I will be starting The Blood Sugar Diet in a few weeks – when my diary is empty! – but I can’t find any lists anywhere! I need a list of what we are allowed to eat and a list of what we are not allowed to eat. I hope to fill the fridge and larder with suitable foods before I start the diet and I really can’t go through every recipe trying to discover what we’re allowed and what we’re not allowed! For instance,
there is a recipe using prawns – but are we allowed crab, lobster, mussels, oysters??? Help please!!!

Have you got the book? Available in the shops or on kindle.

Basically, the advice is to avoid all refined carbs(many of which are white), so no flour, bread, rice, sugar, pasta. Up the quantity of vegetables, have full fat dairy (not reduced fat, which has added sugar replacing the fat). Avoid fruit except as small additions to meals as it has a lot of sugar in it – best are berries.

All meat and fish (including the shellfish you mention) is fine, full of protein.

I would also suggest you get yourself an app such as MyFitnessPal to log in what you are eating – there is sugar in a lot of things which you may not realise.

If you restrict your carbs to under 50g per day, that also seems to help with both weight loss and reducing blood sugar.

Hope that helps.
🙂

Good luck HEATHER PATRICIA! Youre all set now to start with Igors advice..i think you will be surprised how much you can enjoy this way of eating..i was dreading it when i started,but i am delighted with the results and amazed that i felt LESS hungry when i dropped eating bread,cereal and lots of junk! Let us know when you start so we can support you ..its a fun and very helpful forum! X 🌻🌻🌻

Dear Yowzer 49, Thank you very much for your very kind reply. I’m not starting for a few weeks and am anxious to
have everything in place before I do. Hence the questions about lists!

Dear Igor, Thank you very much for your very detailed reply. Yes, I do have the book! In fact I have paid for it twice! Once for the hard copy and another for my Kindle! Having paid for the book I really feel I shouldn’t have to also get an app such as MyFitness Pal but thank you for the advice. I guess I will just have to trawl through the recipes and draw up my own lists – disappointing! I will let you know when I start. Good luck to you and thanks again.

Heather Patricia the MyFitnessPal app is free if that helps? There is a premium version but it’s not really worth buying (the basic free one gives you access to their database of foods etc and you can plan your meals there, so you can do everything you need on the free one). I find it helpful as I can work out the cals and carbs in things and then ‘save’ a favourite meal (like salmon with stir fry veg) and I don’t have to look everything up again. It’s also available on the web (again free, you just sign up for a free account). Hope that helps and good luck once you’re ready to start 🙂

Hi Heather Patricia

I don’t pay for MFP – I use the free version which I find is fine (as does OH) on iPhone and Mac. (I also have BSD in two versions!)

It is possibly more simple, the BSD, than you realise.

Basically, the cereals, pasta, rice, flour, bread and sugar are the things to avoid.

MFP is good for giving you an idea of what vegetables and pulses are more (good) carb heavy than others – for example, nuts are fine, but since one is prone to eat them by the handful (oops!) it’s good to know how many calories you’re inadvertently gulping.

And also portion size is very helpful to understand so I do think an investment into a small and convenient set of kitchen scales repays dividends.

I appreciate it all sounds a little complex to start, but you will soon get the hang of it. I have developed some real favourite meals, and am currently very excited about creating some authentic curries after using many more spices than I used to. I have found the food really really tasty and one of the side effects of the diet for me has been suddenly really appreciating the food I’m eating.

Hope that happens for you too. 🙂

Thanks a million for your reply but my point is that we shouldn’t have to go to MFP – all that information should be in The Blood Sugar Diet book. This is a forum for The Blood Sugar Diet not the MFP – we shouldn’t have to use both.

No worries, Heather Patricia

If you’d simply like to follow the recipes on the BSD, then please do that – I understand many people have done this, without needing anything else. You don’t need MFP or any other apps. Michael also describes how to use shakes if you prefer that.

