…having read the blood sugar diet book and having researched over the last 24 hours, raw oats (Scots Porridge Oats, Simply Oats from lidl etc0 seem very high in carbs. but with a high cholestrol headline of 6.1 i was recommended by the local NHS Trust nutritionist to eat porridge because it would help lower my cholestrol. But if the 8oo/8 weeks diet is low carb, where does this leave me? Any suggestions? Many thanks

Hi Kerry9 – welcome and to answer your question, I can only say that many folks on the forum report that their cholesterol has fallen significantly, as a result of the BSD way of eating. If you feel you must eat porridge, perhaps don’t have it everyday and keep the portion very small to help limit your carb intake.
Best of luck regardless of what you decide to do.

Hello there, I would still have the porridge made with water with a little milk and maybe some berries on top BUT only once or twice a week at most and the amount I believe should be only 20 or 25 gram portion – not so much for the calories (25g = 94) but, as you said, the carb content. Most people on this plan try to stay on the low side of 50 grams or even less, though I find going lower becomes such a juggling act – i.e. that’s low carb but I’m not getting enough calories – so 50 to 60 is a good place to start. Now that is all assuming you are planning on doing the BSD Fast 800 calories. For information, I am on this diet because of diabetes but it has also lowered my cholesterol and blood pressure – hard to fathom as I now eat full fat everything but you will learn as you go why that is possible. Remember it is good fat not high fat but never again buy fat free. Interesting today read that many low fat fruit yoghurts have the same amount of sugar as 6 chocolate digestives???? No sure about that but it should be full fat butter, milk, cheese and plain Greek full fat yoghurts to get your cholesterol down. If you need an explanation just ask.

Thank you SunnyB abd sunshine-girl for your really helpful replies – much appreciated. Actually I eat the oats raw/uncooked, one ounce – I just add semi skimmed milk then half an ounce each of almonds and walnuts. Before starting this diet I also added half a diced apple until I read about all the sugar in fruit. So it looks like scrambled eggs and tinned tomatoes for breakfast, and we’ll try the recipes in the 800/8 book and maybe the uncooked oat and nuts breakfast at weekends as a treat.

But you are right regarding carb limits – we are already struggling to have 3 meals a day that are low enough carb to stay under the 50g hurdle – quite a challenge. I think what we’ll need to work really hard on is getting to work on the meal plan and faithfully creating the meals by the book, and see where that takes us. I lost a pound today and shaved half of one percent of my fat percentage, so at that rate things, as they say in the song, can only get better.

Don’t be scared to go ‘off piste’ and create meals of your own. As you eat eggs, there are 101 things you can do with them to create a variety of meals. Why not try scrambled eggs with smoked salmon or a rasher of bacon. Or use a couple of eggs to make almond pancakes, or eggs with veggies and/or cheese to make little patties fried off by the tablespoonful.

You will soon get the hang of balancing the carbs to calories and when it all goes a bit squiffy, as it will from time to time, chalk it up to experience and get back on track again as soon as you can.