CARB CARDS Makes Carbohydrate Counting Easy for Diabetics
(PRWEB) December 9, 2000
MONTROSE, December 2000 --The following was issued by Carb Cards:
Children and adults with diabetes play cards to learn carbohydrate counting.
The American Diabetes Association's Nutrition Recommendations for people with Diabetes Mellitus, published in 1994 emphasizes carbohydrate counting as an important part of good blood glucose control. Education for successful self-management is the key to good health for all diabetics. Carb Cards offer a fun and easy tool to use on the lifelong path of nutritional awareness.
Judy Vanderwist created Carb Cards, a carbohydrate counting card game to introduce the concept of carbohydrate counting to her two teenagers with Type I diabetes. Heeding the recommendations of the ADA, Judy recognized the need for her children to understand the relationship between carbohydrates and insulin. Judy says, "Because of their busy schedules and the new regime of using rapid acting insulin I realized there was an immediate need to memorize the carbohydrates of their favorite foods. Books and lists weren't working. I needed a quick and easy way to teach them the facts of snacks."
Using the format of flashcards Judy designed 54 playing cards with food illustrations and the corresponding carbohydrate value in grams for each serving. The teens quickly became acquainted with the amount of grams of carbohydrate in their favorite foods by memorizing the cards and using them to create daily menus. "Carb Cards were included with every meal they ate at home. And, soon they were free of one of the more frustrating aspects of the daily management of diabetes," Judy said. In addition, popular card games such as Go Fish, War and Concentration easily adapted to the deck.
By March 2000, the Carb Cards web site was online selling packages of Carb Cards for Kids and received an enthusiastic review by Jeff Hitchcock of ChildrenWithDiabetes. com. “Carb Cards are an excellent, fun tool to help introduce or teach carbohydrate counting to children or adults.” Carb Cards made its first public appearance at the Children With Diabetes conference in Orlando, Florida.
Later that year Carb Cards for Kids and Carb Cards Nutrition Navigator for Teens and Adults made its professional debut at the annual Association of American Diabetes Educators show in San Diego in August 2000. Carb Cards were sold in the AADE bookstore at that event, and later at the national American Dietitians Association conference in Denver. Carb Cards is also featured in the Feb./March 2001 issue of the magazine Successful Living with Diabetes, and in two national catalogues for dietitians and diabetes educators, NCES, and Nasco. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation included Carb Cards in their 2001 Bag of Hope project and distributed them to 10,000 newly diagnosed children.
Since then, Carb Cards are sold online at www. carbcards. com, as well as at diabetes and dietetic conferences, workshops, and trade shows. Carb Cards are used by diabetes educators, dietitians, youth camps, pump support groups and parents, as well as kids ages 5 to 100 in the U. S., Canada and Europe.
DiabetesInControl. com recently concluded a case study on carbohydrate counting using Carb Cards with educators and patients. The results confirmed that counting carbs with Carb Cards helped patients keep track of daily carbohydrate amounts while lowering blood glucose levels.
“After the 90 days of using the Carb Cards®, mean daily preprandial plasma glucose concentrations were 6%(153 vs 143mg/dl) percent lower, 2-hour post prandial plasma glucose concentrations were lowered by 14 percent (196 vs 168mg/dl) and HbA1c were lowered from 8.6% to 8.2% (0.4% decrease). In the subset of patients under 18 years results were even better with average preprandial glucose dropping 8% and average Postprandial dropping 21%. HbA1c decreased 0.6%. The consistent use of the Carb Cards® appears to improve glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Reducing postprandial blood glucose significantly caused a decrease of HbA1c, therefore reducing the complications from diabetes.
In addition to the original Carb Cards for Kids and Carb Cards Nutrition Navigator for Teens and Adults, new products include:
·Carb Cards Place Mat ( 11” x 17”laminated)
·Deck of Giant 8” x 10” Carb Cards
·Carb Cards Educator Tool Kit
Carb Cards for Kids are packaged in a convenient 5" x 8" clear drawstring bag and include: one deck of 54 food cards, 6 additional blank cards to customize, 4 crayons and an activity card, for $7.95.
Carb Cards Nutrition Navigator for Teens and Adults charts your course for good blood glucose control and includes one deck of cards, one pen, and a sixty-day food diary for $9.95. Quantity discounts are available for all products.
“From the time our kids were first diagnosed, we didn’t want them to feel like diabetes was their problem alone,“ recalls Judy. “We took it on, helping each other cope with diabetes. And it has brought our family together. If (Carb Cards) is the one thing that makes life better for other families, especially for the newly diagnosed, that makes me happy!”
For more information about Carb Cards, see www. carbcards. com