Food Exchanges Made Easy

Judging by the number of e-mails we get each week, one would think there's something terribly complicated about food exchanges. Not so, actually. Developed back in 1950 as a way to make meal planning easier for people with diabetes, the food exchange system now merely categorizes foods into three main groups:

• Carbohydrates
• Protein (Meat) and Protein (Eggs, Cheese, Soy, etc.) Substitutes
• Fats

The Carbohydrate group is further broken down into bread/starch, fruit, milk, other carbohydrate (sugar and sweets), and vegetables. When a meal plan says 2 1/2 carbohydrate (1 bread/starch, 1 fruit, 1/2 milk), it means that many servings for those kinds of carbohydrate. You will need to refer to a food exchange list for the exact measurement of the food-they are posted in most every diabetic cookbook-or refer to the diabetic exchanges listed at the end of each recipe.

For example, for those 2 1/2 carbohydrate exchanges, you might choose 1 slice of bread, 1 medium fresh peach, and 1/2 cup of skim milk. You could have chosen to have 1/2 cup of cooked pasta, 1 cup of cubed melon, and 1/2 cup of nonfat yogurt. Generally speaking, 1 carbohydrate exchange (bread/starch, fruit, and milk) provides 12 to 15 grams of carbohydrate. Since a serving of vegetables only has 5 grams of carbohydrate, it takes 3 vegetables to equal 1 carbohydrate exchange.

The Protein group is broken down into very low-fat protein, low-fat protein, medium-fat protein, and high-fat protein. A protein exchanges provides 7 grams of protein and varying amounts of fat. Again look to a food exchange list or the exchanges listed at the end of each diabetic recipes for the amount of each serving.

The Fat group is divided into monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fats. One fat exchange provides 5 grams of fat and 45 calories. You'll be surprised at how quickly your fat exchanges will be used-1 exchange only means 1 teaspoon oil, butter, stick margarine, or mayonnaise. For the same fat exchange, you could choose 1 tablespoon of reduced fat margarine or mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon salad dressing, 1 tablespoon cream cheese, 8 large black olives, or 1 slice of bacon.

Even if you are only counting carbs, it still makes sense to familiarize yourself with the serving size of different foods that make up 1 exchange so you'll know how much to eat to get 15 grams of carbohydrates. Once you've done it for a while, you'll find you no longer need your list-when you look at a baked potato or a serving of cooked rice, you'll know just how many exchanges that will use. You'll find an earlier article in 'cooking tips' on estimating portion sizes to be helpful. If you didn't read and print it, now would be a good time to do so.