Hi all. I’m new to all of this and can’t find anywhere on here a list of forbidden foods. I know (obviously) that I can’t have anything with sugar in it ie cakes, biscuits etc but I am unsure what specifically is a forbidden carb. I know that I can’t have white bread, rice but what about grains such as cous cous etc? Can anyone help direct me to a list of forbidden foods or something? Maybe there should be one on this website?

Hi Helen and welcome!

Have you bought the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet book? Available on kindle and also in book form (which is handy for following recipes which I find hard on my iPhone :))

In summary, on BSD we avoid

Refined Carbohydrates ie
Sugar
Rice
Wheat (so bread etc, anything made of flour i.e. pastry)
Grains which come from wheat
Pasta
Potatoes and other root vegetables

We can eat everything else – which is lots and lots and lots! – but it is good to keep a handle on how many grams of carbohydrates, even the good ones, that you eat.

For example, fruit isn’t actually forbidden, but it does contain many grams of sugar (fructose) so is better avoided except in small quantities. And low fat dairy is very much discouraged because in taking out the fat, producers put in much more sugar.

I got hold of MyFitnessPal app (free) and there are others, and you can look up nutritional content of food on that (calories/carbs/fat/protein) also look up Low Carb vegetables and Low Carb fruit on the web to remind you. Many people here following the BSD try to stick to 50g of carbs per day within their 800 calories, which helps not only with weight reduction but with reducing blood sugar.

I would suggest you read the book if you’ve not done so already so that you are really clear.

Hope that helps! 🙂

Hi everyone..

just wanted to double check – I do have the book and read it a few times – doing the BSD
But why are Grains that come from wheat bad? – such as Farro Wheatberries and Freehah – although I think Farro (or the one I have) is spelt based – which I also assume is no go.

I have cut out all of the grains I have – I don’t normally eat wheat, bread, pasta or potatoes anyway – we have a lot of lentils and so on ..

I would like to know what is OK from a carb point of view – as its not 100% clear to me
I can appreciate that potatoes and Rice – do convert quickly to sugar
and anything processed like white flour based -such as bread, pasta etc (and even whole grain as its not really wholgrain) and cereal are definitely no go
but do the other whole Grains.. pass.

Thanks in advance..

There are carbs in all vegetables and – as you say – in grains.

The BSD simply recommends avoiding ‘heavy’ carb things, and refined carbs (wheat, bread, pasta, sugar).

So that’s why root vegetables are specified and I think the grains you mention are to be kept low.

Many people here aim to keep their carbs at 50g or under per day, and ‘spend’ these carbs on various things. Obviously you could have, for example, lots of lentils, or some carrots – but these would add up quickly, and therefore you might prefer to limit the quantities a bit.

I’ve really enjoyed the pulses I’ve eaten, but find that the quantities recommended in recipes are a bit large for what I need.

Hope that helps 🙂