This is more of a curiousity and learning based question:
I have been doing the low carb diet and it working well for me ( T2, on Met). SInce I started about a month and a half ago, I have been eating my breakfast of low carb toast (9 carbs 1 piece) and unsweetened peanut butter ( 3 carbs) and a cup of unsweetened hemp or almond milk ( like 1 carb). So under 15 carb breakfast. I have full glass of water.
Here is what is bugging me: The bread I had before (Healthy Ways brand) was a Whole Wheat/Flax and I also bought a 100% Whole Rye (same brand) - Both have the same carbs and net carbs (the rye actually has 1 gram more fiber than the whole wheat). So I finished up the Wheat one and now on to the Rye (which is very tasty and I like!) but even though the carbs are the same the Rye raises my sugars around 10 points more than the Wheat!
Weird. Can this be right?
I am not worried about it because I have sugars within normal ranges for the 99 percent of the time. But I do sort of notice that if I go above 100 a few times that my tongue starting getting dry again (some of you may recall that I had problems with dry tongue at the beginning - it took a while but it went away - but now that I have had a few higher numbers I have had a bit of return of it - not sure it if is related or not - I might not be drinking enough water)
For example, I wake up at 71 today, have my breakfast with the low carb rye bread, PB (with flaxseed oil in it) and nut milk and I am at 114 2 hours later, Same with prior day (woke at 79 - 2 hours later 121). With the Wheat bread, I would normally get a rise of 20 points (give or take a few). I take one of my Metformins with breakie.
Even too I made a half grilled cheese for lunch with the Rye yesterday and I went from 69 to 104.
So, what gives? Why if the carbs are the same am I higher on the rye than on the wheat (haha, makes it sound like I am smokin' something!) ?? Does my body just not like the rye (sugar wise) regardless of carbs?
Anyone else notice something like this with different ingredients but same carbs?
I have been only eating the rye for a few days - don't have my period or anything so I don't think it is that. I am not really concerned but mostly curious to the why this happens - and bummed because I was gonna make myself a veggie reuben with my rye! Dang.
Aside from the meter inaccuracy which is probably the cause, nutritional labels are not always accurate. Also, our bodies change in how we react to food. The ever-changing nature of diabetes is one of the many joys.
Yeah, I am not really worried about it about just wondering why the difference. I noticed it the day I opened my new loaf of rye - I mean, the difference in the numbers. Normally they are very predictable for my breakfast because I eat the same breakfast and it has been that way for over a month (always around 20 points). So I was baffled to see the extra 10 points.
I thought the rye maybe had something to do with it - maybe diabetes and rye don’t mix for me or something. The slices do seem to be a bit bigger than the wheat ones. Just wondered if anyone else noticed something similar for grains. Also because my dry tongue reappeared a bit after I ate my rye breakfast made me additionally wonder about the difference.
I am going to eat Wheat/Flax again tomorrow instead as I now have another loaf and see what happens. I have a feeling it will be around 20 rise. Just my women’s intuition I guess.
Gerri, I wonder if since this is the first time I have had anything rye since I started maybe my body is not used to it and will adjust - maybe after eating it for a while - my numbers might go down.
Could be that rye doesn’t agree with you. In non-low carb bread, rye tends to have a good bit of sweetener added to offset the strong rye taste. Afraid I can’t offer any experience because I don’t eat grains any more. I really don’t trust nutritional labels.
Well, I had the Whole Wheat bread this morning instead of the rye (with my PB, flaxseed oil combo) and I actually also had a unsweented chocolated soy milk which is higher in carbs than the nut milk. (it is sort of yucky tasting but I am just trying to use it up) and I woke at 78 this morning and 2 hours later only 96.
So, this is leading me to believe it is the rye. That does spike me a bit more. Weird. Well, I will still use my rye bread up of course - maybe do half slices instead. The brand also makes an Italian low carb (hard to imagine that) so I think that is next on my shopping list.
Haven’t tried the biscuits yet because I am still in the process of moving all my kitchen stuff - I need my pastry blender to get a good biscuit. I’ll have all my stuff next week and I am definately going to make a batch! I think my vegan shortening will work good. I checked - No carbs!
Btw, have you ever tried making any non-low-carb recipes that have regular flour as the ingredient and than just making the rest of the recipe the same but just using the almond flour? I was thinking that almond flour is probably heavier or densier than white or wheat so you probably have to tweek the amounts?? Just wondering because I might also try using my old biscuit recipe and just replacing the regular flour it calls for with the almond. But not sure how it will turn out - this will be my first time cooking with almond flour. I have yet to make the muffins too (get my muffin pans back next week too!)
You’re right that almond flour is heavier & also has more moisture. The amounts to substitute for wheat flour are the same. But, there’s no gluten to bind ingredients together. For some recipes, I have to use more eggs to bind & to give it lightness. The trick is for it not to turn to eggy tasting. Know you don’t use eggs, of course. Have heard of vegans using apple sauce instead.
Almond flour is great for things are kind of heavy to begin with, like muffins, pancakes & cakes. I’ve seen recipes that add a little oat flour (1/4 cup or less). Depending on what it is, a bit of oat flour wouldn’t add that many carbs,
Almond flour also sticks to pans. I use parchment paper.
My old biscuit recipe doesn’t use eggs (I have an egg sub I use whenI need it so I could use a recipe that had eggs). It has more fats and oils to make the biscuit fluffier - also a milk or whatever liquid. Key to flakier, lighter biscuits is to use at least 1/2 cup of fat to every 2 cups of flour and fat has to be cold. Learned this from a southern biscuit maker. It really works too. I hope it stands true for almond flour biscuits as well. I’ll let you know how they turn out! I hate hockey puck biscuits so I hope they don’t turn out like that - but I’ll still eat them anyways! Better than no biscuit at all!
I actually found one of the biscuit recipes you gave me on a site by accident! Lots of other tasty recipes there too. It is called Healthy Indulgence.
How funny because I recently found Healthy Indulgence, too! Don’t hers look awesome? I haven’t tried her recipe yet that I sent you.
Almond flour (don’t use almond meal) biscuits are not as light as wheat ones. Like you said, better than nothing:) A couple of times mine have been hockey pucks. I crumbled them up & used them for bread crumbs.
Thanks for the advice. Southeners know their bisuits. Yum.
That would work beautifully! I recently bought some dehydrated egg whites from the healthfood store to try this (easier than separating eggs), but I haven’t had time recently to do much experimenting. I’ve added a bit of cream cheese to almond meal pancake batter & it was yummy.
