Alternative to bread

I know I'm going to be truly hated for saying this.
But I happen to like your health coach.
He's balancing your diet according to your health matters
rather than your calories.
We wont die without bread. A burger can taste as good without
bread or a bun. (I know you probably don't eat burgers).

It's not the no bread that's bothering me, it's him saying that your body will release insulin like its a bad thing that's not supposed to happen. If it's not supposed to, then how come I have to give myself shots of insulin, being diabetic and all?

I agree with others that research for this particular topic would be excellent. Not all certifications are created equal, some of them sadly are just bare minimum "you passed this multiple choice test, here's your certificate" type programs. Never trust someone else with your own well-being when you're fully capable of learning to look after yourself. Other people may be able to help you along the way but don't just take their every word as truth.

Like others have said, unless you or your kids have a specific gluten allergy bread and rice are not bad. But because of the whole glycemic index thing, it's always best to go with whole grain bread and brown rice. Read the ingredients on the label, they're not allowed to label and make sure the first ingredient is whole wheat flour not just wheat flour.

You said how can we trust it? Well how can we trust a lot of things nowadays? You can't live in fear of your groceries and live in paranoia. The other day I bought a drink that was labeled as naturally flavored and halfway through drinking it I realized it had sucralose in it. I poured out the rest and was mad at myself for not reading the label. Not with the company for marking it as naturally flavored. And that small amount of sucralose didn't hurt me at all, I learned from the experience and went on with my day.

That being said, I see the benefits of minimizing breads in the diet. I came from a family that always had to have toast or crackers with a meal even when the meal itself was rice or pasta based. Or we would crumble 3/4 a pack of saltines into a bowl of chilli. Excessive carbs are what's harmful not carbs in general.

So anyway, as another poster said lettuce wraps can be delicious. I love them myself. I even make chicken "burritos" with romaine lettuce leaves in place of the tortilla/wraps. For things like hummus or peanut butter you could try it on vegetables. One of my favorite things to do to keep calories and carbs down though is to use cauliflower. You can make cauliflower into a low carb pizza crust or into a low carb version of fried rice, etc etc. Plenty of recipes out there. You can use certain squash to replace pasta.

English Muffins. Mmmm. OMG I'm hungry now. How'd that happen!:grumble:

You're going to screw up your kids way more telling them bread/carbohydrates are bad. Trust me. Demonizing a food screws up a kid's relationship with that food. You're off your gourd if you think your kids will never go to an event outside of the home that has bread, tortilla, cake, etc.

Also- you'd just going to add it all back in at the trainer's discretion? Won't that REALLY mess up your kids? Mom says bread is bad but a week later she's eating whole wheat toast? Mom says brown rice is bad but in a month we get to eat it again?

Teaching healthy habits has to do with providing lots of healthy options (and some less healthy ones). Everything in moderation. Because we don't live in a bubble.

Otherwise, in 15 years you kids will be on MyFitnessPal in a tearful post about how their coworkers bring donuts to the office and they go through guilt binge cycles because their loving mother forbade whole grains, much less the occasional treat.

YES!!! Thanks for posting about the long lasting effects on your parents' choices FOR you. Yes, as adults we can make our own choices and blame ourselves for it. But as children, we need guidance and depend on our parents for that. You denying your children a specific thing will not only demonize it, but do you really think they're going to avoid it at all times? Even when they're not with you? Nope! As much as learning to eat/enjoy/whatever in moderation sucks, you need to do it for you and for your kids. When they see someone taking responsible steps to be healthy, they'll regard it as second nature.

Good luck and I hope your health coach has a refund policy.

Umm your doctor is off his rocker. All carbs turn into glucose. And your body is supposed to produce insulin to metabolize it. I mean what the heck? Beans, potatoes, carrots, fruits....it doesn't matter, it all turns into glucose. Glucose fuels the body and brain.

Exactly right.

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Please, please, please do your own research before you deny your children of all delicious breaded things! Bread is not unhealthy.

Pretty please? :flowerforyou:

But with all that I've read that isn't riddled with advertisements (that's frustrating :grumble: ) it is. It's one of the bad carbs, there are good carbs, but it's a bad one. Says the person who as a child I swear had a slice of bread with EVERY single meal.
So how do you know?? And with that said too, how do you know it's not "labeled as wheat" but essentially white processed bread.

Trust me I LOVE me my bread!

Okay, you keep suggesting that nobody here possibly has the correct understanding of how bread works, but how are you qualified to make that judgement either? Whole wheat is a complex carb. If you think simple carbs are evil (which is a misinformed view that doesn't take into account our body's need for quick energy, or the many other factors that go into the nutritional profile of a given food) don't have them around. Whole wheat is not a simple carb, and different than white bread in that regard. How do I know it's not "labeled as wheat but essentially white processed bread"? I am not an illiterate, and I know how to read a nutritional label. If it's white bread masquerading as whole wheat bread, you will be able to tell that from the ingredients. Look for 100% whole wheat/grain bread, and you're good to go. Still don't trust that? Make your own bread from whole wheat flour, and you'll have an alternative that has minimal processing/ingredients involved.

