I really need carb advice, please? Quinoa, barley or rice?

themhipbones
themhipbones Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
I’m trying to cut out carbs as much as possible (definitely breads, pastas, rice etc).

So I decided that I would substitute rice with quinoa or barley.

But, having done a bit of research it turns out that, per 100g,
Quinoa is 64 g carb and 14 g protein
Barley is 73 g carb and 12 g protein, and
Basmati rice is 22.3 g carb and 2.1 g protein

If those numbers are true, surely quinoa and barley are a bad idea? Would it not make more sense for me to be eating basmati rice or just cut it out completely and just eat meat and veg?

Replies

  • jayrudq
    jayrudq Posts: 475 Member
    If you are interested in cutting carbs, you really want to be looking at the Glycemic Index of those foods: how quickly they are processed by your body. I am fairly sure the index is the inverse of the list you have. Quinoa being the lowest and Basmatic being the highest.
  • moorednorham
    moorednorham Posts: 18
    Each one's fiber content will play a factor in how much of an insulin spike each one causes, given the same serving amount of each. Also, since insulin is the culprit behind carb-based weight gain, investing in a glucose meter would not be a bad idea. Eat some and then test your blood periodically to see what happens. I did it with steel cut oats and found that they gave me the barest spike in insulin, so I feel fine eating them on occasion. Everything else I steer away from, but know nothing about the grains you're looking into.

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  • kristen6022
    kristen6022 Posts: 1,923 Member
    This is a quandary...I'd say the grams of protein in the barley and the quinoa would make it better choice than the rice (Glycemic Index). I'm Gluten-Free (Hashimoto's Thyroid Disease sufferer), so I eat both rice and quinoa (barley is a no no, which is sad because I miss beer). I don't really think about the grams of carbs in them, I eat them because a full lifetime without those things would make me sad.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    they're all carbs, I suspect that rice analysis is wet (cooked) rather than dry like the others.

    ETA - Google Nutrition puts the carb content of basmati rice at 80g/100g
  • ze_hombre
    ze_hombre Posts: 377 Member
    One things to point out that might also be a factor for you is net carbs are different that total carbs. Net carbs are total carbs minus fiber carbs. Fiber is subtracted because its not digested by the body.

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