Ask Tufts Experts

Your recipe for Chock-Full-of-Vegetables Soup looked delicious. But as someone with diabetes, it’s hard for me to justify 25 grams of carbohydrate for something that has only 170 calories per serving. It might send my blood sugar too high. Any soup recipes with fewer carbs?

Someone with diabetes can fit this soup in more easily than it may appear. Each serving contains 6 grams of fiber, and the American Diabetes Association says that if there are at least 5 grams of fiber in a dish, you can “subtract” one gram of carbohydrate per gram of fiber. That doesn’t mean you don’t absorb the carbohydrate calories; you do. It’s that with the fiber, you absorb the carbohydrates more slowly, helping to blunt any spike in blood sugar.

Last month you reported on the hepatitis A outbreak linked to contaminated scallions. Should I get vaccinated to protect myself from future outbreaks?

Outbreaks of hepatitis A in the US remain rare. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommend the vaccination only for the following sets of people: children 2 and older who live in states where the rate of the disease is at least twice the national average (including Arizona and California); anyone traveling to areas with high rates of hepatitis A (such as Central America); and others at increased risk of infection, like people with chronic liver disease.