You should be raising your children to understand that a healthy diet includes anything in moderation. Certain foods are better for you, and you want them to be the core of your diet, but no food needs to be off limit to them entirely. Children especially have different nutritional/caloric needs than adults, and benefit from a fully balanced diet (that includes carbs), as they need the energy due to their growth. My mother did the same thing as you, and demonized certain foods when she was on a given diet (Atkins being when bread became a taboo in our house) and it left me with very messed up perceptions of food that have led me to the point I am today, 20lbs overweight despite having already lost 25lb. Do not accidentally give your children an eating disorder because you or some guy with god knows what understanding of the science behind nutrition have suddenly decided to redefine what is healthy and what is not. Bread did not make me or anyone else overweight, a bad relationship with food is the case for like 80% of us. And guess what, all the weight I've lost was done with an exorbitant (even to the point I'll admit it's not that healthy) amount of bread involved.

1st post? Bravo!

Was about to say the same thing, makes a change

I love sprouted grain bread. contains no flour.

Cut a doughnut in half....yummy!

There's flat bread (less carbs). Whole grain bread with actual grains in them.

Maybe you could try making a sandwich out of large apple slices, with Pb&J in the middle?

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Im in search of a bread alternative that is KID FRIENDLY!

They are used to me at least having tortillas for them to put pb and j on. But I'm really torn about buying another package tonight.

Why don't we have bread? Because I can't eat it, and I don't want them to learn that it's an "ok" choice. This decision is based on information from my health coach.

"It's a carbohydrate that when broken down will turn to glucose causing your body to release insulin making it very difficult to lose weight. This will not help you reach your goals. "

Glucose is the body's fuel - and there isn't anything wrong with insulin unless your levels are out of wack i.e diabetic (sorry to all the diabetics for being flippant) - health coach huh? How about trying a certified dietician?

And there isn't anything wrong with bread - there's a reason it's called "the staff of life".

I say let them have bread and tortillas! It is an "ok" choice. Whole grain wheat is best. Lots of carbs break down in to glucose. That's what they are suppose to do. It definitely doesn't make it difficult to lose weight. I've been losing weight. I eat bread and tortillas. Hey wait..... AND I'm T2 Diabetic!!! It doesn't make my blood sugar skyrocket either! Maybe if I ate the whole loaf!

whole wheat tortillas are good.

That being said, if you are concerned what is in the bread you're buying, then bake your own. I do, or I buy it at the local Mennonite store.

About Insulin:

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The fact is that insulin is not this terrible, fat-producing hormone that must be kept as low as possible. It is an important hormone for appetite and blood sugar regulation. In fact, if you truly wanted to keep insulin as low as possible, then you wouldn’t eat a high protein diet…you would eat a low protein, low carbohydrate, high fat diet. However, I don’t see anybody recommending that.

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

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Categorizing foods as or diets as “clean” is clearly a successful marketing strategy, but is less useful when it comes to daily decision-making about good nutrition. Some of the concepts that underlie “eating clean” are supported by good scientific evidence. But the “eating clean” philosophy is imbued with a considerable amount of pseudoscience and a large amount of the naturalistic fallacy. Calories matter, and supplements probably don’t. For that reason, I would not recommend any of the “Eat Clean” and related books. There are too many inaccuracies to compensate for the good advice buried within. Dietary design needs to be based on good evidence, not anecdotes and logical fallacies.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/should-you-be-eating-clean/

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For your body composition, it doesn’t matter if a carb is classified as simple or complex or if it has a high or low glycemic or insulin load or index. Only the total amount of carbs in your diet matters and this only matters because carbs contain calories.

For your health, the source of carbs is only relevant if you’re unhealthy. If you’re already healthy, it generally doesn’t matter.

http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-science-of-nutrition-is-a-carb-a-carb.html

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About Insulin:

The fact is that insulin is not this terrible, fat-producing hormone that must be kept as low as possible. It is an important hormone for appetite and blood sugar regulation. In fact, if you truly wanted to keep insulin as low as possible, then you wouldn’t eat a high protein diet…you would eat a low protein, low carbohydrate, high fat diet. However, I don’t see anybody recommending that.

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

False dilemma: you could have moderate protein instead of low and keep your insulin response down. It's called ketogenic, and plenty of people are recommending it.

OP, a lot of people are confusing not needing to do something with should not doing something. I say, go for it. Cut bread but learn about what you're actually doing. Read up on ketogenic diets because you need to do it properly.

And what exactly do you believe about enforcing a """ketogenic""" diet on children?

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Umm your doctor is off his rocker. All carbs turn into glucose. And your body is supposed to produce insulin to metabolize it. I mean what the heck? Beans, potatoes, carrots, fruits....it doesn't matter, it all turns into glucose. Glucose fuels the body and brain.

Exactly right.

To be fair to doctors, it wasnt a doctor who recommended this to OP - was just a "health coach"

show previous quotes

About Insulin:

The fact is that insulin is not this terrible, fat-producing hormone that must be kept as low as possible. It is an important hormone for appetite and blood sugar regulation. In fact, if you truly wanted to keep insulin as low as possible, then you wouldn’t eat a high protein diet…you would eat a low protein, low carbohydrate, high fat diet. However, I don’t see anybody recommending that.

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

False dilemma: you could have moderate protein instead of low and keep your insulin response down. It's called ketogenic, and plenty of people are recommending it.

OP, a lot of people are confusing not needing to do something with should not doing something. I say, go for it. Cut bread but learn about what you're actually doing. Read up on ketogenic diets because you need to do it properly.

And what exactly do you believe about enforcing a """ketogenic""" diet on children?

Parents enforce diets on their children all the time. This is no different than a parent "enforcing" a non keto diet. Diets are what you eat. Parents buy the food. The younger the child, the less say they have.