Sugar Free Baking

MiniLaura

Hi

Thanks for all the replies. Saw a dietician last week and got some good advice - my diet at moment isnt too bad, just trying to work in ways of including more veggies.

Already drink diet soft drinks, but trying to cut back on them for health reasons - swapping for no added sugar diluting juice. Drink coffee wihtout sugar.

Eat brown bread most days and using up white pasta at moment.


Will give the splenda thing a try when baking, just for a treat - i usually only make cakes a couple of times a year!

The low GI foods, will have a look into this, was actually wondering if gluten free foods and products would be any help to use them.

Been trying to stick to having a treat once a week - bit of dark chocolate after a meal - this too often or about right?

Getting my blood tested later this week so hopeflly have done well! (diabetes is to be controlled via diet)

Fingers crossed, and thanks again!

angie_loves_veg

MiniLauraRocks wrote: »

Hi

The low GI foods, will have a look into this, was actually wondering if gluten free foods and products would be any help to use them.
!

Low GI is about how quickly (high GI) or how slowly (low GI) foods are absorbed by your body.

Processing/ manufacturing raises the GI, as the 'hard work' to break down the food is done for you, thus your body processes it (too) quickly.

Food in a more natural / unprocessed state forces your body to work a bit harder, thus lowering the rate it can be absorbed.

A very simple illustration is bread -

Granary (low GI) bread 'better' than brown (med) 'better' than white (high GI) bread

If you extend this to other areas of diet you will be able to make some relatively simple changes to your diet whilst hopefully benefitting your blood levels.

I am not aware that eating gluten free food will have any benefit for you, unless of course you are a coeliac sufferer.

All the best

HariboJunkie

I'm not sure about Type 2 Diabetes but I know with Type 1 the general rule of thumb with adults now is just to eat the way we all should, ie a sensible varied diet, low in fat and refined sugars.

If you do want to substitute sugar then fructose is a good alternative ingredient in puddings.

Good luck.

Haribo

windowshopper100

Hi again MLR

Sounds like you've got things under control and I don't think the chocolate police will be around any time soon.

You don't need to bother with gluten free products - IF you were coeliac AND diabetic (!!some people are that lucky!!), then you'd be taking the gluten free products for the coeliac disease and not the diabetes. They are v. expensive unless you get them on prescription, which you can't as you're not coeliac.

You say 'brown' bread. If you can make that granary or at least wholemeal so much the better. Some brown bread is white with colouring and white bread has a GI the same as glucose (high) - it's used as a control food to test people's GI responses.

I'm sure your dietitian has told you a 'diabetic diet' is just healthy eating (which we should all be doing) with a bent towards starchy complex carbs at each meal.

Anyway, all the best with it.

WS100

Ange loves veg and Haribo got there with a couple of points before I'd finished typing - apologies for repetition.

sandy2_2

Anthony Worrall Thompson is also diabetic and has produced a couple of apprpriate cook books

point3

MiniLauraRocks wrote: »

Been trying to stick to having a treat once a week - bit of dark chocolate after a meal - this too often or about right?

Chocolate Police!

A little treat now and again won't hurt, but as you begin to change your diet and start enjoying other foods, then hopefully the sweet cravings will be less and less. Who knows? In time, you may be able to do without a weekly "fix" altogether .

claire1847

Hi there!

My husband has type2 diabetes, and we've been learning the best way to really make an impact with our diet. His doctor is pretty happy with him now as we have both 'gone low GL' ! and this has made a big difference, not only to his blood sugars but also to both our waistlines :T

The advice he's had from various doctors, nurses and diabetic clinics has varied so much we were left very confused Eventually I took to the internet.

The comment about white and brown bread made earlier is very true it seems, so I have resorted to a bread maker (oh how many you can find in boot sales hardly used :rotfl:) and spend 5 minutes every week throwing the ingredients in to get a lovely loaf pop out a few hours later. The flour I like best is the Shipton Mill three malt and sunflower and I add about 2 tbsp oats and a big handful of linseeds and sunflower seeds and cook it on the wholemeal setting using olive oil instead of any butter and a little honey or agave syrup instead of sugar. I think most machines are pretty similar! The Village Bakery 100% rye (it's either called Borovinsky or Rossinsky - always get the two muddled up, one has molasses in, the other which I buy hasn't) is great. We love it with all that oily fish, makes us feel very Scandinavian :rolleyes: You can get both the flour and the rye bread from Goodness Direct (www.goodnessdirect.co.uk - order over £35 and delivery is free, and it is not an overpriced place, and that's from someone quite mean with her pennies!) which I use a lot, but you can also get some great Doves Farm 100% wholegrain flour from most of the larger supermarkets and I think they all stock the Village Bakery stuff.

