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It is all energy?

F

flakey rascal

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Gloucester
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Being told i can no longer eat my favourite food
Fats or carbs? They are both sources of energy, so if we don't need to worry too much about the fat, are we better having fat and no carbs?
An example was on finding i was type 2, i bought some Monarch cheese crackers. 0% carbs 9g protein and 8g of fat of which 6g is saturated fat. I liked them, but didn't buy anymore as i thought there was a catch as they say 8g fat, but don't mention the saturated content unless you dig in.
They also say they are keto friendly. I find a lot of things i look at are keto ,and seem to be diabetic friendly, but obviously don't claim it is unless it is American, whichi assume they can be a bit more fast and loose with claims. Is a keto diet good for type 2?
 
A keto diet is anything which encourages your body to produce ketones.

That can only happen if insulin is low, and the body is sufficiently nourished, so in my opinion there is nothing better than a keto diet for T2 - but it's not the only way to go, and not for everyone.

Fats and Carbs are both energy sources, but Carbs require insulin to be raised, so as far as T2 is concerned they are very very different.

Plus - you don't need a single carb for anything - you can make plenty of your own glucose, whereas you are made mainly from fat and protein, so the fat you eat is pretty important.

A high protein cheese cracker is really an ultra-processed food-like thing - ie, that protein has been extracted in an industrial process from plants as a powder and added to the cracker. In real food (like an egg or avocado or meat) the fat and protein come together in the way that we are most efficient at digesting, and in a way our digestion is set up to make use of the results.

For "saturated" you can read "stable" and just not worry - the fats you may consider avoiding (or at least I do) are the ones industrially refined from vegetables and seeds - and are highly unstable, breaking down into thousands of different toxic compounds in the refining, storage, cooking and in your body.

If you stick with whole actual foods, it's difficult to go wrong. "Keto friendly" often just means low carbs, but some of the ingredients in such products would drop me straight out of ketosis.
 
Can I just check, Chris, by refined fats from veg and seeds, do you mean 'trans fats'?
 
the crackers are just cheese with nothing added apparently. It reminded me of cheese from a cheese toastie that has spilt onto the hot plate and cooled down. Anyway, they claim it is just cheese amd nothing else.
Thanks for the reply on keto. I will look into it more
 
A cracker will contain production additives. Check the label.
 
I eat the monarch cheese “crisps” and I do keto - they are just cheese nothing else so they’re fine. You can make your own very easily too. Get yourself a packet of sliced Edam cheese, cut them into triangles and spread out onto greaseproof paper - make sure it’s greaseproof paper, don’t use foil as they will stick, put them in a hot oven for about 15 minutes but watch them, when they are all bubbling and just starting to turn on the edges take them out and let them cool then peel off the paper - you’ve got cheese crisps. Make great nachos.

You can do this with little piles of Parmesan too, or any grated hard cheese, you can sprinkle spices or chili powder or garlic powder on them also to add some different flavours
 
Thank you.
 
They can also be made in a microwave, about 90 seconds but do watch and experimental sdiffernt cheeses, different thicknesses, different times.
Does save preheating the oven tho.
 
I'm a fan of using real cheese slices - I had an Emmental slice at lunchtime with some course pate; load up one side of the cheese slice and fold over, and you have a kind of sandwich, that really is keto friendly.
 
Chris24Main said:
I'm a fan of using real cheese slices - I had an Emmental slice at lunchtime with some course pate; load up one side of the cheese slice and fold over, and you have a kind of sandwich, that really is keto friendly.
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That sounds like a good idea
 
MrsA2 said:
They can also be made in a microwave, about 90 seconds but do watch and experimental sdiffernt cheeses, different thicknesses, different times.
Does save preheating the oven tho.
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I usually make big batches and do them when I have the oven on for something else - (word to the wise don’t do them in the air fryer!
 
I never used to be able to eat cheese as it would give me a migraine. For the last two months I have been having cheese on a regular basis and I have been fine with it. Maybe my body has finally got used to lovely cheese. I had a low carb bagel today with avocado and melted cheese, cor blimey it was lovely
 
toastaddict said:
Can I just check, Chris, by refined fats from veg and seeds, do you mean 'trans fats'?
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Good call - but no, trans fats are refined fats from veg and seeds which have been even more processed to become solid.

The stuff we have been sold for a generation (I have eaten most of my life) - vegetable oil, cooking oil, seed oil - is all a consequense of needing to sell the leftover lubricant gunk from the cotton industry. It was literally an industrial lubricant, then it started a new life as an alternative soap, then stepped up to be a cheaper food for pigs, then Proctor and Gamble finally figured out how to remove enough of the poisonous stuff to make it safe for human consumption. The rest is history.

Now - this isn't an anti-poly unsaturated rant; we need a certain amount of poly unsaturated fat, and always have, just not very much. The problem is that vegetable and seed oils just weren't intended by nature to stay stable, so even if they are 100% pure at the point you buy a bottle (which they are not, simply cannot be) they start to break down into toxic particles - literally shattering into spiky little molecules that are not good at all - thousands of different types; whenever you heat or expose them to air or light. Even more concerning, is that this continues in the body, particularly if they come into contact with glucose.

That sound a little conspiratorial - but it's factually true, the chemical process is called oxidative rancidisation. It's kind of stunning, but the global market for vegetable oils runs to the hundreds of billions, as a piece of marketing, it's one of single biggest food success stories.

Yet - despite the advice to add it to your diet, and that the majority of the energy in the standard diet comes from them - there was never any scientific evidence that doing so was good for us.
 
MrsA2 said:
@flakey rascal You are a relative newbie to all this. There is a lot to learn, and to work out what will work best for you and your body. It takes time,but that's OK. It's a marathon not a sprint. Breathe, read,research, learn. And ask questions
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I just found out celeriac is a good alternative to potato, so yes, very much learning
 
I melt hard cheese on a griddle, usually Monterey Jack cheese, then fashion the melted cheese into the shape of a taco shell. When the cheese dries it makes a perfect alternative to the corn taco shells. I then fill them with avocado, lettuce , home made salsa and if I fancy adding meat then that goes into the shell too.

edited to add I have a taco shell holder which makes forming the shells easy.
 
flakey rascal said:
I just found out celeriac is a good alternative to potato, so yes, very much learning
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One of my favourites, great replacement for chips too, I do mine in the air fryer, Celeriac dophinoise with onions and cream for posh dinners, you can mash it too if you get a bit fed up of Cauli mash

finely grated raw for a remoulade, nice alternative to regular coleslaw, finely grated add a blob of mayo, squeeze of lemon juice or a teaspoon of apple cider or white wine vinegar & seasoning. I add other stuff to it most times a few chopped capers or gherkins, a few chopped walnuts - even though I’m keto I also sometimes add a bit of grated apple, not much about half a small green apple grated, I usually make about 6 portions so the apple goes a long way and gives it a nice sweetness
 
toastaddict said:
Can I just check, Chris, by refined fats from veg and seeds, do you mean 'trans fats'?
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Yes... Unrefined (Good) would mean natural, not processed/tampered. While, refined (Bad) would mean processed, trans. Trans is Latin for "across." So, think of a natural food crossing over (becoming) a processed (refined) food.
 
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