Tough Choice - Bread, RIce, Pasta or Potatoes?
 

Accidentally posted this in the wrong forum:

Ok, i have come to terms with the fact that ultimately, i'm not going to be able to live completely without the 4 items mentioned in the subject. I love them too much. I've only been on Induction 8 days and plan to complete it. However, after i'm done, i'm slowly going to start increasing my carbs (as i work out more) and ultimately add a little of the "bad" carbs. My question is, are some "bad" carbs...um..."badder" than others? (for lack of a better term)

If you could rate bread, rice, pasta and potatoes from best to worst what would it be? Or does it not really matter? I still want to be relatively low carb and definitely no sugar, but when i "cheat" i'd like to do it on something that might be better than something else. For instance, if rice is the best of the four, i'll just stick with that, etc.

*** Think Cauliflower ***
 

I just discovered this a week ago on this site. Using cauliflower in place of Mashed Potatoes and also rice.

Here is one of many threads on the subject!

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...&threadid=31793

There are several other threads. Do a search or go to the Kitchen forum .. Lots of great ideas here!

Good Luck

Yeah, i've made the Cauliflower "Potato" Salad and it's pretty good. I'm just wondering if i HAD to eat one of the four things i mentioned, which would be best?

Jackal...

I have a feeling that this is a question that you're going to have to answer for yourself. If I were to answer that question for myself as a diabetic, I'd have to say that they would all give me a problem equally. Whole grain bread might give me the least problem if I kept it to 1 slice once in a while, but pasta, rice and potatoes will most likely be forever on my "do not eat" list because of the large spike in blood sugars that even a small amount of any of them produces. But...if you're set on eating rice, make it brown rice or wild rice and how about whole wheat pasta instead of that white stuff? Maybe half of a small potato instead of a huge baking spud?
You also might want to ask yourself why you feel that you "need" to have these foods and can't live without them. Do you really need them or are you still battling the carb cravings since you are only 8 days into induction? You may find that after a few more weeks or months, all of these things don't sound nearly as good (or even taste nearly as good) and they do now. Tastes do change on low carb. I was once a homemade bread junkie; a loaf of freshly baked bread rarely survived more than a few hours at my house. Now, while I still love the smell of bread baking in the oven, it doesn't taste nearly as good as I remember and doesn't tempt me at all anymore.
Be honest with yourself. If eating those foods got you overweight in the first place, how is going back to eating them once you get to your goal weight going to help you keep the weight off? Can you go back to eating them occasionally while controlling the quantities or will you wind up eating them every day in larger and larger quantities? These are questions that only you can answer for yourself. For myself, I know that there is no such thing as eating high carb foods in moderation; even a little will lead to more and more...that's the nature of addiction.

Hi Jackal,

First of all you might like to consider a different plan. Carbohydrate Addict Diet (CAD) would let you have a 'reward meal' once a day when you could eat these things.

Secondly I think it is not so much a matter of which one as refined or not. Brown rice is better than white, whole meal bread better than white, potatoes with the skins on better than peeled etc.

You don't 'have to' eat any of them - that's the truth.

Robert

I have heard from various sources that brown rice is a better way to go than anyof the others.. but I can't remember where.. I don't miss them at all.... I get to eat more "real"food! :D

You know, I used to think I'd just *have* to have any of them sooner or later, but now, 19 months into the program I don't really care for them any more. You *know* things have changed when you can go to Red Lobster and have them put the cheese biscuits right in front of you and you just push them aside because you don't really want them!! I rarely even use the 'substitutes' either. When I do substitute I use low carb bread, low carb soy pasta, cauliflower mashed 'potatoes', soy crumbles (or sometimes brown basmati rice) for a side dish. I'm truly grateful and relieved the 'real' things no longer haunt me. It took a while, but now they're just 'part of the landscape'. If you find you are *really really* craving them, you may want to check out the forum on candida/IBS

http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdis...p?forumid=77&s=

...you may have a candida problem and it's the candida that's making you crave what IT wants you to eat so it can survive! I used to think I was possessed--only to find out I WAS! By candida!

Thanks for all the info! It is much appreciated. I guess i'm in a more unique position than most on here. The only reason i'm "overweight" at this point is because i had a very bad knee injury 7 months ago which put me out of commision and unable to play sports until recently. (it wasn't my overload of carbs doing it) Normally, i'm very active, doing something sporty 5-6 times a week. During this "downtime", i gained about 25 pounds. Now i've never been on a diet before and i've never been overweight. I initially wanted to do Atkins just to jumpstart the weight loss and get back to playing shape. However, since i've started it, i do feel a lot better, just in general, and would like to make it more a change in lifestyle now...to a degree. So while it's not so much that i'm craving pasta, rice, potato's and bread...i just don't want to give them up completely because i do enjoy them in the same way that i enjoy a good steak. I guess i just don't want to limit myself because i don't have that much weight to lose and i love to cook and eat out and have a nice variety. Yes, ultimately, i could give them all up completely if i wanted to....i think. But i just don't really want to at this point.

I will look into the other plans. Thanks again!

Hi Jackal,

I'll answer your question directly. If you want to eat bread, rice, pasta or potatoes, the best way to make an informed choice is to pick the one lowest on the glycemic scale. Food low on that scale has little impact on your insulin level.

You can find more information about the glycemic index here. I urge you to check this site, it answers exactly your question.

Generally the glycemic index will vary depending on the way it's prepared. For example mashed potatoes has a very high glycemic index, whereas potatoes boiled in their skin has less of an impact. In a similar way, white refined bread is the worst, whereas 100% whole-wheat bread is better. White sticky rice is the most glycemic of all rice, whereas basmati or brown rice is better. Fresh pasta is the worst, whereas wholewheat spaghetti cooked a la dente is better.

One program you might want to look into is Eat Yourself Slim by Michel Montignac. He puts a lot of emphasis on eating the right carbs.

Since you are probably not very insulin resistant, this method might suit you better

I kinda thought this thread was a joke at first, but now I see you really don't have that much to lose and are probably not going to stay a "strict" LC'er for life if you don't really have a weight problem...although the principles of health and nutrition are definitely in THIS camp as opposed to the FDA food pyramid...so I hope you stay basic...

So I would say, forget about ALL those things until after you're at your goal...which won't be too long. And when and IF you desire to have a meal with rice or pasta (it all does the same thing in the system - glucose/insulin/fat storage - but rice seems to be the purest form to me, and is in the grains category, is it not?)

Anyhow...try limiting your selections to an occasional meal, a smaller amount and see how you do.

Once I went out for sushi bar, and tried to pick off all the rice (NOT possible... :rolleyes: I was sorry on the scale for a few days, but it was something I allowed myself).

Once in a while over the course of my life, I'm sure I'll enjoy a piece of bread, ;) or some sushi, but the LC principles I've learned will be my staple.

:wave:

Atkin's talks about this in the book, I don't have the book in front of me, so I can't tell you exactly where, but I think it's in the chapter on the fourth stage of the plan. ie maintenance.