Hi, just wondering if anyone out there has tried going at least partially gluten free- and how much it's helped with BG control. If anyone has... do you have good recommendations for recipe sources?
If it's not required for medical reasons why add it to your huge list of daily requirements, it's expensive and your choices for Gluten free food will minimal at best...RU-celiac.
Yes I have tried gluten free and it was a complicated and time consuming but not a impossible task.
You can have great BG control and still eat just about anything as long as it's "Low Carb" and you practice some kind of portion control...a low carb diet can be very close to a Gluten free diet.
JMHO...;-)
Lol. I like cake. And brownies. And things like that. I figured trying gluten free baking at the least would help.
Damn regular chocolate chip cookies send me crazy high every time… but I can’t give them up!
Cry.
No, I tried it briefly and it didn't make any difference (in fact, it made things worse because a lot of the packaged foods that are gluten free are also high in carbs!)
What has worked best for me to improve control is simply limiting the number of carbs I eat. For a while, I was eating a "normal" diet, with upwards of 250 carbs per day. My BG control was horrid. I just could not reliably match my insulin to my carb intake. When I lowered my today daily carbs to around 90-120, I immediately felt better and had better control.
Hi palominovet. I have Celiac Disease, so have no choice but to eat gluten free. What you are asking, I think, is for lower carb flours than wheat. Coconut and almond flours are both healthy with lower carbs and taste good. Gerri here on TuD has good recipes that are gluten free, low carb and taste good. Finding gluten free recipes is easy; finding gluten free recipes that are low carb is not so easy!
Just cooking gluten free is not necessarily low carb cooking. Without the gluten in wheat, textures can be poor, so many gluten free recipes have such as white rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch (which is different from potato flour). I do find brown rice flour to be useful because of the fiber and lower glycemic index. There are a lot of good pancake recipes using the alternate flours; the trick is to eat just a few and freezing the rest. Darn portion control!
I am on pinterest and there seem to be so many blogs on there about eating gluten free. You have to search, but it's fun to do. You also have to be invited to join, so if you want me to invite you via email, I can do that.
One the back of the Splenda brown sugar blend package there’s a really good choc chip cookie recipe. It still has carbs but it’s easier to control my bg when it’s those.
I am a T2 not on insulin following an "eat to your meter" approach. Early on I found wheat spiked me unacceptably so I haven't had wheat or any other grain for 2.5 years. There are lots of recipe resources on the web. You can still eat well and not feel deprived. In addition to gluten free search for low carb and paleo. Actually cookies and cakes are fairly easy to bake using almond flour, coconut flour etc.
Some recipe sources:
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/
tuD is also a great resource.
There are several low carb recipe groups here's one to get you started.
Another place to look is in the Bernstein Group. While not a recipe group per say some great recipe ideas have been posted from time to time.
Gluten free doesn't mean carb free. And even sugar free substitute desserts often have more carbs than the ones with sugar.
I can try sugar free, but I feel that it is the wheat that makes my sugar spike like crazy. I can eat regular plain chocolate without issue, but the cookie not so much.
Thanks, Trudy. I think part of my issue is that the wheat spikes it.. regardless of the carb numbers. I thought maybe I would try a recipe or two of gluten free 'sweets' (trying a portion with similar number of carbs as the regular cookies I eat) and see how it affects my BG.
Thank you! Corn is also my enemy. :( Oddly.. potatoes don't do a heck of a lot to my BG as long as I cover their carby goodness. :)
Can't wait to try some of these.
I'm experimenting with it right now because I was just diagnosed with Hashimoto's and an article I ran across suggested that going gluten free could help with the hypothyroid issues. Someone else mentioned coconut flour and almond flour and as your taste buds change they can be an acceptable substitute. Pinterest is a good site to get links to any possible "diet", unfortunately it is also like looking at food porn for all the recipes we can no longer have! lol Elanas Pantry has a ton of adaptable gluten free recipes, her coconut flour cupcakes are pretty darn good. And by the way 1 week in and I have so much more energy and the mental fogginess is not as bad.
I am celiac so going gluten free definately helped with my BG, but if you are not celiac it may make things harder. Gluten free flours are more processed than whole grain wheat etc, so they tend to have a higher glycemic index & cause larger quicker BG spikes.
I have been gluten-free by default for almost three months, as I have completely eliminated all grains and flour products from my diet. I feel great and my BG control is better than it has been in years. I'm low-carbing across the board (no potatoes, root vegetables, or sugars, obviously, but also keeping a lid on fruit) and stepped down from <= 100 gm carbs per day to my current <= 50 gm carbs per day. My BG's have dropped so much that I think I might be in the 5% A1C club in the not too distant future.
I think eliminating starchy carbs from my diet is the best thing I've done for my health in a very long while.