Free Foods

tim_fitbuilt4life

Free Foods
By David Mendosa

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Many foods have few available carbohydrates in a standard serving. We call these the “free foods,” not because your supermarket will give them to you without cost, but because they are essentially free of any serious impact on your blood sugar.

Another factor is that because servings of these foods are so low in available carbohydrates, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get volunteers to eat enough for a test of their glycemic indexes. The standard test portion is 50 grams of available carbohydrates. With any of the free foods, test subjects would have to eat huge portions.

It’s a free food, if it’s less than 5% carb.
For convenience we can say that any food with fewer than 5 grams of available carbohydrate in a 100 gram portion is a free food. The rest of the portion is protein, fat, fiber, ash, and water. This is similar but slightly different from the concept used in the Dietary Exchange Lists, which says, “Free foods are those with either under 20 calories or 5 grams or less of carbohydrates per serving.”

You can find many of these foods in the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl. An even more convenient way to get this information is to download it to your computer as an Excel spreadsheet at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR15/dnload/sr15dnld.html.

Please note that Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, the author of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, wrote me challenging my statement, “It’s a free food, if it’s less than 5% carb.” He writes:


This may apply to some very mild type 2 diabetics, but for type 1 diabetics and for most non-obese type 2 diabetics weighing about 150 lbs, 1 gram of carbohydrate will raise blood sugar by 5 mg/dl. Thus, 100 grams of a 5% product would raise blood sugar by 25 mg/dl. In addition, we have the Chinese Restaurant Effect, which typically doubles the effect upon blood sugar for most people with diabetes. Thus, a 100 gram serving of one of your “free foods” will raise blood sugar by about 50 mg/dl for most people with diabetes.
Excluding those foods not commonly eaten in the United States, they are as follows. All of the vegetables and fruits are raw, unless otherwise stated. The numbers are the grams of available carbohydrate (that is, carbohydrate minus dietary fiber) in 100 grams of the portion of the food):

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VEGETABLES:
Alfalfa seeds, sprouted 1.28
Arugula 2.05
Asparagus, cooked 2.63
Bamboo shoots, cooked 0.92
Beans, green, cooked 4.69
Beans, snap, green, cooked 4.68
Beet greens, cooked 2.56
Broccoli, cooked 2.16
Brussels sprouts, cooked 4.5
Cabbage, cooked 2.16
Cauliflower, cooked 1.41
Celeriac (celery root), cooked 4.7
Celery 1.95
Chard, swiss, cooked 2.04
Collards, cooked 2.1
Cucumber 1.8
Dandelion greens, cooked 3.5
Eggplant, cooked 4.14
Endive 0.25
Fennel, bulb 4.19
Hearts of palm, canned 2.22
Jicama 3.92
Kale, cooked 3.63
Lettuce, butterhead 1.32
Lettuce, cos or romaine 0.67
Lettuce, iceberg 0.69
Mustard greens, cooked 0.1
Mushrooms 2.94-3.57 (except ****ake)
Nopales, cooked 1.27
Olives, canned ripe 3.06
Okra, cooked 4.71
Olives, canned ripe 3.06
Parsley 3.03
Peppers, serano 3.00
Peppers, jalapeno 3.11
Peppers, sweet green 4.63
Peppers, sweet red 4.43
Pumpkin, cooked 3.80
Purslane 3.43
Radicchio 3.58
Radishes 1.99
Rhubarb 2.74
Sauerkraut 1.78
Scallions (green onions) 4.74
Spinach, cooked 1.35
Squash, summer, cooked 2.91
Squash, zucchini, cooked 2.53
Tomatillos 3.93
Tomatoes 3.54
Tomato juice 3.83
Turnips, cooked 2.9
Turnip greens, cooked 0.86
Watercress 0.79
FRUIT:
Avocados 2.39
Chayote (christophene) 2.20
Raspberries 4.77
Strawberries 4.72
NUTS:
Macademia Nuts 4.83
Pecans 4.26
MEAT AND FISH:
All meat and fin fish 0.00
Caviar 4.00
Crab 0.95
Lobster 1.28
Shrimp 0.00
EGGS AND DAIRY:
Butter 0.06
Buttermilk, lowfat 4.79
Cheese, cheddar 1.28
Cheese, Edam 1.43
Cheese, Gouda 2.22
Cheese, Swiss 3.38
Cream cheese, 2.66
Cottage cheese, 2% milkfat 3.63
Eggs 1.22
Half and Half 4.30
Heavy Cream 2.79
Goat milk 4.45
Mayonnaise 2.70
Milk, 1% milkfat, added solids 4.97
Milk, 3.25% milkfat 4.66
Ricotta cheese, whole milk 3.04
Soy milk, 0.51
Yogurt, plain, whole milk 4.66
DIETARY FIBER:
Soluble and insoluble fiber (a part of other foods) 0.00
BEVERAGES:
Coffee (without cream or sugar) 0.00
Diet Soda 0.00
Tea (without milk or sugar) 0.00
Water 0.00
SWEETENERS:
Aspartame (NutraSweet) 0.001
Saccharin (Sweet'N Low) 0.001
Stevia 0.00
Sucralose (Splenda) 0.001

