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"Free from...."

Bertyboy

Well-Known Member
Messages
215
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Does anyone else find it a bit annoying that supermarkets make a big deal of "Free from...." sections, yet every time I try to hunt out something ready-made that might be suitable for a diabetic, the plethora of free-from gluten/dairy/egg/etc. stuff is always full of carbs and, even worse, sugar. Why is there no "Free from carbs" stuff for the millions of diabetics? There are a few sweets (Fruitella) that do try to achieve this, but finding carb-free desserts is, well, impossible. Even plain yoghurts (Fage) seem to have sugar in them.
I found a few bake-your-own products (I recently made some "I Quit Sugar" cookies, and even with almond butter and a shed load of Stevia added, they still taste s****!), but they all seem to go heavy on coconut, which I'm not a massive fan of.


Edited by mod
 
As someone who needs to eat gluten free, I don't bother with the "Free From" sections. They tend to be more expensive, and can be poor imitations of those things they're looking to replace. The exceptions for me are Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.

The supermarket is full of decent products for diabetics, but maybe I'm ultra-lucky not having a sweet tooth.

I think, from memoery the Fage yoghurts only sugars are naturally occuring sugars in the milk used to produce the yoghurt.

Surely, as a T1 you can, should you choose to, eat "normally" and adjust your insulin to accommodate it?
 
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I've often suspected there is a killing to be made by anyone who can get 'low carb treats' right. Especially since it's not just diabetics who might appreciate such things, but quite a few health-conscious people are trying to reduce carbs these days.

So far the real 'finds' that I think are very nice treats and tolerably low in carbs, are not marketed as such. Things like Oppo ice cream, and Aldi's sea salt & peanut bars.

There are of course things like the Atkins range of sweet things, but frankly they are so loaded with carbs I don't know how they get away with it.
 
If only veggie and vegan treats were low carb...
 
There are its called the butchery counter or a bit of the fresh veg counter. You don't have to trudge up and down aisle looking at carby c**p just avoid those bits and head straight for the pork scratchings dept..
 

I don't really find Free from annoying, I have coeliac, it's a life long condition and on a strict GF diet, but the price is higher and the carb content of most products are high.
I like 9 bars, about 11 carbs and full of delicious seeds I also like Irish yogurts, they are lower in carbs and gluten free too. also a crispbread at 5/6 carbs. When I make gluten free lower carb foods (recently Lemon shortbread cookies made with almonds and tasted good) I still have to take Insulin. I do concur with your quote about coconut,.............not a food I like it's
 
I don't generally stray away from the meat, dairy and non-starchy veg mantra, but just ocassionally, I have a craving for dessert or something sweet.
Unfortunately, I seem to be particularly sensitive to carbs (I don't know if it's just a very fast metabolism rate) and I'm paranoid about getting a hypo so I'd rather just minimise intake as far possible and avoid having to chase wild BG fluctuations. Even the other day, a 6u Novorapid bolus for a chicken salad couldn't stop me from going from 5.5 to 10.8. When I asked at the salad bar the next day, it transpired that French dressing contains sugar.
I'm still new to this and learning, but realising that the food industry isn't really tuned into diabetes.
 
Bertyboy said:
the food industry isn't really tuned into diabetes.
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Or at least certainly not low carb.. have you tried frozen raspberries with double cream and yoghurt wizzed up in a blender with some sweetener if you like. Makes a frozen yog/Mr Whippy consistency dessert and tastes great.
 
It's a good job I'm not gluten intolerant, because the gluten is replaced with potato starch, and that is so bad for me. You do have to be wary about how many carbs there are simply because the potato starch adds to the total carbs.
It's bad enough searching for a treat without having to search free from aisles!
Nine bars are the closest best choice, but only half!
Difficult to find but so nice!
 
I agree with most of what has been said on this thread, but there are plenty of low carb foods in supermarkets - in the butcher departments, the fish stalls, the dairy aisles, the vegetable aisles ........
 
there are diabetic friendly (in my case low -carb) in most supermarkets, it just takes a little more planning (and avoiding certain aisles). Do you have a carb counter book? I found mine very useful in the early days and used it to plan a weekly meal plan and shopping.

My favourite treats easily bought in supermarket:
Cheese counter - love cheese
Olives
85% (or higher chocolate) check the label - Tesco finest swiss 85% dark is 3.7g carbs for 2 squares
fresh berries
100% nut butter on celery sticks
 
Bluetit1802 said:
I agree with most of what has been said on this thread, but there are plenty of low carb foods in supermarkets - in the butcher departments, the fish stalls, the dairy aisles, the vegetable aisles ........
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Sure, I get this. Meat, cheese and veg are the staple of my diet anyway (I do wonder how vegan diabetics get by!). But this could be said for gluten-free, yet there seems to be quite a big industry in making gluten-free alternatives to many processed items, just not so much of an industry in carb-free.
 

I think a lot of low carb people have realised that by eating home cooked fresh food rather than prepared stuff where you have no real idea what is in it they can maintain a better grasp on what they are eating. I realise that for the more culinary challenged this may not be great but is there really someone out there who can't do bacon and eggs?
So there won;t be much of a market for pre-prepared low carb food (I hope) which is probably why it hasn't really developed.
That was a rather long winded way of saying what I meant sorry..
 
I think I'm just craving a dessert that isn't yoghurt and berries. They're nice enough, just a bit samey after 7 months. I do occasionally make things. I made a carb-free trifle, which was nice, but I work ~60 hours a week so that doesn't happen too often, especially as when I do get back home, my first priority is on preparing a meal.
 
@Bertyboy
There are quite a few low carb desserts, other than berries (I got bored of them too!)

Try melting a couple of chunks of dark choc in the microwave, and stirring in some cream and nuts
Or sugarfree jellies (you can buy them made up in yogurt sized portions)
Or you could have a go at making a low carb mug cake.

I know that your immediate reaction is probably ‘i can’t be bothered/don’t know how/don’t have time’ but they actually take 30 secs to prepare and 2 mins in the microwave, and voila! You have a single person sized low carb cake. Maybe 5g carbs per mug cake.

Have a look at this, and you’ll see what i mean.

 
Ok, just tried a mug-cake. Not bad, texture-wise. Could have done with a bit more stevia, but it's in the right direction! Thanks for the heads-up!
 
Bertyboy said:
Ok, just tried a mug-cake. Not bad, texture-wise. Could have done with a bit more stevia, but it's in the right direction! Thanks for the heads-up!
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Nice one! I often use the mug cake batter and bake (180C, 20-25 minutes) it instead, a mix for two mugs makes 6-8 little cakes in various muffin tins (silicone ones don’t stick), and the browned top makes it more like a “proper” cake.
 
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