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Apples on a low carb diet

J

Judie1

Member
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5
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Does anyone know if it is true that when you cook apples to make stewed apples they become full of sugar?I added no sugar to them just cooked them until soft.Should I be eating them at all?
 
By most people's standards, apples contain a considerable amount of carbohydrates. Personally, I wouldn't associate apples (or any fruit for that matter) with a low-carb diet, but every one is different.
 
Diabetes uk say you can have berries on a low carb diet.My diabetes nurse at surgery says I can have fruit but not lots of it.
 
Judie1 said:
Diabetes uk say you can have berries on a low carb diet.My diabetes nurse at surgery says I can have fruit but not lots of it.
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and then there are people like me who don't eat any kinds of fruit even in moderation.

Again, it goes back to how YOU define low carb. To me, "Low" means <50g per day. Technically, that means I could get all 50g from apples, but I prefer not to.

As far as the other part of your question, an apple has X number of calories and you cannot scientifically create energy. The way an apple is prepared MAY affect how rapidly it is converted into glucose, but simple carbohydrates generally convert into glucose very rapidly no matter what.
 
I normally have berries most days even when I have < 30g carbs. I can't have them at the moment though as I am doing 5 days of <10g carbs.
 
You most certainly can have an apple or berries on a low carb diet. Yes, you'll use a large portion of your allowance ( depending what that is ) but it's personal choice. To tell someone they can never eat a piece of fruit on a LCHF diet makes it unnecessarily restrictive and difficult to stick with.
 
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I incorporate apple into my low-carb diet. I have a gallstone - and I lower the rate of my gallstone attacks hugely by eating apple, so it is well worth it for me. (Note I don't say eat AN apple!)

I like fruit, and I want to eat it - especially the lower-carb variety, so this is the one area in the otherwise healthy food area ('otherwise' as in if one wasn't T2 diabetic and carbohydrate intolerant!) where I well and truly portion-control. To be both low carb (under 50g a day) and have fruit - I eat teeny tiny amounts compared to life before diabetes. (I'm in high summer right now, and really feeling it! When mixing with non-diabetics around dining tables with a well-stocked fruit bowl. Sigh.)

As for apple - during colder weather in particular, I eat a half baked apple a day (8g of carbs). With lashings of whipped cream and greek yoghurt as part of a LCHF diet. I pre-prepare them - taking out the flesh of about six apples, mixing it with A LOT of ceylon cinnamon (the variety of cinnamon that has anti-diabetic properties), pop it back in to the half apple 'boats', bake them for an hour, eat one of the 'boats', and freeze the rest for later consumption. For me personally - whether I eat a half an apple cooked, or not, I have the same kind of BG rise - as in - not too much! (But what is 'too much' does differ between diabetics for sure.)

And one thing that I have noticed in myself is that if my BG does rise, sometimes quite high after fruit consumption (ie - to 8.0 for instance) (although a half an apple with cinnamon and healthy fats in no way does that to me) (but a half a banana will!) my BG lowers to a very healthy level in the post-meal reading. This is where folks are very different. You just have to 'eat and meter' and find out your own fruit-consumption levels? Especially regarding amounts of, and for which fruit.
 
AFAIK cooking any fruit just breaks it down so that it's easier and so probably faster to digest.

I eat a very low carb/ketogenic diet and include a little fruit - mainly berries, but I can manage small portions of other lower carb fruit too. Fruit is an essential part of my diet, as it's one of my favourite foods, and being able to include it in my low carb diet helps make it sustainable long term for me. I occasionally have 1/2 or 1/3 small apple, sometimes cooked and sometimes raw. I make sure that I eat my fruit as part of a bigger meal and have it with some fat: cream, yoghurt, or cooked with butter, or in a low carb muffin. I rarely see any significant spike either at one or two hours after eating it it this way.

If you're careful you can eat fruit even if you limit yourself to just a total of 30g carbs a day. You should use your meter to see how any fruit affects your glucose levels and use the results to see whether the results are acceptable or not - i.e. eat to your meter.

Robbity
 
Nicely said Robbity, indeed.

The reason why I am a 50g of carbs a day diabetic and not a 20g is because I personally don't want to live in a world without fruit! (Although I am very prepared to experiment with amounts and so on.) We are all different indeed.

Good to know about the stewing/baking fruit, and apples per this discussion, making the glucose hit the bloodstream quicker, but also perhaps making it easier to digest.

Reading this thread inspired me to bake some more baked apple 'boats', using juice from lemons from a friend's tree, and NZ granny smiths - along with the smell of cinnamon - it's hard to beat that smell for loveliness coming from my kitchen. I won't be able to do BG readings today - before, one hour after, and two hours later - but in the past when I have done so, the post meal reading is in the low to mid 6s, at its peak upper 6s or low 7 - in my pov very acceptable.
 
My blood sugar is well controlled on 85-90g a day, which does count as low carb - ie I am low carb not 'very low carb'.
I am in remission and never had to take any diabetic drugs. So the message is we are all different!
I am about to experiment with a low carb substitute for mince pies which will include apple (but not dried fruit), as I loved mince pies and christmas cake and will find the temptations hard this December.
 
I find that apples make my bg go too high for me so I eat berries and the occasional slice of apple. I used to eat masses of fruit as I saw it as healthy. Now I see most of it as sugar with a few extra nutrients. I prefer to spend my carbs on vegetables with generally give me a lot more nutrients. It's all a personal choice of course!
 
I think everyone has at least one item they want to eat and can't, and for me it is apples! I love them but they don't love me. It seems if I even look at an apple my waistline expands! Thank heavens I discovered raspberries and strawberries are really low carb, and I can tolerate them, lifesaver for me
 
A satsuma has less carbs than a similar sized apple, so I have one occasionally when I really miss fruit.
 
Apples have a lot of fibre which helps keep the sugar spike low. I eat one for breakfast along with a full fat yoghurt. I have been in remission for four years. Never say never.
 
TorqPenderloin said:
By most people's standards, apples contain a considerable amount of carbohydrates. Personally, I wouldn't associate apples (or any fruit for that matter) with a low-carb diet, but every one is different.
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I have had an apple a day for years and count it as 15gm carb. In fact I consider my lunch incomplete without an apple!
 
Judie1 said:
Does anyone know if it is true that when you cook apples to make stewed apples they become full of sugar?I added no sugar to them just cooked them until soft.Should I be eating them at all?
Click to expand...

Raw apples have fibre which lowers the glycemic load which prevents the blood level from spiking.

Stewed apples have the same amount of sugar as raw apples but very little of the fibre, so a blood spike is likely.

Raw apples are good for diabetics and non-diabetics, IMHO, so eat them raw rather than stewed.
 
I’ve found Pret a Manager do a nice apple and almond butter pot. I have it occasionally for breakfast and at 15g of carb, so far it’s never caused me to spike with pre-bolusing.
 
I usually live on 20 carbs a day. I will eat berries and cream also. I don't eat blueberries as they are quite high I believe. I don't really like them so no matter. I will eat a small child's apple with cheese and have no rise with that
 
I just sampled a rather battered apple from the trees in the garden - there are only a few left and once gone I will not eat apples until they appear again next year. It is rather high in sugar - being fully ripe it was very sweet, but I did not eat all of it, and it is possibly two weeks since I sampled the previous one.
If I was told that sugar appears spontaneously I would fix the speaker with a distinctly skeptical look and ask if they thought it was added by pixies or fairies. As for the fibre vanishing away - see previous response.
 
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