Match Your Insulin to Your Carbs

New Resources for Nutrition Educators BOOKLET Match Your Insulin to Your Carbs. Evert A, Lewis G. 2011. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60606–6995. Booklet, 17 pp, 10/$20, ISBN: 978-0-88091-384-3. This booklet reviews how insulin works and teaches clients how to use a flexible insulin plan to match their insulin doses to the carbs they eat. It also covers signs, symptoms, and treatment of hypoglycemia. Any care provider who helps patients manage their insulinto-carbohydrate ratios knows the challenges this task can pose. When initially learning to calculate ratios, any patient who is the tiniest bit math phobic may feel intimidated. Combine that with a new diagnosis or a patient who is new to insulin treatment, and anxiety levels can easily escalate. The good news is that the Match Your Insulin to Your Carbs booklet can help patients understand insulin types and calculate dosing in an easy-to-read format. The use of large font, bold headings, and key points offset in colored boxes makes the booklet a clear informational and reference guide. Photographs, tables, and graphs highlight and support the narratives. The information is presented in a logical and sequential manner. This

booklet starts with a mealtime insulin dosing worksheet inside the front cover. Then there is an introduction to key terminology, followed by a description about how the body uses insulin, a comparison of fixed and flexible insulin plans, and a description of how insulin and food affect blood glucose. Next, the booklet outlines insulinto-carbohydrate ratios and shows how to calculate blood glucose correction insulin. The booklet ends with a section about symptoms of and treatment for hypoglycemia, driving precautions, and preparing for appointments with diabetes care providers.

Care providers may want to wait to introduce the meal dosing worksheet until the very end, after calculation examples have been given. The worksheet has moderate complexity and may not be suitable as the first item to read. Suggestions for improvement include adding a table of contents, moving the worksheet to the back cover, and adding headings to the 3 insulin tables. The only somewhat awkward section is ‘‘Testing Patterns to Check Your Insulin Dosage.’’ The phrase ‘‘testing patterns’’ is unclear, as is 1 of the ways given for checking how well the insulin plan is working. Overall, within 17 pages, the booklet covers sufficient information and would be an effective adjunct to patient education for diabetes care providers in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Patients desiring to become self-sufficient in calculating insulin-to-carbohydrate ratios would likely find this booklet useful. Laura Dick, PhD, RD, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Pueblo at Bath Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-0689 doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2012.03.002

Cite this article as Dick L. Match Your Insulin to Your Carbs [New Resources for Nutrition Educators]. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2012;44:387.e1.

Inclusion of any material in this section does not imply endorsement by the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Evaluative comments contained in the reviews reflect the views of the authors. Review abstracts are either prepared by the reviewer or extracted from the product literature. Prices quoted are those provided by the publishers at the time materials were submitted. They may not be current when the review is published. Reviewers receive a complimentary copy of the resource as part of the review process. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2012;44:387.e1 Ó2012 SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOR

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior  Volume 44, Number 4, 2012

387.e1