Bread substitutes help please

Spiderpug

Cardiologist has advised trying to stop eating bread due to high sodium and sugar content ☹️. Rye bread can't be that bad, is it?
I'm not keen to have constant veg or salad without something satisfying with it (am vegetarian by the way).
What do others eat instead of bread? Thanks

Francl27

If your bread has too much sugar, you're using the wrong kind of bread.

But yeah, you kinda need salt in bread unfortunately.

I'd suggest low carb wraps but the sodium content is probably just as bad.

impyimpyaj

Yeast requires sugar to rise. Rye bread is bread, so yeah, I would assume that would be out too.

It depends on what you're using your bread for, but I've heard good things about cloud bread. http://www.food.com/recipe/carb-free-cloud-bread-411501

You could also look into things like riced cauliflower for pizza crust and things like that. But I've found that it's usually better just to change my meals rather than to try to substitute for something I can't eat. I had to cut out dairy for a few years when my kids were nursing and it was just easier to make different recipes than to try to work out dairy substitutes. Good luck!

JeromeBarry1

How much and what kind of bread do you eat such that your cardiologist is advising you to "Stop that!"? I have met with a cardiologist one time, following a heart event of arrhythmia in which my heart started beating at 200 beats per minute without a good reason. I was obese. My cardiologist only recommended that I avoid energy drinks. She didn't even suggest weight loss or dietary modifications. What happened to you that you had to see a cardiologist? What are your age/height/weight stats? Are you 'really' asking for advice about how to lose weight?

Francl27

impyimpyaj wrote: »

Yeast requires sugar to rise. Rye bread is bread, so yeah, I would assume that would be out too.

It depends on what you're using your bread for, but I've heard good things about cloud bread. http://www.food.com/recipe/carb-free-cloud-bread-411501

You could also look into things like riced cauliflower for pizza crust and things like that. But I've found that it's usually better just to change my meals rather than to try to substitute for something I can't eat. I had to cut out dairy for a few years when my kids were nursing and it was just easier to make different recipes than to try to work out dairy substitutes. Good luck!

No, it doesn't. It requires heat. Lots of bread recipes out there that don't have sugar.

Spiderpug

I've been on mfp for a while successfully so weight loss isn't the issue.
The doc is more concerned at sodium content generally as he wants me to stop tinned/processed foods too to benefit my general health (no actual heart problems presently and blood screen is clear).
I only have a wrap or 2 slices wholemeal once a day but he thinks the little things will benefit me long term so am asking for alternatives for these.

JeromeBarry1

I see. Just keep logging your food on myfitnesspal, stay in a calorie deficit, and if you want to cheer your cardiologist, do some cardio. As you become more fit, do more cardio. May you live long and never see your cardiologist again. While some American tinned vegetables are available with no added salt, I don't know if you in your country have that at this time. No worry, as fresh and frozen veg are salt-free and delicious.

mjbnj0001

I bake 80%+ of the bread we eat. I mostly use one of the "no knead" methods. I make variations of (unbleached) white, whole wheat, oat and rye in the yeast-risen-bread category, and banana/corn/zucchini in the "quick bread" (chemical rise) category. The no-knead method takes about 10 min of work over a 3-hour period, start from scratch to finished/baked loaf. The method extends from various loaf shapes to rolls, pita/flat, english muffin, pizza dough and other formats. Sometimes I use my food processor to make highly-kneaded bread, but don't always bother.

Bread needs only flour (wheat), water, yeast and salt. Actually, salt isn't required to make bread, but without it, it will taste like cardboard. Some flatbreads can be made with only flour and water.

As a poster noted above, sugar is required for the yeast to work ... but it doesn't need to be added. The flour supplies what the little critters need.

So, by baking your own, you can control the amount of added sugars and salt, plus whatever extra additives for flavoring (nuts/seeds, wheat germ, herbs/veggies, etc., including sweeteners [honey, maple syrup, molasses] and flavorants [e.g., dill pickle juice in some rye breads]) you want to include. For instance, I often use a level tsp or so of salt a loaf, which means low sodium per slice. My results are both lower sugar, lower cal and lower salt than almost every commercial loaf I compare against. And, we don't get all the dough conditioners, preservatives and other junk that you get from most commercial products. We find the homemade bread is denser and more satisfying than commercial, so, as an added bonus, we eat less in equivalent volumes/slices.

