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What is wrong with a cheese and tomato sandwich?

B

BaliRob

Well-Known Member
Messages
596
Location
Bali, Indonesia
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Dislikes
Noisy dogs and loud music especially low-note drumming
I had a cheese and tomato sandwich last night followed by half a Gala apple for my dinner. The bread (two slices) was brown but not wholemeal, the cheese mild and the spread Anchor butter. I only have two slices of bread per day and only now use butter because most members on this site say it is ok. Pre-prandial I measured 7.9 and two hours post p.13.2 the highest reading I have ever taken for myself over the years. On waking this morning my reading was 8.5 also the highest reading after fasting which is normally 6/7. My previous postings boast that I had my BG's under control - clearly things are changing for me. I would be interested in constructive comments please as this meal was as about self-indulgent as I usually enjoy. Another indicator that I may have a problem is that I am finding myself hungry again within a short period after a good-sized meal. Thankyou in anticipation.....
 
I'd say it was the carb-filled bread that was the culprit. I don't eat bread, but can get away with eating corn cakes.

It might be that you're not feeling 100%. Sugar levels seem to be a pretty good indicator of when you might be brewing an illness such as a cold before you really get any symptoms (in my experience anyway).
 
Ouch, that is a spike alright :(

Maybe you have become more carb sensitive.
But I am also thinking, half a dessert apple would have around 7 carbs, 2 slices of bread at 10 carbs each or possibly even more, that would be 27 carbs, the tomato add another 2 carbs?? So well lets say 27 carbs in one meal is quite a bit, for a non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetic.

Drink plenty of water to get those numbers down againand do consider baking your own low carb bread, I have cheese sandwiches all the time, and just had a bacon sandwich for breakfast.
The bread I bake is very close in comparison to the bread from an ordinary bakery.

All the best
 
The only thing right with a cheese and tomato sandwich is the cheese and butter, 1 slice of brown bread would be ok a week for some people but like me most just avoid bread altogether. I eat tomatoes each day for lunch just 1 or 2 small cherry ones. If you are eating bread everyday and you used to be ok it is not giving your body a chance to battle the insulin correctl. Cut out the bread everyday and see what happens.
 
I now find it safer to give up in the bread department and not have any at all. Two slices of bread would have done the same to me whatever colour it was and however the flour was ground.

In a way I suppose I am lucky since I find I can eat potato and a fair portion of rice with a meal but if anything has flour in it, round it or anywhere near it my numbers go up. There is one exception that I discovered by accident. I had stew with dumplings since I couldn't resist it and the numbers were acceptable. The suet must lower the GI.

I am now getting twitchy about flour. Bread, pies, cakes etc cannot be eaten and surprisingly some processed foods since they often contain lots of flour. I discovered that by getting some high readings and then finding that a GI list included the comment that they have to include things like chicken dippers and sausages because of the amount of flour in them.

My advice is obvious then. Don't eat the bread.
 
Dear Didie and WhitbyJet,

You both epitomise what this site is all about - two very helpful suggestions thankyou. I have always had a sandwich either for lunch or during the evening and cannot see how to get around this without going to bed hungry. Baking one's own bread is the obvious answer but not within my capabilities especially as I would imagine the ingredients being difficult to obtain here. Like you, Whitby, I could and would love to survive on sandwiches but surely your bread must have some carbs - can you compare your slice with my
10 carb culprit please? Previous to your statement that 27 carbs was too high for non-insulin type 2's I thought that 27 would have been acceptable as I often see posts where 100-120 carbs per day do not raise eyebrows. I realise that Defren and other extremely low carb eaters are very successful but I know I could never survive on that diet.
 
Dear Squire Fulwood,

Now you can have rice and potato - I cannot without spiking and only coming down 3 hours post p. I really despair. Does anyone know a safe food that can be taken in quantity that leaves one feeling replete? I know my doctor is considering putting me on something to enable me to benefit more from my intake, i.e., the stomach absorbing/functioning more effectively but that decision is a month away.
 
Eat a piece of cheese and a tomato.
No bread, no significant carbs, and probably no hunger cravings afterwards.

If you have an apple, combine this with a piece of cheese.

Does anyone know a safe food that can be taken in quantity that leaves one feeling replete?
Click to expand...

You are probably looking at this back to front.
I think you need a safe food that leaves you feeling replete - you don't need to eat anything "in quantity" although most of us have come to expect that large portions of food are required to make one feel replete.

{Bangs low carb drum again}

In my personal experience, cutting down on the carbs also cuts down on the hunger and I don't need to eat a large quamtity of food to feel replete.
In my previous experience I needed to eat large portions of carbs to feel replete and quite often was hungry again soon after.