Wheat / gluten free etc - yeah, often very highly processed, a lot of high GL (fast sugars) ingredients and as pointed out earlier in the thread very expensive! However we do avoid too much wheat as it makes us both a little, well, err, bloated shall we say! Funnily enough though the rye breads and the home made bread in moderation doesnt have the same antisocial effect that most bought breads and white pastas do! Anyway, we do buy the buckwheat pasta, or buckwheat noodles which are really widely available in supermarkets and not that pricey. ALso in Waitrose you can get chickpea pasta which is surprisingly nice (in the fridge bit with the fresh pastas). Also at Goodness Direct you can get some great spelt (does have gluten in it) pizza bases which keep in the store cupboard for ages and are a really fast standby meal. There is also a range of suaces that I've seen on the 'free from' shelves called Safe To Eat - I've not tried it but a coeliac friend of mine says it isn't bad at all!

We very rarely eat sugar and splenda etc is a bit :eek: and yuk, so we use agave syrup (supermarkets near the sugar, Holland & Barrett etc, or Goodness Direct, much lower GL) which is really delicious. Bit pricey, but once you've got the sweet craving down a bit then you don't use much.

Big fluffly potatoes and white rice have gone and we use brown rice, pearl barley (which makes a great risotto), new potatoes, sweet potatoes, other root veg and beans and pulses (though can also be a bit parp!).

Fresh fruit, vegetables, and occasional good quality meat, red wine and a glass of champagne every now and then are vital am not a total killjoy puritan.

Gosh, what a longwinded ramble - sorry, I hope that's been helpful. I'm a complete novice, but these few changes and cutting out the sugar almost completely are what has revolutionised our lives.

Good luck with your diabetes. OH has had it for a long time now and barely notices it, so it really is possible to be completely 'normal'.

I found the internet invaluable, though you may have to kiss a lot of dietary frogs before you find your individual food prince ok so what I mean is I tried a lot of stuff, and got very bored on low fat, desperate on low calorie and lost in GI before we settled on this! Because the whole GL ting really sorted us out that's what I'd advocate to everyone!, but it is so up to individual body's needs so good hunting, and truly wish you best of luck.

Diabetes Uk also a good source of info, though I am sure you already know that !

x Claire

PS - Diabetes UK also has a shop which has some nice pressies and good Xmas cards www.diabetesshop.co.uk which is a nice way of raising money for the cause!

MiniLaura

Thanks very much for that post! I think I was thinking that a low GI diet would be helpful for diabetes!

Good advice about bread, ive been eating the hovis seeded ones for weeks now! I do hvae a massive weakness for toasted plain bread (scottish) at weekends so not sure if ill cut that out!

May get myself a breadmaker after christmas, always fancied trying it.

I think im getting there slowly with changing my diet, will keep an eye out for all the products mentioned, at mo trying all sorts of new veggies!

claire1847

I hear you re the bread cravings, I have always had a really big thing for toast etc. I have kicked the habit though using EFT (emotional freedom technique), which helps you 'rewire'. I have posted on either the weight loss thread or the one about diet freedom (sorry not sure which!), it works a treat!

x Claire

PS, vegetable mash over potato mash, works really well, and cauliflower is the unlikely hero! promise it's true, if you mash it with a dollop of olive oil or butter, black pepper and some horseradish or grainy mustard it really is quite delicious! Other real favourite is celeriac, it's heavenly! x

frugalmumof4

hi,

I have looked at what myself, dh and the children are eating and can see that although we are eating good home cooked meals and fantastic home baked cakes and biscuits and that we are all consuming far too much sugar.

So my challenge has started, I have been baking everyday this week to find the perfect cake, biscuit recipe.

I have made a few lovely recipes this week my favourite being date flapjack, which is suitable for vegans.

4 oz chopped dried dates
3 fl oz water
4 oz pure or margarine
8 oz porridge oats

place date in a saucepan with water and simmer gently until you end up with a puree like consistancy, add the pure or margarine and melt. Turn off the heat and mix in the porridge oats. place into a greased small baking tray and bake for 20 minutes 200'c until golden. This will cut into 12.
They are so good.

Would anyone care to join me with this challenge or is anyone already doing this and has some fantastic tried and tested recipes, using date, raisins, apricots, apples or any other fruits to sweeten their recipes, that they could share?

Hope that someone may be interested!