And maybe the way to frame the issue is, are you more likely to end up in the hospital with complications by sticking with your eating plan but allowing yourself some wiggle room, or by getting so exhausted and frustrated by the whole thing that you give up altogether at some point? If you never hit 15 precisely but are always at either 14 or 16, you will be better off in the long run than if you attempt to be exactly perfect for so long that you get stressed out and either quit eating or go on a binge. Either the nurse in question lacks genuine knowledge but can't be arsed to admit it, or is the sort of person who thinks Barney Fife's approach to policing was wise and just.
Yeah, that's the way I look at it and it seemed to be the way the nutritionist looked at it as well. She did mention as an aside that some people conveniently forget to monitor on holidays like Easter, and she didn't make it sound like that was the end of the world.
The whole point of exchanges is so you don't have to fuss with grams. If you look at exchange lists they often vary widely. Also even when the carb count is "exact" much of the times the servings are things like "one small this" "one half medium that" which is pretty damn approximate. I have some of the tightest blood sugar control of any diabetic I know (75 blood sugar both this morning and before lunch today) and I mostly do some exchanges. I do count grams to some extent for stuff which is high more than one nutrient, but I round like whoa. If someone NOT a diabetes specialist flips out of one freakin gram I would use that to judge their credibility, not as advice to pay attention to. Hell in the diabetes exchange lists, stuff with 2 grams of carbs are often considered "free exchanges". You have to be a bit careful with free exchanges an not overdo, but it makes the point that people who have the done the key research on diabetes don't think a gram or two of carbs is a big deal. A "carb" exchange can be anything from 13 grams of carbs to 17 grams of carbs even though 15 grams is the target. And quite honestly I will round more than that (making sure to say honest and round up as often as down). Don't neccesarily advices that last for anything else, but for most people I would not advise counting grams at all. Get a really extensive exchange list, and use that most the time. If you must count, ROUGHLY 15 grams of carb is a fruit or bread exchange, ROUGHLY 7 grams of protein is a meat exchange, ROUGHLY 5 grams of fat is a fat exchange. Most food (admittedly with a fair amount of exceptions) has fat and protein and carbs - which is why most classes of exchanges pay attention to only one class with nutrients (with meat or protein exchanges divided into classes depending upon how much fat they have and bread or starch exchanges similarly subdivided) and why there are combo exchanges (mostly beans & other legumes)
It sounded a little sketchy (and not very well-educated) for the nurse to flip out over 1 freaking gram of carbs, so I'm glad that people like Andi and Typo with knowledge of diabetes-specific nutrition could share a more thorough explanation.
Thanks, everyone. That is reassuring.
Delurking to complain here because I can't complain anywhere else about this...
One of the things I hate about living in an apartment is listening to neighbors having sex. Just now my next door neighbors were enjoying them selves a little too loudly.
It's still going on...can't really knock on the door and ask them to turn it down, even though I really want to.
I had that in college. I would bang on the walls.
...and I'm remembering the conducting scene from The Secret of My Success. Maybe you can amuse yourself similarly? Or begin some remodeling in the room with the shared wall, hammering at the same tempo, perhaps? ETA: Or even better, counter-tempo.
I remember unfondly my apartment downstairs from Mr. Stamina McSqueakyBed.
And his dog, Clickety Cliphisnails.