I’ve really enjoyed creating my own recipes, seeing the nutritional makeup of various foods in terms of calories and so, it’s been a real education. You couldn’t have all the nutritional values of everything, including bought supermarket food, in one book.

This forum shares good tips to motivate members, help with actually carrying out the BSD – of course you won’t know what problems you might have until you start – so I was just trying to share what has worked for me. I’ve lost more than 15% of my starting body weight over 12 weeks, and found the whole exercise really enlivening.

Very good luck both with your preparations and your BSD journey 🙂

I don’t use any of the apps and gadgets. And as far as lists are concerned I see it as anything is ok if not on the carb banned list – but try to keep the calorie count (though happy to estimate that).

The banned list being –
potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, wheat flours – basically all the heavy and refined carbs. Some carbs will be in the meals in veg (more in root veg than leafy) and beans and pulses – but they are more complex and less of an instant hit – but the calorie count would limit the volume of these.

Otherwise all protein is in, fat is fine and can help hunger, and general veggies.

I think not having to consult a complex list is a positive thing for helping me to feel I will stick at this. Faffing on lists and precision counting etc is likely to get annoying for me and a reason for giving up.

Thank you for your reply Avila. I obviously did not express myself clearly re “the lists”. I did not mean a complex list with percentages etc. I just meant a simple list of whats allowed and whats not, to be consulted when shopping. For example, everyone says that all meat is fine – but thats not actually true as pork, bacon, salami etc. should be avoided. This could be high-lighted on a good clear list. And what about sauces, condiments etc.? For example, is Bovril good or bad??!! Best of luck and thanks again.

Hi Heather Patricia

There is nothing wrong with pork, bacon or salami. Some health recommendations suggest limiting bacon and other treated meats, but many people also say occasional eating is absolutely fine. You are unlikely to be eating enough of either to do you harm.

If you check the nutrients in condiment labels you will see they are often full of sugar and should therefore be avoided.

Full fat is good – we have been misled over the years into eating low fat alternatives which are full of sugar.

Look at the label on the Bovril! I shouldn’t think it will have sugar in, but check!

As I said before, the book cannot contain everything. With a bit of research and re-reading the book if necessary – we all do it – you will be fine.

No Bovril to hand but Marmite has no sugar in.

Thank you Igor. You are very kind. I guess I’m just feeling a bit insecure. I do not want this to fail.

Hi Heather, a good quick way to check a specific product is to look on one of the supermarket shopping websites. You don’t need to log in, but use their search engine. I put Bovril into Sainsbury’s and they give the product plus the food breakdown – per 100g, there are 1.9g carbs of which 1.7g are sugars. Per 12g portion their suggested portion size that is less than 0.5 g carbs and sugars.
I have seen a few that are not too accurate, but most can be relied on and helps plan which things to avoid so you don’t have to have eyestrain checking every tin and jar when you are out shopping!
I did spot early on that a lot of the lower calorie dressings are high sugar and the ‘normal’ one was better, having just a little less of it!

Hello,
I’m brand new to this 🙂
Could you please tell me if chili with hamburger and beans is a good choice to eat for a week? What about vegtable chicken soup? It seems hard to figure out how much soup to eat in a day.
Thanks

Hi Marchesa
really depends on what’s in the burger – if it’s a commercial one, it might be OK, or it may contain lots of bulking agents like wheat – or if it’s a burger that you’ve made from scratch, and it’s pretty much just meat with egg to bind it, it’s fine.

With the beans, do you mean
pulses (like kidney beans, haricot beans) – OKish,, can be a bit carby
green beans – pretty much OK
baked beans – even low sugar varieties are quite carby, and do have sugar in the tomato sauce

Look at the labels – either on the food, or big supermarket’s’ websites have nutritional values and calculate from there what you’re eating or planning to eat. there are lots of free online websites where you can maintain a log of all the foods you eat. It may seem a faff at first, but it is a great way of learning what is hi carb, etc – and really doesn’t take that long.