Foods with hidden sugar and carbs? What caught you out?

[carty]

I was caught out by sausages ! On a build lunch was sausage and mash obviously I avoided the mash and had n extra sausage my bg shot up 4 points for hours
CAROL

 

[KathyCP]

KathyCP, I buy my pickled gerkins from the local polish shop. They have the the “kwasznowe” ones and as long as they don’t have “cukier” on the ingredients they should be good to go. X

oh great, thank you, we've got a few polish shops near to where i live, so i'll browse around and see what i can find.

 

[HelenHak]

I had the same amount and kind of curry from a different restaurant and it sent my BG sky high.

 

[Hotpepper20000]

I watch cooking shows and browse the web to learn cooking techniques. I am shocked at how many recipes have sugar/honey in them.
Curries, tomatoes meat sauces and salad dressings to just name a few.

 

[Oldvatr]

I had a shock yesterday. I cooked a Cajun Chicken dinner using one of those premixed packets. There was no nutrition label since it was bought in a 'foreign' shop. My bgl jumped from 4.1 mmol/l pre-meal, to 10.1 mmol/l at 2 hrs, but dropped back to 4.1 at 4hrPP, giving a daily average of 6.1

when I checked on the web. it turned out to be 60% carbs, and that worked out at 47 g of sugar. Along with white basmatti rice, no wonder I jumped (and NOT with joy!)

There is an english import of the pack, but it is not available in our local ahops which are mainly eastern european now.

 

[Alexandra100]

Had a bit of a spike last night.Couldn't figure out why until this morning. As part of evening meal and snack munched my way through about 500g of raw cabbage ( greedy I know and quite windy) . Nice and healthy I thought , only it was red cabbage which I now discover has about 3.5 g of sugar per 100g! B****r ,I could of had a couple of slices of marmalade toast for that! At least my trusty metre found me out and I won't be doing that again. You live and learn eh! I have also been caught out by sugar in one of my favourite processed smoked cheeses ( I mean why put sugar in cheese) and was saddened by my total intolerance of even a spoonful of mash. I am indeed that evolutionary dead end an Irish man who can't eat spuds. Anyway it got me thinking what other foods might other people have been caught out by?

Edited by moderator for language.

OMG, I'm glad I read this as I have a huge red cabbage sitting in my fridge waiting for me to eat it. Well, it's gping to be disappointed! In my quest for low carb alternatives, especially foods items that can be eaten on the hoof, I researched packets of sliced chicken etc. They all had added sugar! So too has smoked salmon. Before lowering my carbs I had a lot of trouble with reflux. My GP was happy to prescribe me Rennies, which I could have free from the NHS because I am 75. But guess what? The NHS will supply many different types and flavours of Rennies, but all with sugar. The only variety of Renny I could NOT be given was the sugar-free. And this for a tablet which one is obliged to crunch with one's teeth.

 

[Kristin251]

OMG, I'm glad I read this as I have a huge red cabbage sitting in my fridge waiting for me to eat it. Well, it's gping to be disappointed! In my quest for low carb alternatives, especially foods items that can be eaten on the hoof, I researched packets of sliced chicken etc. They all had added sugar! So too has smoked salmon. Before lowering my carbs I had a lot of trouble with reflux. My GP was happy to prescribe me Rennies, which I could have free from the NHS because I am 75. But guess what? The NHS will supply many different types and flavours of Rennies, but all with sugar. The only variety of Renny I could NOT be given was the sugar-free. And this for a tablet which one is obliged to crunch with one's teeth.

It is ridiculous is t it ! I have found organic chicken, turkey and beef deli slices with the only other ingredient being sea salt. It’s a nice convenience. Expensive but worth it.
There are certain veggiest that really raise me too.

 

[Alexandra100]

I read somewhere, in the early days after my diagnosis, that "vinegar is good for treating diabetes." Actually, it was a friend (who does not have diabetes) who in her New Age California Manner earnestly urged me to consume vast quantities of "apple cider vinegar." I did the usual Google search and there was some mild evidence that it was a good nutrient, but ... also that any vinegar would do, regardless of type of vinegar. Added to which, I like vinegar!

At home, I now add olive oil and vinegar dressing to all sorts of things: salads, avocados, whatever. The oil is a good source of fat, and I love olives!

This is slightly off topic, but for quite a while I diligently consumed the very best organic cider vinegar, 1T before meals, in the hopes of reducing the effect of the carbs I was eating. Then I read that the way the vinegar works is to delay the arrival of the carbs in the blood. As I suffer from gastro-paresis, which makes testing difficult and can cause one meal to run into the next, the last thing I want is to delay stomach emptying even further. So, yet another food item to be added to the mountain to be chucked or given away. I may start a new thread asking people what they do with all those packets of healthy oats, jars of Oxford marmalade etc etc.

