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Sandwiches

Inchindown

Well-Known Member
I like to have a sandwich for my lunch. I've noticed that a ham and cheese sandwich and a ham salad sandwich have identical carb levels. Both sandwiches are on malted bread.

However the ham salad sandwich pushes my blood sugar much higher than the ham and cheese sandwich.

Can anyone explain why this should be considering both sandwiches have the same carb level.
 
Could be the fat in the cheese slightly lowering but extending the rise?
But the bread obviously won't be helping much.. how much is the rise and what is the difference...?
 
Why have the bread at all. Just eat more of what would have been the filling. Nothing wrong with a decent chunk of ham or cheese with green salad and some cherry tomatoes.
Dump the bread.
 
bulkbiker said:
Could be the fat in the cheese slightly lowering but extending the rise?
But the bread obviously won't be helping much.. how much is the rise and what is the difference...?
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Ham and cheese was 5.5 before and 6.1 2 hours after.

Ham salad was 5.9 before and 11.8 2 hours after.

I'm not sure what the list of salad ingredients was, but there was lettuce, cucumber and maybe some bean sprouts in it.

According to the labels on the sandwiches both contained 39 grams of carbs.
 

Ah, so they were pre-packaged sandwiches. Probably all sorts of hidden carbs in the salad dressings etc... Pack your own lunches. It's much safer.
 
Never eat anything from a packet without reading the ingredients.

As a T2 I wouldn't touch bread. 39g carbs is my allowance for 2 days.
 
xfieldok said:
Never eat anything from a packet without reading the ingredients.

As a T2 I wouldn't touch bread. 39g carbs is my allowance for 2 days.
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I aim to keep my carb intake at around half the recommended daily allowance.

I do look at the labels, and I thought as both sandwiches had the same amount of carbs the effect on my blood sugar would have been the same.

The reason I choose to have shop bought sandwiches is for portion control. I have a binge eating problem and keeping the ingredients for sandwiches in the house would lead to some serious overeating.
 
Carbs are half the story. The ingredients are also very important. There was probably a lot of sugar hidden away. Any ingredient that ends in ose is sugar and should be avoided.

How many carbs do you consider your daily allowance and do you need to lose weight?

If you can get over your carb addiction, it's tough to get there, it took me around 4 weeks, you suddenly find that your appetite decreases. That might help with your binge eating. I aimed for ketosis and when it happened, I had no desire to snack and had no problem skipping meals.
 
mahola said:
You say salad... what does said salad consist of?
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If it's anything like my home made ham and salad sandwiches, it is just lettuce and tomato, one of my sandwiches is 5 grams per 100 using Herman Brot low carb bread.

I have not bought ready made sandwiches for a long time, the H & S sandwiches are mystery packets with what goes into them although the grated carrot is recognisable,
 

I only asked what was in the salad as my friend happily declared she had made me a "lovely, healthy salad" for lunch the other day... Turns out it was a pasta salad full of sweetcorn etc etc and 3 different coloured pastas because "it made it pretty"
 
Just want to say Well Done for finding a way round your binge eating. Its a difficult condition.
 
As I understand it, the recommended daily intake of carbs is about 250 grams. So I try to keep my intake at less than 125 grams.

I am overweight at the moment but I am losing weight right now. I've gone down 2 trouser sizes in the last few weeks. I'm recovering from a heart attack which happened last month. So my health regime is pretty confused at the moment. I've not had a bingeing session since the heart attack about 6 weeks ago.

The hospital has taken me off my metformin at the moment, they say this is to protect my kidneys so I'm trying to manage my sugar levels with diet alone. Most of the time I'm doing quite well.

I don't know what ketosis is.
 
Despite the latest research you are likely to be dissuaded from low carb high fat by your health care professionals.

I would say that you seem to be doing very well at the moment.

Keep doing what you are doing, but get used to reading the labels. Don't buy anything low fat, it's loaded with hidden sugars.
 
Inchindown said:
Thanks.

The main motivator for dealing with the bingeing was a heart attack. Not a course of action I would recommend.
.
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No option for more than one label under a reaction, so you get the 'winner' for controlling the bingeing, the working hard on getting on track despite the shock of a heart attack and the ability to joke about it, the 'funny' because you made me laugh, the 'agree' because I hope never to try your motivator and the rainbow because it's pretty and it looks like you're nicely on your way with finding tricks to tame both bingeing and diabetes!
Oh, and the huggy teddybear of course because things sound pretty difficult too.
 
I second the idea that the fat in the cheese is delaying your carb absorption.
The idea of testing 2 hours after eating is an approximation of the average time to absorb carbs but things like fat fan delay this. You may see a spike later with the ham and cheese sarnies. The only way to know is constant monitoring with something like Libre. Or sore fingers.
 
I didn't eat both sandwiches on the same day.

I just noticed that the ham salad one seemed to have a greater effect on my blood sugar and was interested in finding out why.

Maybe I should stick to the ham and cheese in future.
 
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