.
Turley surmised that no one wanted to spend their day lugging around a scale for measuring and weighing their foods to determine if what they were eating was the correct portion size, so she provided a simple chart that could help alleviate the hassle.
By way of an example, she said a 3-ounce portion size is basically the size of a deck of cards and a 1-ounce portion is the size of a matchbox. The seminar concluded with a question and answer period and Turley’s declaration that the group was learning, “You guys are great,” said Turley.
