Alternative to low carb Bread and Popcorn suggestions?

Thank you for posting these links...I was just msging someone today about missing out on pancakes!

I feel like all I eat are carbs!!!! I know I eat too many and as I'm trying to change my diet I'm just making sure that they are "good" carbs and not all from breads, bad sugars, pastas etc. I just hate to look at my nutrition for the day and always see my carbs way high (I probably do 3-4 servings of fruit a day). I really need to find a way to get more protein in my diet. My problem is I don't like a lot of spices, dressings, and vegetables. I'm trying to expand my horizons and while I see some of these salads loaded with veggies and they look beautiful I just can't eat them!

joshjordan127 wrote: »

snowflake930 wrote: »

Air popped popcorn only has 19 carbs for 3 cups. It is a healthy snack.
JW, why can't you have over 75 carbs/day?

Probably some low carb diet I figure. My 5 foot, 110 pound girlfriend has around 200 carbs a day just to maintain her wait and get her macros. You need carbs.

Blanket statements are bad, mkay?

Your girlfriend needs carbs, because she's already at a healthy weight and evidently does not have issues with insulin resistance. Also, unless you like cougars, your girlfriend is probably about half the age of the OP. Menopause and the years leading up to it drastically change a woman's hormonal profile (and even before that, if the OP's ever had kids, or if the OP has an endocrine disorder, or, or, or), resulting in nutritional needs that are quite a bit different even from what that same women thrived on in her younger years.

Also, your girlfriend needs carbs to maintain her weight, while the OP is trying to lose weight. That right there means her nutritional needs are in some way different from the OP's. And that's not even going into activity level and type differences (which if your profile pic is any indication, is probably pretty significantly different).

There is no absolutely necessary minimum level of carbs required for humans. Humans can live just fine on only the minute amounts found in things like meat and cream, without any nutritional deficiencies, as long as they're getting sufficient amounts of fat. So no, you don't actually need carbs, physiologically speaking, but some people -- like your girlfriend -- find it easier to maintain their weight/lifestyle/mental health with them included. That's perfectly fine. Some people, like perhaps the OP (and myself, and a number of my friends), do better when restricting carbs. That's perfectly fine, too.

You do you, and we'll do us.

Teal4me wrote: »

Is there a good low carb bread out there? And I love popcorn as a snack but carbs are high also

I don't know how long you've been doing low carb, but I've found that I don't need snacks as much, especially if I keep my fats up (which you should be doing, too). However, here are some of my go-tos:

Cheese (string cheese or cut a hunk off a block)
Jerky or meat sticks (watch additives or make it yourself, jerky's pretty easy to make)
For something popcorn-like, try roasted squash seeds (pumpkin, spaghetti squash, etc). Some butter and salt makes it taste a lot like popcorn

For sandwiches, there are three primary routes:

Lettuce wrap all the things! Anywhere you use bread, use a big leaf of lettuce, instead. This works well for most sandwiches. Alternatively, you can use slices of tomato for the bun, especially if it's a meaty tomato.

Salad all the things! Most sandwiches can be made into a salad pretty easily. This works well for deli meat/cold cut sandwiches, tacos, etc.

Screw the bread, just give me the innards! Or, just get the insides. This works well for hamburgers (especially if the waiter at the restaurant looks at you like you grew a second head when you ask for a lettuce bun).

One of the biggest things that made low carb click for me was foregoing grain entirely for a time. This forced me out of the sandwich mindset and into other stuff. It also helped switching from basing meals around a grain/starch and toward basing them around meat and non-starchy vegetables. That approach might be worth trying for a few weeks, then you can work the breads back in if you choose.

The Tumaro low carb wraps was a great suggestion.
There are essential fatty acids that humans MUST get from the diet because the body cannot make them from other things. There are essential proteins (amino acids) that humans MUST get from the diet because the body cannot make them from other things. There are NO (NONE, ZIP) essential carbs that humans must get from the diet because the body DOES make all the carbs it needs from protein, the glycerol part of fatty acids, etc.

Most of the specific fats and proteins the body needs, it can make from both existing stores or from dietary intake, but the few it can't are given the "essential" description. There are no essential carbs. Other than that, the body needs fuel. That fuel can come from carbs/fat/protein/alcohol. However, a calorie is not a calorie - what you eat determines what hormones get secreted, so while 100 kcal of butter might give the same energy as 100 kcal of bread, the effect on the body is different. More and more people have broken metabolisms and need to be concerned about the hormonal aspect.