All that being said, you should follow the objective advice of your cardiologist and not a random MFP poster such as myself. The above is one pathway to reducing sugar and salt consumption while still eating some bread. We have found this approach had lowered our sugar/salt consumption pretty easily, although as bread lovers, we still get some.

I've been going to a science-based nutritionist for a little while. His thing is lowering glycemic index/glycemic load, with bread (and rice, potatoes, etc.) right in the crosshairs for reduction/elimination. But that's another conversation.

Good luck.

PS ... I have tried the "cloud bread" mentioned above. It isn't. Bread. And I didn't find it so palatable or interesting. But that's just my take on it.

mjbnj0001

Spiderpug wrote: »

I've been on mfp for a while successfully so weight loss isn't the issue.
The doc is more concerned at sodium content generally as he wants me to stop tinned/processed foods too to benefit my general health (no actual heart problems presently and blood screen is clear).
I only have a wrap or 2 slices wholemeal once a day but he thinks the little things will benefit me long term so am asking for alternatives for these.

I hear you. I try and avoid salt as much as I can in most foods, because there are some foods I love that have inescapable salt in them (most cheeses, for instance, ham, etc.). Since you're using the word "tinned" I would expect you're not in the USA, but here I use Hunt's no-salt-added canned tomatoes, Kitchen Basics no-salt-added broths, etc., in a mainly cook-from-scratch lifestyle. Just shifting away from canned/processed foods to home cooking makes reducing your salt intake very easy. But this takes time; since I'm semi-retired and have taken up the family cooking duties, I can employ this tactic. As you see from my other post, baking homemade bread is another (but also requiring time, or least, "presence" in that start-to-finish cycle for no-knead breadmaking is about 3 hrs.).

He's right, doing lots of little things will benefit. There's salt all around us, there is usually no problem in getting enough per day. With all our avoidance techniques, I still get about 1500-1600mg/day, occasionally more. Travel is hard; most eating out food is salt-laden. When you cut your salt drastically, be sure you're getting enough of trace elements such as iodine.

Good luck.

Fivepts

I personally can't stand the cauliflower bread (maybe ours is stronger in taste) but the recipes work well if you substitute zucchini and/or carrots. I bet yellow squash would work too. Almond flour is also an option if you can get it.

MichelleLaree13

I would try homemade breads where you can control the salt and sugar. Yeast has to have sugar to work but it isn't all that much. Homemade recipes are fine without salt, at least the recipes I have used. For me that added salt doesn't improve anything. In biscuits, I use herbs to add flavor.

rheddmobile

With respect, a cardiologist is not a nutritionist and his advice sounds very arbitrary for the condition you're describing. I would try to get a referral to a licensed dietician. It's not like you're a mad bread binger, eating two slices of whole wheat bread a day, and there's no reason that a perfectly healthy person, as you are at present, should cut out all bread to benefit health.

Unknown

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Spiderpug

Thanks guys, I don't feel so panicky now!

I just realised he didn't even ask me how much bread I ate but just to try to cut it out altogether. I rarely go over the mfp pre-programmed daily sodium amount.

I am liking the 'make your own' option though

ccruz985

If you're not a baker, get a bread machine and make your own!

HeidiCooksSupper

Bread without salt is sadly inedible. I know, I've forgotten the salt on occasion in making bread.

It sounds like your cardiologist wants you to limit calories and sodium. You don't need to give up bread to do this, although bread is calorie dense and high in sodium. On the other hand, just giving up bread does not make your diet low calorie or low sodium.

We eat a low sodium diet most of the time. It's easy to make interesting food and stay low sodium. After awhile a lot of regularly salted foods taste too salty. We've come to prefer unsalted butter, unsalted potato chips, etc.

You should have a limit of a certain number for sodium. For us, as over-65 folks, the recommendation is to stay below 1300mg a day and we frequently manage to do that. You may have a different number from your cardiologist.

You can look over my diary and see the good news and bad. Every once in awhile something comes in the house that is death on the sodium levels, e.g. a package of pepperoni recently.

Don't trust all the listings in MFP's database. A lot of the hand input items don't have sodium or potassium numbers. If something obviously likely to have salt, like some cheese, shows 0 grams, check other sources or look for a better, more accurate entry.

Meanwhile, you won't miss salt at all if you heavily lace things like oven fries with Mrs. Dash herb & garlic seasoning.