Guiltless Indulgences

You mention avoiding low carb ice cream.  I do have an alternative for you, one that I thoroughly enjoy, and I make only one serving at a time.  I include suggested brands for ingredients, though I'm sure you can find equivalent brands in your area:

• 1/3 cup of frozen, organic raspberries (Archer Farms/Target brand)
• 1/2 cup full-fat, organic coconut milk, already chilled (365 brand from Whole Foods)
• 3 tablespoons of shredded coconut (Bob's Red Mill)
• 1/20th teaspoon of pure stevia extract (365 brand from Whole Foods)

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and mash the berries fairly thoroughly into the mixture, blending well, leaving it only as chunky as you prefer.  Let sit for up to five minutes to allow the shredded coconut to soften a bit, but still be chewy.  This makes one serving.

I find this to be as good as any ice cream and pretty low in carbohydrate (10-12 grams per serving of digestible carbs/ 6-7 grams of fiber).

Because of its low sugar (but high fat and fiber) content, it will raise blood sugar very little.  If you have this after you've eaten some protein, say after some cheese or some eggs, that will of course slow the sugar down even more.  Ideal for Type 2 diabetics like you and me.  This may not work for you, especially if you are really avoiding fructose or eating really low carb, but I imagine this will work for quite a few people.

Swap brands as necessary or as preferred, but I'd recommend keeping the frozen berries organic, since conventionally grown berries are notoriously high in pesticides.  You can swap out the berries for other types, of course, but raspberries are particularly low in carbs, and high in fiber - and I happen to enjoy them more than just about any other berry. :)

Thanks for your writing!  You've helped me out a lot since my diagnosis three years ago.

This is David's Friend, Barry replying... 

Here's some more diabetic friendly low carb commercial indulgent products to keep an eye out for: 

Zevia Natural Diet Sodas (www.zevia.com) sweetened with stevia and erythritol, natural, zero carbs and calories, in cola, orange, twist, black cherry, ginger ale and my favorite, flavor, root beer. Available in WholeFoods... 

Green and Black's organic chocolate bars, lowest net carb dark chocolate I could find!

(www.greenandblacks.com/us/what-we-make/bars/dark-85.html)

Ice creams: Lucerne's 'Watch n' Carbs' ice cream bars and fudge bars, sweetened with erythritol and splenda, 3 carbs per bar, available in Safeways... very yum!

And many creative homemade variations using various mixes with an ice cream maker: 

Base options: heavy cream, unsweetened soy, almond or coconut milks

Sweeteners: erythritol, stevia (or better yet, blend together)

Chocolates: Hershey's sugar free syrup (with erythritol), ground organic cacao nibs, or any unsweetened chocolate powder

Flavorings: vanilla extract, almond extract, cinnamon, shredded coconut...

Fruits: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries

My favorites: raspberry chocolate & coconut almond!

Hi David:

Congratulations on making your first batch of cookies.

When I can't seem to figure out is the fat content of these cookies  If you have to add 1 ½ sticks of butter, then there would be approximately 138g fat  for the total recipe ,  and there are 16 cookies per recipe , would that not be 8.5 g fat per cookie.  Also there is the fat content to be added if you use whole eggs.

Here is a recipe you might like to try www.net127.com/wiki/Mike's_Oatmeal_Cookies

You can get creative with this one, oat and wheat bran, flax and even chia seeds can be added to the dry ingredients.

I realize that you would not get the benefit of the psyllium seed husk but this recipe would certainly cut the cost of making these cookies .

Regards

Joan

Hi David

Yes, the .5 per gram is correct, as this is for the  dry ingredients.  This indeed looks like a low fat product, until you add the butter or margarine.

