This WOE worked for me back in 2021, and it is working again, but very slow, just like last time. Even so, I am happy with the food I am eating and do not feel hungry, or craving foods like I di on the low carb plan. I remembered that air-popped popcorn is fine on this plan, so I just ordered a small airpopper from the amazon Warehouse. I will put some nutritional yeast on the popcorn, and that will make an even healthier snack.
If it works for you @Yvonne Smith, that is great. Popcorn sends most people's blood sugar to the roof.
Air popped popcorn doesn't contain any sugar, so that is not true. You must be thinking of commercial types that have a lot of sugar that's been added to them, but that has nothing to do with the popcorn itself.
That might be because most people have popcorn that is both buttered and salted, but I have not heard that it affects blood sugar. Airpopped popcorn is recommended by both Dr. McDougall and Dr. Greger as a healthy snack, and especially with nutritional yeast added to it. https://www.drmcdougall.com/education/nutrition/can-diabetics-eat-popcorn-and-12-other-common-foods/ It has about 30 calories per cup, 6 grams of carbs, over a gram of fiber, and no sugar. Since it is essentiallly a whole grain, it should not raise blood sugar that I can see. Do you know why it would do that , if it was plain popcorn, with no toppings of any kind ?
It is just an easily digested starch. Starch breaks down into sugar, but the more complex the starch, the slower it breaks down. Amylase/diastase is the enzyme family involved. Starch along with fat is supposed to be worse, but I don't know why that is. The popcorn won't have an immediate glycemic response, but if you eat it at night, it can affect the blood sugar by morning. I guess the starches are the way carbohydrates are supposed to be supplied to the body and is probably the reasoning behind Dr. McDougal's theories. As an aside for those who have taken organic and biochemistry, starches and fiber contain the same molecules, just with a different bonding pattern. In this video, you can see the difference between the amylose and amylopectin structure (starches), and cellulose (fiber). The human (and most mammals) cannot digest the beta glyosidic bond. Ruminants and some insects like termites can use cellulose for energy through the action of bacteria. We have some bacteria that can digest the cellulose, but it produces gas which may not be desirable. We cannot use that energy effectively though. Here is a video primer on the subject.
See below. Starches are just sugar molecules joined together. You can get crackers and wheat products that don't contain sugar either and you maintain they can't raise your sugar?? Really?? Corn has a simpler starch than does many other things. I do know what I am talking about here.
I do not have diabetes, @Don Alaska , and my last A1c was 4.8; so my diet is working fine with my blood sugar and insulin. Under 5.7 is normal, and both doctors seem to think that moderating fat and protein consumption will help keep the blood sugar right where it belongs, as well as help me lose some of the weight that I kept gaining by trying to live on the low-carb WOE, which I used to think was the healthier way , and that any carbs were bad, not just processed ones. Now, I stay away from processed foods of any kind (at least try to), and also foods made from flours, since they are not good even if they are whole grains. The closest to that would be when I put oatmeal in the blender and grind it enough to use it in a recipe, which is not as bad as commercially ground flours. The starch solution seems to work (slow, but working… nothing works fast for me anymore), and I enjoy being able to have foods that were off-limits with low-carb eating plans. I am doing 3 days potato-hack, and 2 days SS diet, and it is working and I do not feel overwhelmed. I do not eat after 7PM, so I would not be snacking at night either.
Since Yvonne is on the "Starch Solution" diet where potatoes are a mainstay, I don't think a handful of popcorn is going to make much difference. @Yvonne Smith -- I hope you enjoy your popcorn maker. I have never liked air-popped popcorn; I need that bit of oil!! I occasionally make popcorn in a pot on the stove like my mama used to do. I've been struggling with the low-carb thing. I have lost 12 pounds since February which I never even intended (I'm trying to improve my A1C), but I'm so crabby.
I can totally relate to what you are saying, @Beth Gallagher . Restricting carbs and eating mostly proteins and fats will cause a person to lose weight, especially if they are changing from eating a lot of processed, unhealthy foods. Even if you are not doing that, the low carb helps flush water out, and makes the scale go down. It used to work for me really well, or at least I thought thought it did, because i lost weight. But then I always gained it back, and that has been a pattern for years now. Dr. McDougall says the starch solution will work for people who do not need to lose weight, and just want to normalize their blood sugar, and will help diabetics. I thought I would get tired of the 3 days of potatoes, but actually, it is a relief just eating a potato when I am hungry, and not thinking about other food. Today and tomorrow are SS days, so I made some black bean and corn salsa, and will have that with my taco salad today, and looking forward to it. I will have a few tortilla chips, which is some salt and fats; but overall, a compliant meal.
Carb loading is a common practice among distance athletes, and one of the problems I have with the keto diet, in addition to threats to kidney function, is that the liver is too empty of glycogen to adjust the blood glucose upward when required. That can cause a big hunger and discomfort. I wasn't trying to say that I was against all carbs. I made a remark that a bowl of popcorn in the evening can affect the glucose the next day. As I learned it long ago, the blood sugar should never exceed 165 mg/dl, even a short period after eating. That is for "normal" people, but so few people are truly normal these days as our food supply is so contaminated with unnatural stuff like high fructose corn syrup and other processed foods. I have respected Dr. McDougall for years for going where others fear to tread, but I have not read his book on the starch solution. Sorry if I upset you.
I very much respect anything that you have to say about most any topic, @Don Alaska , and you definitely did NOT upset me at all. It encouraged me to look up more information and see if there was some reason why having popcorn as a simple snack occasionally would be a bad thing or not. I love the heavily buttered and salted popcorn that movie theaters have, but I totally know that is not healthy to eat. We never go to theaters anyway, and do not make microwave popcorn at home, so all I would have would be the plain air-popped corn, no salt or butter. I think that this is an important discussion, especially since there is such complete disagreement between doctors and health books about what is actually beneficial for us to eat or to not eat.
I believe other diets have been based on the GI, like South Beach and The Zone. I think I'll dig out my old copy of the South Beach Diet and see if it might work for reducing A1C.