{Drum goes quiet ;-) }

Cheers

LGC
 
My experience is that low carbing reduces my appetite significantly, such that I rarely have those "I've got to eat something I'm going low" sort of feeling now.
I've heard or read that this lack of appetite is due to my increased fat and protein intake, though I don't know whether it's one of those or both that causes it.

I suspect it's fat that causes it, but perhaps others will be able to help.
 
I am sure that controlling my Diabetes means I will have to tweak the amounts certain carbs I eat over time as my body has to deal with possibly increasing glucose intolerance.

I noticed that if I had even as little as 1/2 a slice of bread with a rasher of bacon and an egg I would start to feel hungry by mid morning which, together with the resulting spike, was most frustrating. Wondering if it could be a reaction to wheat I cut out the bread and was surprised to find I no longer had the 'hunger' pangs. So I am forced to assume that what I had in fact been feeling was some form of wheat craving.

Looking back I think I was always aware of the negative effect wheat had on me. If I had toast for breakfast then I would always end up wanting sandwiches for lunch and I would have difficulty refusing cake and biscuits, whereas, on days when I had protein or fruit for breakfast I would have no problems keeping to the low GI diet I was following prior to my going over to the ultra LCHF regime I now follow.
 
Hi. A lot of brown bread is junk i.e. no complex roughage or grains just lots of malt. Go for mulit-grain bread as minimum or burgen which I must admit I don't like. When I do have bread I have a low-GI loaf from the local baker. It may be that your diabetes is progressing regardless of diet? If you are young and not over-weight don't ignore the possibility of LADA; unlikely but possible.
 
If you must eat bread, then try a slice (or maybe two) of Burgan Soya and Linseed. Some of us find that this spikes much less than regular bread.

I'm not sure if you are trying to lose weight or not, but I found cutting out bread altogether really helps - it's the perfect snack food, and it's full of carbohydrate and it's always there.

I think that flour and sugar are absolutely the worst things that a diabetic can eat. If you can cut them out, then 90% of the battle is won.
 
I liked the Burgen bread and tried it when my home made low carb breads spiked me, a case of wishful thinking. It's a shame that BaliRob isn't in a position to experiment more with the brands we have found useful .... though I do envy him for living in such a beautiful location, dealing with his Diabetes must need even more trial and error experimentation than a lot of forum members.
 
Bread would do that to me too.In fact there's scarcely any difference in BG effect between wholemeal, brown and white breads. Check out the Sydney University GI data.. Nothing in butter or cheese will affect BG and the effect of tomatoes is marginal.
My suggestions, if you really want sandwiches, is: try Burgen Soya and flax bread. Alternatively an open sandwich, which uses only 1 slice of bread. OR Thin Ricecakes or the very low carb crispbread sold by the healthfood shops, whose name I've currently forgotten. There are loads of alternatives. You can even buy low carb bread from the Low Carb Megastore, but it's pricey.
My own solution is not to eat any "Normal" bread. I would just slice the cheese and put it on the plate with cut up tomato.
Hope that helps
The real problem is the many years of advice to diabetics to "eat plenty of complex carbs with each meal" A huge chunk of the healthcare professions hasn't yet noticed that the advice has been modified recently.
Ian Day and I met a diabetes dietician at a meeting who is in favour of low carb diets for tthose who can keep to it.
Hana
Ps I wouldn't eat if my pre meal bg was almost 8. That's me the control freak! :roll:
 
BaliRob

Yes I am most fortunate that I can eat potatoes and (reduced portions of)rice. Despite my good fortune I try to keep my numbers down as much as I can and I have found that stir fry food is ideal for eating a couple of days a week. They are so simple to cook as well. Diced chicken breast, bag of stir fry veg from the supermarket and a sauce for flavour. My favourite sauce is oyster and spring onion. You can eat that until you burst.

Another one I like very much is the broccoli and beef stir fry on the netmums.com web site. The method of cooking it is wrong in their recipe. I recommend that the beef be properly cooked in the wok and semi steamed broccoli added along with the soy and ginger sauce. Their method seems to say you should put the raw things in a wok and stir for 4 minutes. It doesn't work unless you like raw beef. You can eat tons of this too.

My other meals may contain potato or rice because I can get away with it. I could reduce the components until it worked. I always say to new people that if they really cannot give up a certain food then just eat less (half) of it.
 
Squire Fulwood said:
Here is the link to the beef and broccoli stir fry. Cook it like I say above and not the way they say and don't add the rice or noodles


http://www.netmums.com/pages/print_page ... i-stir-fry
Click to expand...
Also,if you really miss noodles,there are Zero carb noodles available on the internet although they do get a very mixed reception regarding taste and texture.
 
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