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1 Both aspartame and sucralose are usually bulked up with maltodextrin, but it is usually in such a small amount that it can be ignored. Likewise, Sweet'N Low is bulked up with a small amount of dextrose (glucose).

Goal_Seeker_1988

thanx for sharing!

rachmaree

Great list! Thanks for the post

wanttogetskinny

I am not a fan of Dr. Bernstein, but I agree with his ideas here. I am a Type 1 diabetic. Unless something has absolutely 0 carbs, it's NOT a free food because I need insulin for it. And even 'free foods' don't have no affect on blood sugar. Fats and proteins also get converted to glucose in the body, albeit at a lower percentage than carbs. So a 0 carb food that is high fat/high protein........is something I also need insulin for, because it WILL affect my blood sugar.

tim_fitbuilt4life

I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that "free foods" implies that they don't spike you insulin levels and not that they don't contain any carbs but very low amounts like levels found in spanich, brocoli, etc... I know people with type 2 diabetes who are advised by their doctors to eat "free food" or complex carb instead of simple carbs for better health.

wanttogetskinny

I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that "free foods" implies that they don't spike you insulin levels and not that they don't contain any carbs but very low amounts like levels found in spanich, brocoli, etc... I know people with type 2 diabetes who are advised by their doctors to eat "free food" or complex carb instead of simple carbs for better health.

They may not cause a 'spike' (I guess a spike would be when your blood sugar goes way up...but then comes back down). These foods however will cause a rise in blood sugar. Which in a Type 1 diabetic means a need for insulin, no question about it. For a Type 2 diabetic, they may produce insulin to handle it, though if they are on insulin they too will need insulin to cover it.

I don't argue that these free foods and complex carbs are better than simple carbs - of course they are better. But they don't necessarily have little to no effect on blood sugar.

If I were to eat, for example, 100g of each of:


Raspberries 4.77
Strawberries 4.72

...as a snack, that's 9.49g of carbs. That's enough to raise my blood sugar 40 mg/dl (for others it might raise them only 20 mg/dl, for others it could raise them 70 mg/dl....everyone is so different). For some this may not seem like much, but I'm trying to keep my A1c in as great control as possible. So I would need insulin for this.

I guess I don't buy into the idea of any food being free unless it has absolutely 0 carbs, and then I still have to consider protein and fat in terms of how THAT will affect my blood sugar. But I know many Type 2 diabetics who retain some of their own beta-cell function do rely a lot on free foods...more power to them for being able to.

I just wanted to point out that it's not necessarily true in all cases

songbyrdsweet

I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that "free foods" implies that they don't spike you insulin levels and not that they don't contain any carbs but very low amounts like levels found in spanich, brocoli, etc... I know people with type 2 diabetes who are advised by their doctors to eat "free food" or complex carb instead of simple carbs for better health.

They may not cause a 'spike' (I guess a spike would be when your blood sugar goes way up...but then comes back down). These foods however will cause a rise in blood sugar. Which in a Type 1 diabetic means a need for insulin, no question about it. For a Type 2 diabetic, they may produce insulin to handle it, though if they are on insulin they too will need insulin to cover it.

I don't argue that these free foods and complex carbs are better than simple carbs - of course they are better. But they don't necessarily have little to no effect on blood sugar.

If I were to eat, for example, 100g of each of:


Raspberries 4.77
Strawberries 4.72

...as a snack, that's 9.49g of carbs. That's enough to raise my blood sugar 40 mg/dl (for others it might raise them only 20 mg/dl, for others it could raise them 70 mg/dl....everyone is so different). For some this may not seem like much, but I'm trying to keep my A1c in as great control as possible. So I would need insulin for this.

I guess I don't buy into the idea of any food being free unless it has absolutely 0 carbs, and then I still have to consider protein and fat in terms of how THAT will affect my blood sugar. But I know many Type 2 diabetics who retain some of their own beta-cell function do rely a lot on free foods...more power to them for being able to.

I just wanted to point out that it's not necessarily true in all cases

Great knowledge! You really have control of your diabetes. I think most people here are only familiar with T2D and don't realize the differences in insulin production.

sinclare

bump...this is a great list, thanks!