Diabetic Exchanges
- Nate Edwards
Diabetic Exchange food group values are assigned to all appropriate foods in the ESHA database (values are not assigned for infant formulas and food additives). The values are electronically calculated using an in-house set of formulas that were adapted from the professional resource, Choose Your Foods: Food Lists for Diabetes, published by the American Diabetes Association, 2014.
The database provides data for eight Diabetic Exchange food groups:
Group | Carbohydrate gm | Protein gm | Fat gm | Alcohol gm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fruit | 15 | - | - | - |
Vegetable | 5 | 2 | - | - |
Starch | 15 | 3 | 1 | - |
Other Carb | 15 | - | - | - |
Nonfat Milk | 12 | 8 | - | - |
Lean Meat | - | 7 | 2 | - |
Fat | - | - | 5 | - |
Alcohol | - | - | - | 14.43 |
How the Calculations Work
Diabetic Exchange values are assigned to database foods based on the food type (fruit, bread, meat, etc) and the amount of carbohydrate, protein, fat and /or alcohol that the food contains.
For example, consider the apple nutritional data below:
Apple, fresh, 100 grams
carbohydrate = 13.81 grams
protein = 0.26 grams
fat = 0.17 grams
The apple fits into the Fruit group of the Diabetic Exchanges. According to the table above, one Fruit Exchange contains 15 grams of carbohydrate. So, we divide the carbohydrate in the apple by the carbohydrate in one Fruit exchange to figure out how many Fruit exchanges are in 100 grams of fresh apple:
Apple, Fresh 100 grams = 13.81 / 15 = 0.92 Fruit Exchange
For mixed foods, one carbohydrate source is chosen to represent the carbohydrate in the food.