Hi thanks for that reply
So I shouldn't have porridge?
I'm understanding the milk thing now but what about almond milk is that OK and rye bread or wraps?
Hi Kassy,
If you look on the nutritional value panel on the food you buy look to see what the g of carbohydrate per 100g is - always look for this value and then you will always be comparing carb content percentage for every food.
The lower that figure the less likely that food will cause you problems. Ignore the sugar content for now. Just concentrate on the carb content because that will include the sugar content - but the overall carb content is the one to watch out for.
Once you know the carb grammes per 100g then you need to work out how heavy an amount you are likely to eat - you will only need to weigh the amounts of the food you eat for a while before you know roughly how much you eat of them - as you are only headed diabetes way and not a type 1 (they need to measure food carefully and take medication accordingly to match their carb intake accurately - type 2 and people who a pre-diabetic don't need such a fine tuned regime) then you can start to work out how many carbs you eat usually.
I would suggest recording weights and carb content in a diary for a few days.
You will quickly see where the carb grammes rack up.
You don't need to go full keto but eating a lower carb content menu from now on will lead to you enjoying your food more and letting your body settle into a healthier way of living.
Full fat milk and yoghurt are definitely better than skimmed.
In the fifties and sixties when my mum was young most diets were about cutting out potatoes and starchy foods and eating higher fat foods so you felt fuller on less bulk. They promoted eating plenty of things like broccoli, cabbage, leafy greens and citrus fruit and full fat dairy and eggs and fish and fatty cuts of meat.
Then that was all sneered at in the seventies and eighties and so on and we were all encouraged to eat polyunsaturated fats, ditch the eggs and stuff our faces with carbs. Surprise surprise - obesity became rife.
Now we are back where my mum was in the 1950s and 60s - only now we have the science to back it up.
Porridge is okay if you are a building site labourer or working digging in fields or running marathons every day or if you know exactly how many carbs it is and you are about to use them all in a workout or run or something but it isn't good for someone who leads a typical 21st century lifestyle. Basically it is a powerful fuel for someone who is going to use it to do a lot of activity.
It is okay if you have a very tiny bit as a treat - but seriously porridge isn't my idea of a treat. It is ok for people who are type 1 and can factor it in for their medication if that is what they want to do.
Keto recipes come in handy to provide you with alternative low carb versions of high carb foods.
BUT - they are only good for you if you are eating a keto regime most of the time. Because they rely on fat as the main source of fuel and they are often high in salt also.
If you are on a keto lifestyle it needs to be stuck to because it relies on your body changing over from using carbs as fuel to using fat as fuel. Once your body does that you need to drink more liquids and you need to make sure you are getting all your nutrients and you have to be sure you are getting enough fat in your diet or your body will use protein instead and then you might have health problems. Keto combined with calorie control is a tricky thing to do and needs careful handling to avoid problems.
Some people do better on a keto diet (and I use the word diet not as in a slimming diet but in the same way as I'd say a cow has a grass based diet and a panda has a bamboo based diet) and I am one of them as I also have PCOS and eating keto is helpful for that as well as diabetes.
But I went keto to fix my health and not to lose weight. I lost a bit very gradually while not watching my calories at all and eating cream cakes etc (keto ones of course) and now after about two years I am starting to do a lot more physical activity without changing my eating habits and I will lose my overweight a bit faster now. But I am doing more activity because I enjoy it and I am now healthy and fit enough to do it after a couple of years of eating food that helped my health.
I hope that makes sense.
So whatever the food it is or drink - look at the nutritional content label for carbohydrates per 100g
Work out what you are eating now.
I think a low carb day is between 70g and 130g a day.
So if you find foods you like you can work out which ones and how much you can eat to give you that total.
I am on keto so my carb allowance a day is 20g - but that isn't a problem because I have all sorts of recipes using fibres and fats and proteins to make bread, cakes, pancakes etc etc and I eat a wide variety of fruit and veg - just sparingly so I get all the nutrients and vitamins and minerals I need.
It is even easier to have a full and varied diet on a low carb diet but then you need to be a bit more careful about not overdoing the fats because on a low carb diet you will still be using carbs for fuel.