Joan

It's pretty difficult to find low carb foods in "normal" supermarkets in Britain. They are not even easy to find in Health food Shops. The Atkins diet is totally out of favour and seen as "dangerous". Diabetes UK, our premier diabetes charity, whose voice carries some weight, is firmly against the low carb way of eating and any food which is prepared  for  diabetics. There has been a bit of an improvement recently. I have managed to find a source of Low carb Crispbread and Dreamfields Pasta.   I cook from scratch with fresh ingredients. thus I bake almond biscuits( cookies) once in a while and make a delicious cheesecake with a ground nut base. High cocoa percentage chocolate is available and I keep a block in the refridgerator. I eat 1 square every now and again and a block lasts at least 3 weeks. Recently one of the big supermarket chains started to stock Xylitol, although Splenda has been available for ages. Low sugar is OK, but low starch is seen as harmful. There are a couple of good on-line suppliers, but the cost of postage makes this a pretty expensive way of shopping.

Hi David! I wanted to thank you for your column and newsletter and for al the excellent information I have gained form them over the years since I was diagnosed. From you I have learned bout everything from meters to tracking devices (like the Track 3) to Byetta all of which I have begun or chosen based on your recommendations. Your ability to take a complex subject and render it understandable for the average dieabetic has made my life much easier! Thanks SO much for this!

Also - thanks to your many thoughts on foods - all of which I read carefully as I LOVE good food and really appreciate good recommendations that add to what I can eat. I do however want to point out one little mistake about cooking cookies - you bake cookies in an oven (everything that goes in an oven is either baked or roasted) - you cook on a stove burner! I realize that it may not seem a big difference - but trust me - I can see some poor non-cooking/baking soul (like my husband) trying to lay the cookie sheet on the stove top! The firemen as they arrive would have a good laugh! (I know - I work for the local fire department in codes. You'd be amazed how some fires start!) Thanks again for your wisdom and your ability to transmit your knowledge to the rest of us so we can understand it too! (By the way - thanks to your help and careful work I average an A1C of 5.5 and am slowly and steadly losing weight on Byetta - down 35 lbs with 45 more to go!)

I use coconut milk in my recipe for hot chocolate and sweeten with stevia (KAL brand is my favorite). 

I sometimes make my own chocolate candy using unsweetened bakers chocolate, stevia, crushed raw peanuts and pepermint extract.  The chocolate comes in 8 oz. boxes.  Take a pan with a little water in it and put a glass bowl of a size to sit comfortably into the pan to form a double boiler arangement and put it on the a stove burner.  Heat until water starts to boil then cut back to low.  Put squares of chocolate into the bowl and let melt.  Add stevia (about half a teaspoon or to taste),  peanuts and pepermint extract (about two to three teaspoons).  Stir together.  I use parchment paper as a non-stick liner to an aluminum pan (actually a toaster over pan) to pore the mixture into.  Let cool; probably have to put into refrigerator to get it to become solid enough.  I must caution that more than a few peices will most likely give you the gitters from too much caffeine.

Another treat that I like is made with natural peanut butter.  For a small amount use about 1/4 cup of peanut butter with 1/4 teaspoon of dried ginger mixed together.

Optional additions are cocao powder (2 teaspoons), pepermint extract (a few drops), cinnamon (pinch or so).

Obviously, you could experiment with adding other ingredients to these recipes.

Cocao, ginger, cinnamon all have health benifits as well as taste great.

I forgot to add that I put a pinch of stevia in the peanut butter recipe.  Also, I would imagine that you could use any other dry sweetener in these recipes.  Dry because water will just about ruin chocolate and doesnot mix with oily foods like peanut butter.

Hi David,

Thanks for all of the information and advice you so generously give. Since starting Byetta last March, my AIC is down to 6 and falling. I was already eating extremely carefully -- low fat, low carb, low calorie, high fiber real food, and I haven't made any dietary changes, but I have lost 40 pounds. Just goes to show that getting blood sugar control can sometimes even help with weight loss. And I feel 100% better! I wouldn't have known about Byetta or the importance of working with an endocrinologist if it weren't for reading your articles...

About the cookies. There is a recipe in Dana Carpender's 500 Low-Carb Recipes that is to die for! It's "Mom's chocolate chip cookies" and they are made with almond flour and no sugar chocolate chips. I use sugar free chocolate bars, broken up. I don't even like sweets and I love these! Everyone in my family is crazy about them. Not sure of the copyright laws, so I won't paste the recipe here, but get her book from the library or buy it -- it's worth the price for the cookies (not to mention some of the best low carb recipes I've ever found). Diana