A meaty question

[Newtothis]

Just a quick question...

Under what food type does certain meats come i.e. turkey breast; lean ham etc... and are these foods ok? I eat plenty of chicken and fish but want to try something different and wondered if these spike your blood?

Amanda x
Sorry if I'm asking 'dumb' questions.... 🙂

 

[Caroline]

Chicken is white meat. Meat to the best of my knowledge does not contain carbohydrate, so will not cause a spike unless it is coated in batter or bread crumbs. The way it is cooked will also affect the spike too, if it is fried the fat slows down the rate of absorbion.

Ham has salt and I think a certain ammount of fat in it.

Most lean meat should be OK as is plain fish (that is fish not in batter or bread crumbs etc. and we are supposed to include oily fishe (like mackeral or tuna or salmon) in our diets on a regular basis.

Although we need carbohydrates it is worht looking at what you serve with your meat and how that is cooked too. If you look on the recipes/food boards you will find lots of ideas.

Sorry if that is a bit long winded, I hope it helps.

 

[Andy HB]

No questions are dumb! 🙂

They're all proteins and are digested slowly and so will not spike your blood in any way.

You only really need to worry about carbohydrates with regard to your glucose levels, remembering that other food types (e.g. fat or alcohol) will alter the speed of absorption into the blood stream.

Whether you start going down the road of specialised diets though needs careful thought. Personally, I'm quite happy sticking to a balanced diet and tweaking the carbs as appropriate.

Andy 🙂

 

[Mark T]

I was told by my father that Chicken, Turkey and Pork are generally ok. But beef and lamb can raise BG's a little.

Not sure what makes beef and lamb special.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I've never needed to 'count' protein, though I believe some on low carb diets (<90g a day?) find their bodies get more efficient at converting proteins and fats to glucose. This conversion though generally takes much longer than carbs and is gentler on the BG. So no, you shouldnt need to watch it.

There's an indicative graph here of the relative conversion timings and amounts for protein/fat here: http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=438

Protein comes out at converting around 50% of its weight peaking at approx 2-4 hours

 

[Steff]

With meat I tend to stick to white so pork,chicken turkey anything like that, for some reason dont know if its in my head or I was told, but thought red meat was worse for me x
Mind you ham is my albolute favourite so i have it at least once a week in a sandwitch crammed with salad.

 

[cherrypie]

With meat I tend to stick to white so pork,chicken turkey anything like that, for some reason dont know if its in my head or I was told, but thought red meat was worse for me x
Mind you ham is my albolute favourite so i have it at least once a week in a sandwitch crammed with salad.

I thought that red meat referred to the colour that it was before it was cooked and that it came from mammals.
I rarely eat red meat and stick to chicken and fish. I don't eat processed meats either.
Perhaps this is what you read Steff?
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090323/eating-red-meat-may-boost-death-risk?page=2

 

[Steff]

I thought that red meat referred to the colour that it was before it was cooked and that it came from mammals.
I rarely eat red meat and stick to chicken and fish. I don't eat processed meats either.
Perhaps this is what you read Steff?
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090323/eating-red-meat-may-boost-death-risk?page=2

Yeah Cherry thats what I did read thank you.

 

[MeanMom]

There's an indicative graph here of the relative conversion timings and amounts for protein/fat here: http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=438

Protein comes out at converting around 50% of its weight peaking at approx 2-4 hours

Thanks for that - it goes some way to explaining what we call in this house 'the mystery of the scrambled eggs' ( scrambled egg, toast, milk for breakfast = higher than expected lunchtime result, leave out the eggs = expected lunchtime result)

Dont know how to fix it though...

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Robster had a similar thing with eggs I think. You might want to PM him to see if he ever worked it out?