About Us
Carb Cards are in use by individuals, hospitals and clinics, organizations such as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, American Association of Diabetes Educators, and APHA, Indian Health Services, the military, schools, and pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk, and Roche.
Carb Cards are printed and packaged
in the
Carb Cards is a small, woman owned business.
Carb Cards are printed with non toxic ink in Compliance of standards.
Large orders of Carb cards are packaged and shipped by Community Options to employ the disabled and challenged.
Return policy: If you are not satisfied with your Carb Cards you may return them with in 10 days for a full refund.
Privacy policy: We do not release your information to anyone else for any reason.
Judy V creator of Carb Cards ® is the mother of two children, Charles and Windy, who were diagnosed five years apart with Type I diabetes at ages 9 and 8. Keeping them healthy and encouraging self-management has been her challenge for over twenty years.
Judy V and daughter Windy V
Shocked by the news that her children had a life threatening disease, Judy immediately sought answers from the medical community about managing their diabetes. As Judy and her husband supported and nurtured them through the trials of living an active life with diabetes she became more frustrated with the lack of child -oriented educational materials. The family's growing dissatisfaction with ever changing nutritional guidelines and confusing lists and textbooks convinced her to explore every alternative in hopes of conquering the disease. Eventually, Judy's research led her to the conclusion that carbohydrate counting was one of the best ways to achieve consistent control of their blood glucose levels. When Charles headed for college she wondered how he would manage carb counting at parties, restaurants, and the dormitory cafeteria. Both children were interested in going on the pump as well. Judy explains, When you're taking a fast-acting insulin like my kids are, diabetes management has to be precise. It's like conducting a chemistry experiment every time you eat. I was worried about how they would do on their own. I was riding my bike one day, when the answer came to me: Why not make carbohydrate counting a card game?
Equipped with her collection of nutrition books and ADA carbohydrate lists she sketched the idea. A twenty-year-old working relationship was revived when Judy invited her friend, Carla B., to help make her vision of Carb Cards a reality. At the time, Carla was facing the loss of yet another relative due to diabetic complications. Inspired by Judy's enthusiasm and determination to help her children, Carla happily agreed to lend her artistic and creative talents to the project.
Together they created several prototypes and tested them over several months at home and with focus groups of children and adults with diabetes. Each deck included 54 food flash cards with portion sizes and carbohydrate amounts in grams, 6 extra blank cards to customize, an activity game card and four crayons all packaged in a clear plastic drawstring bag.
The 54 cards became a routine at meal times as Judy displayed them next to Windy's plate. Soon the memorization process took hold and Windy began to gain better control over her blood glucose levels. Judy realized that the basic concept of flash cards had a wider appeal and would suit other children, teens and adults as well. 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 Children With Diabetes. 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 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. The acceptance and appreciation of this tool continues to grow.
Carb Cards is 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.
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.
Now, children, teens and adults in Europe, Canada and the United States are learning to count carbs with Carb Cards. In addition to the 2008 Edition of full color Carb Cards, with calorie and fat information now included, other products include the Carb Cards Place Mat, Giant Carb Cards and the Carb Cards Educator Tool Kit . These educational tools help keep carbohydrate counting simple and fun for kids of all ages at home, in the clinic or away at camp.
From the time our kids were first diagnosed, we didn' t want them to feel like diabetes was their problem alone, recalls Judy. We worked together, helping each other cope with diabetes. And, it has brought out strengths in all of us. If Carb Cards does one thing to make life better for other families, especially for the newly diagnosed, then that makes me happy!"
Charles and Windy ages 15 and 10
