Advice needed

Beadysmum said:

Hi

I invested in a burgeon loaf which I love. I made a moussaka from a recipe I found on the forum. being a veggie I had to swap the beef for quorn.I assume that quorn is ok? I must admit that apart from my fears,I am really enjoying trying new foods and recipes. Can I possibly just ask you all about a few more food stuffs. Is low calorie hot chocolate ok once in a while, what about honey,diet yogurts and weight watchers jellies(the only ones I usually eat as they are vegetarian?

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Low calorie hot chocolate is fine. I have a mug most nights of either the milk chocolate or plain chocolate type. The one I have is Cadbury's Highlights. A couple of bits of chocolate is fine as long as its the 80% or higher types like Lindt. Some members make their own hot chocolate drinks by dissolving a couple of bits of LIndt. Quorn is also fine and is a nice low carb food source. Honey not sure about but others may comment. Yoghurt's are interesting. If you look at the labels you'll actually find that many low fat foods have more carbs than their normal versions. That's because when they take the fat out they replace it with something and that something usually is carb based! What I would try to do is be a bit sensible. If the carbs / 100g figure is roughly the same for both types I'd pick the low fat one as its less calories. If the carbs / 100g is a lot different then I and a lot of others would choose the low carb one in preference to the low fat one as it will do you less harm blood levels wise. If you want to make a nice low carb yoghurt buy plain yoghurt, I like Greek, then get some of those frozen packets of berries, strawberry, raspberries, blueberries, summer fruits etc.. Blend them together and away you go. Probably works out a bit cheaper that way as well.

It is very difficult to accept that low fat isn't necessarily the best any more. Don't worry we all felt like that to start with. It feels a bit strange but once you see how much better it is doing for your levels and you can see you are losing weight (if you need to) it does start to make sense - honest!

I found these sites useful for telling you how much carbs are in things.

http://fatsecret.com

http://www.carbohydrate-counter.org/advsearch.php

Keep the questions coming.

Yoghurt's are interesting. If you look at the labels you'll actually find that many low fat foods have more carbs than their normal versions. That's because when they take the fat out they replace it with something and that something usually is carb based!

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Thanks xyzzy. I wondered about trying low fat yoghurts. I dont think I will bother now.

Make sure the yoghurt you buy has live bio cultures, they eat up most of the carbs listed on the label (really).

lucylocket61 said:

Yoghurt's are interesting. If you look at the labels you'll actually find that many low fat foods have more carbs than their normal versions. That's because when they take the fat out they replace it with something and that something usually is carb based!

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Thanks xyzzy. I wondered about trying low fat yoghurts. I dont think I will bother now.

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Well like I say Lucy its worth looking at the labels. If you were going to just eat around 100g of yoghurt and the low fat one says 8g / 100g and the normal one 6g / 100g BUT the low fat one has half the calories and you want to lose some weight I would probably still buy the low fat one. MW who nowadays actually eats less carbs than me and would be pushing borofergie on the VLC front would still buy the normal one with less carbs. She does the ketosis thing so every gram counts for her. As she does the majority of the shopping we actually don't do low fat anything any more :lol:

I could be wrong, and I'm sure if I am someone on here will correct me. Firstly I now never look at anything on packets only the carb contents, (sorry E numbers aswell) And I sort of gauge it, that if there is more than 5gm per 100gm of carbs I dont bye it.

Personally I think it would be ok every now and then. If you have your diabetes under good control then I don't see why the very occasional splurge can't be had. It's your diabetes so you own it, rather than it owning you.

Beadysmum said:

So now can you all tell me honestly, My treat is going out for afternoon or cream tea it only ever happens about twice a year. A bit like an alcoholic I don't think I can cope with knowing that it will never happen again! So can I get away with it very very occasionally?

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Of course you can go out every now and then and have a great time! We'd all go mad if we couldn't do things like that. The best way to think of it is that what you're trying to do is adjust your normal day to day routine so that most of the time you are doing the right thing. If you get the routine right then by no means is it a death sentence in fact it can be seen as just the opposite. It will be a means losing weight and getting far more healthy. By cutting your carbs you will be minimising all the risks associated with diabetes long term.

the east man said:

I could be wrong, and I'm sure if I am someone on here will correct me. Firstly I now never look at anything on packets only the carb contents, (sorry E numbers aswell) And I sort of gauge it, that if there is more than 5gm per 100gm of carbs I dont bye it.

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We look at both carbs and calories. Just a personal view really as I see carbs as important for blood sugars but calories are still important for helping you lose weight. 5g / 100g is a bit low for me. I've worked out a rough tolerance over an entire day. For me its around 75g of carbs / day with no one meal having more than around 50g. That is low compared to a lot of people and some can do double that.