 

[Alexandra100]

It is ridiculous is t it ! I have found organic chicken, turkey and beef deli slices with the only other ingredient being sea salt. It’s a nice convenience. Expensive but worth it.
There are certain veggiest that really raise me too.

I'd ask you where you found them, but I think you're in the US?

 

[Mbaker]

For me a lamb tagine meal in the Lake District, had me in the low fives the next morning 2 summers ago.

 

[Grateful]

Lentils, and beans. Have been eating (relatively small quantities of) both since going on low-carb nine months ago. Now realize they are quite high-carb. Only found out today when my wife asked whether lentils were "OK" and I checked. I won't cut them out altogether (because my long-term HbA1c is fine) but more caution needed.

I was caught out by sausages ! On a build lunch was sausage and mash obviously I avoided the mash and had n extra sausage my bg shot up 4 points for hours
CAROL

A sausage is just an "emulsified container" whose contents could be almost anything. I have managed to find low-carb ones, but one has to buy them in the store ... and trust that the labels are accurate.

 

[ringi]

Test the lentils, and beans with your meter, just test two or three meals that have them, no need to start using a meter for all meals. They both have lots of fibre that slows down the rate our body adsorbs the carbs, also if they are not made into a paste when cooked, the carbs will take longer to be absorbed.

They are clearly unsuitable for anyone on a very low carb diet, but lot of people find they are OK on a normal low carb diet.

 

[Grateful]

Test the lentils, and beans with your meter, just test two or three meals that have them, no need to start using a meter for all meals. They both have lots of fibre that slows down the rate our body adsorbs the carbs, also if they are not made into a paste when cooked, the carbs will take longer to be absorbed.

They are clearly unsuitable for anyone on a very low carb diet, but lot of people find they are OK on a normal low carb diet.

Thanks. I don't self-test (go on, flagellate me with a wet, low-carb zoodle). So I have to use rather "broad-brush" rules. I am indeed "very low carb."

 

[srobertson06]

Caught out recently - Tesco's High Protein Bread - BG in double figures and only eaten two small slices.......... the rest went in the bin.....
But as has been said already when I was trying to work things out it felt like everything was out of bounds and I still have friends who believe if it is gluten free it will be OK for me to eat - I keep telling them it is not but they just do not take it on board...........

 

[ringi]

I don't self-test most meal, as I can read food labels to look at how many carbs they have, and understand the science. When I looked at the science I convinced myself 100% that my doctor was wrong, therefore I did not need to self-test to prove my doctor is wrong. Self-testing after every meal is mostly promoted as a way to convince people that carbs are bad, and help people understand what carbs are.....

But I do a test when I wish to understand if it is safe for me to eat some food, for example, I discovered I can eat sweet potatoes. The science tells me they have lots of fibre and lower carbs (and GI) than normal potatoes, so may be OK, but no more than one or two times a week. Therefore I did some BG tests to see if they were now OK for me as my wife loves them. But just because the BG reading says they are OK, I will not eat them often, as the science tells me they have carbs in them.

We can use science to tell us what we know is OK to eat, and what we know is bad to eat - that leaves a few foods like sweet potatoes and lentils that are OK for some people but not other people.....

(I don't care about High Protein Bread as it is not very nice bread......)

 

[Oldvatr]

I don't self-test most meal, as I can read food labels to look at how many carbs they have, and understand the science. When I looked at the science I convinced myself 100% that my doctor was wrong, therefore I did not need to self-test to prove my doctor is wrong. Self-testing after every meal is mostly promoted as a way to convince people that carbs are bad, and help people understand what carbs are.....

But I do a test when I wish to understand if it is safe for me to eat some food, for example, I discovered I can eat sweet potatoes. The science tells me they have lots of fibre and lower carbs (and GI) than normal potatoes, so may be OK, but no more than one or two times a week. Therefore I did some BG tests to see if they were now OK for me as my wife loves them. But just because the BG reading says they are OK, I will not eat them often, as the science tells me they have carbs in them.

We can use science to tell us what we know is OK to eat, and what we know is bad to eat - that leaves a few foods like sweet potatoes and lentils that are OK for some people but not other people.....

(I don't care about High Protein Bread as it is not very nice bread......)

I take an opposite viewpoint. I too felt the doctor was wrong, but I did a load of self testing, recorded everything, and demonstrated it in person that I was in control. Since then he has been most supportive of me.

Doctors will not change unless eiither dictated to by NICE or by seeing the miracles with their own eyes. If enough of their patients show they can come off medication or reduce it significantly to near non diabetic levels, then this will hopefully start the sea change needed for a bottom up attack on those who control the purse strings.

 

[ringi]

I take the view that my doctor will start asking questions about how I have done it when he/she sees a few low HbA1c results....

I have already had a lipid consultant wanting to know how I reduce by trigs so much, too well below the range that would have got me send to the consultant. Hence I have a consultant letter on my GP's file saying I should keep too "low carb" diet.... (The lipid consultant did not "take in" the high-fat bit.....)