High carb/low sugar versus low carb/high sugar

[The Pond]

Hi
I tend to try and avoid eating anything with too much added sugar, and keep my carb intake relatively low. However, which would people say is best: a food that is high in sugar but low in overall carbohydrate, or one that is low in sugar but high in total carb?

So take breakfast cereal for example. Would it be better to eat something like Shredded Wheat, which has only 0.7g of sugar per 100g but 69.3g total carbohydrate, or would I be better off with All Bran, which has 17g of sugar but only 48g total carbohydrate?

I guess there's not going to be a hard & fast answer, but I'd be interested to know if there was a consensus.

Thanks
Dan

 

[jumbleannie1VDJQ]

Personally I would choose a slice of wholemeal toast and a chukky egg, Which would be lower carb than either of those.

 

[sandy2011]

Hi Dan,
My personal experience:
When I read food labels in the grocery stores I look for the grams of fiber in addition to total carbs and total sugar, and if that is not mentioned then I'd have to assume fiber = 0. In your example if I don't know the fiber gs then fiber = 0, and therefore I am looking at very high numbers 69.3g and 48g which will shoot my blood sugar through the roof, so definitely a no-no for me.
My current rule is only eat food with total carbs 6 g or lower (*) / 100 g serving (* total carbs: don't count fiber), but that is only for me.

 

[The Pond]

Personally I would choose a slice of wholemeal toast and a chukky egg, Which would be lower carb than either of those.

Thanks for the replies.

So what would you go for if you had two slices of wholemeal toast, one of which had 6g of carbs, of which 0.5g was sugar, and the other had 3g of carb, but 2g of which was sugar?

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Please let me know where I can buy wholemeal bread which is 6g or even 3g of carbs per slice, I have always found that wholemeal bread is as bad as white bread and so never eat the stuff**, wholegrain bread now thats a different matter.

The only difference between white bread and wholemeal is the amount of fibre, but dont be fooled they will both have almost the same effect on BG levels.

Wholegrain bread takes longer to digest and break down to its single string molecule ie sugar so is much kinder to bg levels, however it is still made from flour and should be treated with caution so test test and test again to see how it affects you.




** The only breads I have found I can eat in moderation are Burgen bread and Tescos Rustic Multigrain bread.

 

[phoenix]

Shredded Wheat
For
Contains whole wheat
Nothing else added
Against
whole wheat has been highly processed, chopped into fine particles and extruded
High on the glycemic index the 2 tests have a GI of 67 and 83.
The second GI test was done on people with diabetes
Because it is more carb dense, it also has a relatively high GL: 13 and 17

All Bran
For
contains high proportion of wheat bran so high fibre may be useful if other sources of fibre not in diet.
lower on glycemic index 30-55
(depending on country, recipes probably vary, all tests on normal subjects)
lower GL 4-12
Nutritionally far higher than SW in almost all vits and minerals (the difference surprised me)
NB from US source so fibre/carbs calculated differently and All Bran many be a different recipe.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/bre ... als/1622/2 (shredded wheat)
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/bre ... als/1516/2 (all bran)
Against:
Also a highly processed product made from squashed and extruded grains.
Recipe includes sugar,
UK recipe not been G1 tested, could be higher than elsewhere
some of the vitamins are added.

In theory, All Bran should, in spite of the sugar, raise your glucose levels less (given similar portion sizes). If that's your main criteria then I would go for that one, but as always your own meter will tell you.

 

[smidge]

Hi all!

I think I'm with Sid on this one. It doesn't seem to matter to my BG whether I eat white bread or wholemeal - both hit equally hard. Unlike Sid, Burgen hits me pretty hard aswell - although not quite as bad as the others - but that's because it's got a third fewer carbs in it (11g average for Burgen as opposed to 15 -17g for white and wholemeal). I guess some of you get away with the lower GI carbs, but it makes not a jot of difference to me - a carb is a carb! On another thread, I posted my experiment with lizis granola which has 21g carb per 50g but claims to raise BG only at the rate of 6.6g carb per 50g. It claims it has had its glyaecemic load scientifically measured. Guess what? It raised mine just like 21g carb per 50g :roll:

When it comes to refined sugar v starch carb, both hit my BG the same (as do beans and pulses). If I had to make a choice between lower carb and lower refined sugar in a packet of cereal, I'd go for lower carb. If they were both pretty much the same in overall carb value but one was made up of more refined sugar, I'd go for the lower sugar option as refned sugar is unhealthy in so many ways, not just to BGs, whereas carb derived from grains is actually healthy in general, it just has a detrimental effect on BGs so, as a diabetic, I choose to avoid it as much as possible. It's all relative really and I guess I just prioritise my glycaemic control over other things.

Smidge

 

[phoenix]

I think I'm with Sid on this one. It doesn't seem to matter to my BG whether I eat white bread or wholemeal - both hit equally hard.

It's a misconception that they have different GIs They mostly contain very finely gound flour, the vast majority of standard white and wholemeal loaves have GIs in the 70s and 80s, even some that sound as if they ought to be low are also very high (Sainsburys multi grain is 80)
The lower GI breads (and no bread is going to be rock bottom!) tend to contain very coarsly gound flours, contain a lot of seeds , various non wheat flours, may be risen using sourdough.