I’m baking (Canadian Thanksgiving) two succulent pumpkin pies, and I just noticed something interesting.
I’ve always known pies and such are high in carbs (usually 40-60 carbs per slice); also I know that sugar is 2 carbs per 2 tablespoons. But somehow I never thought that flour would be where the rest of the carbs come from (I knew it contributes–but not how much).
23 carbs for 2 tablespoons!!! Holy crap!! It has more carbs than four sugar tablets!!
I’m using Robin hood best for cakes and pastries mix. I plan to calculate exactly what each slice of pie will be worth after I’m done, should be around the expected 40-60 carbs a slice.
It’s Thanksgiving! Having a great treat in moderation is not a bad thing 
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sugar is 4 grams of carbs per teaspoon. That would make it about 12 grams of carb per 1 tablespoon, not 2 carbs per 2 tablespoons. If sugar were really that low, more people wouldn’t even turn to artificial sweeteners, which can sometimes have as as much as 2 or 3 carbs per teaspoon.
The old saying that I was taught years ago: “A diabetic should watch out for anything white” comes to mind here.
Sorry, I was just thinking about what else your nutritionists taught you. You Canadians are pretty liberal with your carbs. Personally, I worry about carbs in all kinds of things, and I barely listen to the nutritionists anymore.
Flour=wheat=grain=carbs.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
In my experience flour is even harder on my blood glucose than sugar. Neither is very friendly though.
Happy Thanksgiving
We’re taught to eat what we want, in moderation, and compensate. I didn’t mention I was going to eat the whole pie myself 
I think she was refering to exchanges. Each tablespoon of sugar is only 3 grams shy of the standard 15 gram carb exchange serving. That’s how I am making sense of her comment.
I totally agree with having a treat for thanksgiving
Haha, so true about flour hitting harder than sugar sometimes! And I noted that brown sugar has 4 carbs per teaspoon. I thought of artificial splenda after I started baking, I recall seeing a brown sugar variant (very important to pumpkin pie). Maybe next time…I thought of it after I’d mixed everything in, lol. Oh well…I’m making a carbs list for the pie and dividing it by portion so me and mum will know exactly what to give ourselves.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone else! =D I joked to mum as we carted the groceries home in our buggy that we nowadays ‘go harvest the grocery store’ during this time of the year. I mentioned it when she was pulling it up the steps and she yelled “NO! Don’t make me laugh now, I won’t get it up the stairs!” XD
No, I don’t use exchanges. I had a mistaken memory, could of sworn I’d read a package of table sugar saying 2 carbs per 2 tablespoons before (don’t use it often ;-). I checked now, it’s 4 carbs per teaspoon. Brown sugar is somewhere around that too as I recall from earlier. Sorry for the mix up…I guess that makes flour about equal then? Still surprised to see so many carbs in so little flour! I knew in a roundabout way but seeing the tiny amount on a spoon really brings things to light.
You’re right about the whole flour thing… It’s shocking… and disappointing, too. lol You’d think a grain wasn’t so unhealthy. hehe
My daughter made some low carb cheese cake once with ground almonds for the crust. It was quite good. If you sub splenda for the sugar it might be a treat you could live with.
Another thing our dietitians are asking us to do is :" Mindful Eating " …hope we , you and I etc. , will be successful during our Thanksgiving weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving with your family ! …off walking the dog .
Here’s a low carb pumpkin pie recipe.
Pumpkin Pie–6 servings, 9.8 carbs per serving (if you subtract fiber there’s 5 grams fiber, so 4.8 net carbs per slice)
Filling
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp maple extract
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
zero carb sweetener to taste (I use stevia & Fiberfit liquid Splenda. Granular Splenda has carbs.)
Crust
2 cups pecans
4 TBS melted butter
Put pecans in blender or food processor & pulse until it looks like meal. Mix nuts with melted butter & press into pie pan.
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine all filling ingredients & mix well. Add more spices, if needed. Some people like pumpkin pie kind of spicy.
Pour into crust & bake 35-40 minutes, until set in the center.
Great topped with whipped cream.
Thanks for the clarification! Though, you did inadvertantly use the exchange value!
For a holiday, you might want to think about taking a “hog wild day”, where you eat whatever you like, without regard to blood sugars. BUT, it’s only for that day, AND you can only take 6 of them each year. It’s a way to give yourself a respite from the day-to-day grind of diabetes and something recommended a long time ago by diabetes writers June Biermann and Barbara Toohey in their book, Psyching Out Diabetes. The key, though, is to go right back on your normal regimen the next day. If you can’t do that, then the hog wild approach is not right for you. Otherwise, it’s a nice way to help you keep your sanity during what otherwise is a frustrating time of year for many of us with diabetes!
Gerri,
You are using a pre-made crust right?
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Nope. The crust (pecan meal) is included in the recipe above. Tons of carbs in packaged crust. Total carbs listed includes the crust.
I didn’t mean to harass you with the freaky woman. Moderation is a great thing, but we have to know what to moderate and for most, flour and grains is a much larger proportion of our diets than “sugar.” Fortunately, with pumpkin pie, I like the filling best and another thing you might consider is just make one pie the “usual” way and another with “no” crust and then be mindful about having two “no crust” slices.
Again, sorry about the scary woman.