Pasta

[fiona35]

Can anyone think of a substitute for pasta, I can only eat gluten free so a normal low carb version wouldn't be suitable but I am really missing pasta, don't care about the potatoes or rice! Have toyed with the idea of just weighing myself 2oz of pasta and enjoying it with my meal and just seeing how high my sugars will go, I could be surprised and it not go as high as I think!

 

[sugarless sue]

Chocfish uses sliced aubergine as a substitute but don't ask me how she does it!!

 

[ChocFish]

Hi Fiona
Sue is right, I use aubergine and also bamboo shoots as pasta substitute, BUT when you get a craving, nothing, but absolutely nothing will work you just have to have the real stuff, so I would suggest go ahead, weigh out that 2oz or whatever, have lots and lots of veggies with it and some creamy/fatty sauce and the damage wont be too bad at all, the cream/fat will help avoid a drastic spike and the veggies will kind of help turn it into a low GI meal, also drink a glass of red wine with it and really you should not go too high at all, once in a while you are allowed to do that, its about flexibility and you get back on track again afterwards.

I dont have carb cravings anymore at all, I have done this low/med carbing for such a long time, its really second nature to me now and even at Christmas or holidays I still dont go carb crazy, if I did have cravings I would give in just the once; but it has not always been like this, and I have found in the past that if I crave something really badly I will give in eventually anyway, and then I was ok again for quite a while, so dont put yourself through all the misery of craving and longing for something and dealing with substitutes, have a day off (or half a day off) and enjoy!

All the best

Karen x

 

[Jenny]

Try spaghetti squash.

 

[Trinkwasser]

Also depending on season runner beans or bean sprouts

 

[fergus]

Have a go at faking pasta with courgettes. Top and tail them, cut in half and slice them thinly with a potato peeler (you knew you'd find a use for it one day!). Steam or microwave them until tender. This works well with any kind of sauce, particularly creamy ones, or simply with melted butter, salt and parmesan. It's like a very low-carb papardelle.

All the best,

fergus

 

[Cameraman]

Have you tried testing before and after pasta? I've found it doesn't have much effect on me, but of course everyones differant :wink:

 

[suzi]

Hi Fiona, Andrew's GF and we've found it really doesn't put the bs by too much. Recently gave him what we thought was the correct amount of units of humalog to the amount of pasta he'd eaten, ( we'd just started carb counting!) only to find him hypo within half an hour. Half the amount of insulin would have covered his pasta intake. Only thing i find with the GF pasta is the amount of starch that comes out of it whilst boiling, i tend to change the boiling water about 3 times during cooking. Andrew loves it with brocolli and cheese sauce, we just test before and after then inject.
Suzi x

 

[fiona35]

Cheers Guys for the suggestions, am finally starting to get my head around low to med carbing!!

 

[Trinkwasser]

Hi Fiona, Andrew's GF and we've found it really doesn't put the bs by too much. Recently gave him what we thought was the correct amount of units of humalog to the amount of pasta he'd eaten, ( we'd just started carb counting!) only to find him hypo within half an hour. Half the amount of insulin would have covered his pasta intake.

Sometimes you may find the fat content of the sauce will slow up the conversion into BG and instead of spiking when you expect after the meal you may find he goes up some hours later after the insulin has worn off, the so-called pizza effect

(I had some spaghetti tonight, for a suitably small value of "some", and covered it with red wine which will probably let me get away with it)