If you have diabetes, it's important to understand carbohydrates. They can have a big impact on your blood glucose, or blood sugar. And counting carbs can help you keep your blood glucose at healthy levels. 

Carbs occur naturally in many foods. Sugars, starches and fiber are all carbohydrates. When choosing foods:

• Reach for non-starchy vegetables. They're lower in carbs and won't affect your blood sugar much. Leafy greens, broccoli, tomatoes and green beans are all non-starchy vegetables.

• Eat healthy, higher-carb foods in moderation. These include whole grains, beans, starchy vegetables like potatoes, fruit, yogurt and milk. Although they're generally healthy, these foods can cause your blood sugar to spike after meals.

• Limit highly processed, refined foods. Cut back on sugary drinks, cake and cookies, white bread, and white rice.

The basic idea of carb-counting is counting the number of carbohydrate grams in a meal and matching that number to your insulin dose. There are a few ways to do it.

If you take insulin at mealtime, you can use an insulin-to-carb ratio to figure out how much insulin you'll need to take to offset carbs.

If you don't take insulin at mealtime, you might choose an easier counting method: through servings. One serving of carbs has about 15 grams of carbohydrates.

You also could use the Diabetes Plate Method. This is a simple, visual way to divide your meals into healthy proportions. With this method, you don't calculate anything. Here's how it works:

1. Fill half your plate with non-starchy vegetables.
2. Fill one quarter of your plate with lean proteins like chicken, fish, lean beef, eggs, cheese or tofu.
3. Fill the remaining quarter of your plate with carbs: whole grains, beans, starchy vegetables and fruit.

Learning how to eat with diabetes can be confusing at first. Start with small changes, and be sure to eat foods you like, to make mealtimes enjoyable.

Watson Clinic’s Family Medicine and Internal Medicine providers can help you manage your diabetes, and they can offer easy referrals to our Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialists when additional care is needed. Call 863-680-7190 or visit WatsonClinic.com/Diabetes for more information.