Foods to Consider Carefully
Sugary & Fizzy Drinks
Sugary drinks contain upwards of 50g of sugar per 500ml bottle. They are arguably one of the most health damaging products for diabetics.
Fruit Juice & Smoothies
Much to the dismay of juice and smoothie lovers everywhere, some fruit drinks contain even more sugar than the whopping 50g of sugar present in those fizzy drinks. The first step to a healthier lifestyle is to stop drinking sugary drinks and fruit juices and smoothies. St David was quite right, water is the healthiest drink after all!
Cereal
Cereal is full of sugar and carbohydrates and is lacking in nutritional value. Even the ‘healthy’ versions, including the organic or wholemeal cereals will cause a significant blood sugar surge. Try bacon and eggs as a very good low carb alternative.
Sweets, Cakes & Confectionery
The high amounts of sugar in these products is very challenging for diabetics and these foods have absolutely no nutritional value and should be avoided.
Potatoes & Potato Products
Full of starchy carbohydrates, potatoes and potato products (chips, crisps, waffles, potato snacks) are a big threat to a well managed blood sugar regime. It is best to find alternatives and the quicker the better.
Flour, Bread & Biscuits
Bread of any description, even wholemeal or stoneground, is one of the main causes of blood sugar spikes. Cutting down seriously on eating bread is the biggest challenge of the low carb lifestyle. The same applies to anything made with flour (cakes, pancakes, sauces) although low carb flour alternatives are now becoming available.
The biscuit tin, sadly, is out. A quick look at the label of the average chocolate digestive shows that one single biscuit contains 5g of sugar. Ditching the biscuit habit is a must to have any chance of proper blood glucose control.
Pasta & Rice
Pasta and rice, because of their high carbohydrate content, can wreak havoc on your insulin levels. Something as small as a 150g portion of rice is equivalent to 9 teaspoons of sugar and this is sure to spike your blood sugar levels.
Margarine
Margarine’s out, butter is back! Despite being touted as a healthy alternative to butter, margarine has been shown to wreak havoc on your body. This is due to being full of a very dangerous, man-made and highly processed type of fat known as trans-fat. Margarine should be avoided and replaced by butter.
Low Fat Products
The last group of foods that have no place in a lower-carb lifestyle are all the products marketed to you as low fat. Over the years, dietary fat has been unnecessarily demonised. The link between dietary fat consumption and increased cholesterol and heart problems has been shown repeatedly to be exaggerated. The procedure of making a product low-fat requires a huge amount of processing. This involves additives, flavourings and unnatural binding agents being added to make the product more palatable.