Carb Algebra

image from microsoft clipart

The carb counting guide I received after my diagnosis assures me that carb counting doesn’t have to be hard. You just add up all the carbs in the food you plan on eating and then take an appropriate insulin dose for it. While there’s nothing “just” about counting up all the carbs in a given meal, as long as I have my calculator I’m ok. The University cafeteria where I eat most of my meals posts the nutrition information for each meal a week in advance, so I could count carbs for next Monday’s meal today if I wanted to.

But though some days carb counting is a simple addition problem, other days it’s more like an algebra problem. That pizza is 32 inches across, 1 inch thick, and is cut into 8 slices. Now solve for x. Have fun.

Other days it’s like a word problem: 1 cup of pasta contains 40 grams of carbohydrates and 1 cup of spaghetti sauce contains 20 grams of carbohydrates. Nel has 15/16 cup of pasta, 1/14 cup of spaghetti sauce, it’s 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Cleveland, and Nel is eating dinner on train traveling 95 miles per hour towards Toronto. How many carbohydrates does Nel have?

I don’t eat food. I eat math problems.