Hi Verdungal,

The Diabetic Pastry Chef is not affiliated with HealthCentral.com, however StacyY is a member here and is apparently affiliated with them.

David Mendosa has some great articles about diet and diabetes. You can read about David here and read his shareposts here. There is one in particular that David wrote about a friend, newly diagnosed which spawned alot of conversation because they talked about a low carb vegetarian diet. You can read more about that here.

I too had a hard time giving up breads and sweets when I finally came to grips with my diabetes. At that time I was looking at anything that was considered sugar free, diabetic friendly. When talking about this to my doctor, he said two things I have not forgotten.

1. Specialty foods for diabetics are not always the best alternatives. Not only are they higher in fat and other contents to make up for the lack of sugar product, they are expensive and most of the time not as tasty as you would like. Avoid them.

2. Don't punish yourself. It's ok if you want a piece of cake as part of a well balanced diet. The difference is moderation. Do not eat the whole cake. And balance these things out with the proper amount of other foods, vegetables, lots of water and exercise.

These two points are helping me immensely in controlling my numbers.

If you decide to check out the recipes that the diabetic chef has to offer, let us know how you make out and what your experiences are!

Take care and stay in touch!

Vicki M

I think she needs to do a bit more research on the nutrition facts of her recipes.  Substituting whole wheat flour and oat flour for white flour does not significantly lower the carb count of a recipe.  I was interested in her recipes, but in the 2nd or third post I read at http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/recipes/18693-tips-diabetic-pastry-chef.html she states in response to a question about carb counts in her recipes, "No, I have not counted the carbs."  And yet she is saying they are low carb. 

On her blog, she says if a recipe calls for 3 cups of white flour, she will substitute 1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat, and 1 cup of soy flours.  A standard cake recipe makes approx 12 servings.  The carb count (not including other carbs such as sugar) for 1/12 of 3 cups of white flour is 23.  The carb count for 1/12 of 3 cups of her "low carb" flour is 15.  Speaks for itself.

It frustrates me extremely because a lot of people will just say oh it's a low carb recipe, it must be fine, and it is NOT low carb. 

Dee