Hi all, I make my own wholemeal bread (with glucose powder not sugar) – is this still out in the first eight weeks?

Hi Elyzab,
From one home baker to another: Sad to say, but I think that bread is not something you should eat on the blood sugar diet.
While a tiny bit of whole wheat bread may skim under the carb limit for the day, and It won’t be quite as high in carbs as white flour, it still is a carb rich food.
Grains like wheat are grown because they have a concentration of carbohydrates in them, so make a great fine textured flour for a lot of tasty recipes. Complex carbohydrates, like those in your whole wheat, are strings of sugars tied together, and your body will un-string them, turning them in to a lot of sugars.
If you are on this diet to control your blood sugar, I would steer clear of that bread.

As a baker, it is quite frankly easier to just pull the plug on the old favourite recipes such as bread for now, and learn some new favourites. Almond flour, chickpea flour and coconut flour are lower in carbs, so very useful, but I have found to make the diet work, and reduce temptation, it is best to minimise baked goods of any type.

Thanks. Sigh! I feared y out were going to say that. It’d probably be good for me to have a bread break anyway!

Have you found any good flours for pastry? Like a quiche crust?

I haven’t found an alternative to pastry flours, but I haven’t been looking. I have just steered clear or done quite a different crust: such as an almond based one which has a very different texture, so isn’t trying to be something it can’t.
It may be that chickpea or coconut flour would work for pastry, but I don’t have experience enough to know. I wonder whether a crustless quiche might be a better option.

Hi Elyzab – don’t want to put the cat amongst the pigeons as it were but my suggestion is, if you want to do this diet properly for the 8 week period forget the whole idea of looking for bakery type items at all. The idea is no carbs except for those in vegetables and even they’re not allowable if they’re potatoes/parsnips etc.

I know at first it seems hard but what’s tougher (I think) is doing your own version of the diet with a bit of bread or making your own pastry with a flour which is better for you like chick pea and finding your putting in the effort but not losing the weight, or as much weight. Also the point is that you’re trying to get your blood sugars down.

I thought I could manage this diet for 8 weeks and then do 5:2 and reintroduce bread/pasta – as it happens I finished the diet 4 weeks ago and I’m still going strong without the need for any bread/pasta – weird isn’t it!

My advice – just try to follow the recipes in the book without changing them and you’ll see the change in you! Good luck

I’m working on baking bread with coconut flour. I’ve got a nice collection of recipes ready to try. I even found a few for making bread with coconut flour in a bread machine. THOSE were not easy to come by. See, the thing is, coconut not being a grain it doesn’t illicit the insulin response grains like wheat and rice do, so for example:

Simple Sandwich Bread
12 slices per loaf

6 large pastured eggs
½ tsp. Celtic sea salt
12 Tbsp. Bob’s Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour (1.5g net carb per tablespoon)
½ c. organic grass-fed butter, melted

and the result is 20g net carbs for the loaf – 1.66g net carb per slice – mind you, 133 cal per slice

That’s from: http://healinggourmet.com/healthy-recipes/simple-sandwich-bread-gluten-free-grain-free-dairy-free-low-carb/

But as Tallyhoo said, it’s best to be cautious and stick with the plan.

Just a note for if you do want to make bread at some point after the 800 – spelt and rye are much lower GI than wholemeal standard wheat flour and I find a thin slice of that does not affect my blood sugar.
Also you can leave out sugar or glucose entirely and spelt will rise just fine without it. Rye doesn’t rise so the more of that the denser your loaf.

Bread’s my absolute downfall, always, the thing I just can’t control, so I’m putting the breadmaker away for 8 weeks. Interested to know that spelt has better GI than ordinary wheat, because I have found a lovely light spelt flour that gives a wonderful crusty loaf. I’m looking forward to that in two months’ time!

Hi demimondaine,
That’s a good decision because as long as you eat starchy carbs your cravings for it won’t go, making it more difficult to keep to 800 calories.
So many of us have found our health has really improved while we don’t have starchy carbs 🙂

Do you still eat oats?

Personally I have stopped eating oats but Dr Mosley does say if you do want to eat oats make sure they are rolled oats. They are rather carb heavy.
You could toast a small handful of oats on foil under the grill
When cold stir into some FF greek yoghurt
Stir in some raspberries

And you have a lovely, filling breakfast.

Check the calories and carbs though – and you may prefer to have it as an evening meal 🙂