| IndigoElectron
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I've been looking at this website:
http://www.sugarfreemegastore.com/
and wondering if it's worth spending money on any of the products (some of them are quite expensive).
I do know that we don't count carbs on SB, we just choose 'good carbs' like vegetables and somewhat restrict 'less good carbs' like whole grain cereals and fruit (3 servings of each a day). I also know we should avoid refined carbs like sugar, white bread etc.
I'm in my second week of Phase 2 and things are going well. I'm not missing bread, pasta, rice or potatoes at all, though I do intend to reintroduce wholegrain pasta and rice in the next 3 weeks. So is it worth buying stuff that's low carb? I'm definitely going to buy some of the sugar free syrups as I think they'll be useful, but I was also looking at the low carb breads/tortillas/pastas/flours and the brownie/cookie mixes. They even have some low carb instant mashed potato! (sounds a bit horrible to me!)
Has anyone tried these kinds of foods? Are they worth spending the extra money on? And where would they fit into the plan - would they still count as a grain serving and have to be restricted? Or would I be better off sticking to normal bread/pasta etc and just having my 3 servings a day? I know I also have to watch out for fats, especially trans and saturated fats. My instincts tell me to stick mostly to natural, home cooked foods like I've been eating, but I was wondering if there was any room for this stuff, and if there would be any benefit from eating them.
Thanks for all responses :) |
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:38 pm |
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| RedRox
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I would say to trust your instincts! ;) Low Carbers and Beachers often have differering goals and priorities, so packaged foods targeting the LC crowd often do not work well with SB guidelines.
LCers care about Net Carbs or Effective Carb Counts (ref: http://www.fabulousfoods.com/fitfab/articles/ecc.html) IMO, this often means jury rigging foods with ingredients to drive the ECC number as low as possible regardless of its overall health benefits. So you will see a lot of soy flours and soy protein isolates to take the place of grain based flours, you may or may not see actual whole grain flours, but you will see grain brans added becasue they are the fibrous part of grain and if you get the fiber content up, you drive the ECC number down. And you will see sugar alcohols in place of sugars for the same reason.
Beachers in general care about whole foods, relatively natural products and minimal processing and small ingredient lists and simply choosing the right kinds of foods in all three macronutrient categories (carbs, fats, & proteins) in appropriate quantities to support our health. If it is 100% whole wheat pasta, then that's a good thing for us, but the carb count would throw a LCer over the edge! I look at a package of Dreamfield's pasta, which is an LC favorite, and see refined flours and "only 5 digestible carbs" and wonder why I would eat something if it isn't really digestible and what happens to it since it isn't digested! ;)
The other thing I noticed on some of the baking mixes, was there were instructions like "just add butter and cream". Again, LCers typically do not worry about saturated fat content and Beachers do. So if you got one of those mixes, you'd have to start subbing in transfat margarines, FF milks and perhaps FF yogurts to get similar consistencies.
Are there some products that work for both. Yes, but you just need to be careful and evaluate them on a one-by-one basis.
Finally the other larger problem I have with LC products is it continues to reinforce the idea that all "carbs" are bad, evil, the enemy, and the root of all our weight problems, etc. and that simply isn't true. SB teaches us to evaluate which carb sources are good for us to support our health and activity levels and that we need all three macronutrient sources in balance and from healthy sources. Basically, I think LC products just send the wrong message and SB foods send the right message. But I admit I'm somewhat biased! ;) |
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:22 pm |
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| IndigoElectron
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Thanks for taking the time to reply, RedRox. You kind of confirmed what I was thinking. I think these low carb foods give the impression that it's ok to eat lots of them, which of course it isn't, as they still have calories! And I don't see how it can possibly be healthier to eat something that has been modified to remove the carbs, than some good, wholegrain pasta or rice.
I've never really been much of a cake/cookie person anyway - by which I mean, I don't buy or eat them. But if they were in the house, they would probably be gone within a day or two! A good example of this is that I bought some sugar-free chocolate toffees, but I ended up eating them in the middle of the night like I'd done with the other chocolates I had here! I guess these kinds of foods are trigger foods for me, and I should probably avoid them.
So I'll just get myself some of the sugar free syrup, and maybe some granola breakfast cereal, which looks ok too. |
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:33 pm |
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| MaineRoad
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Red,
That was a seriously good post. You confirmed what I had suspected, but had never really looked into in depth. Cheers. |
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Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:42 pm |
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