Friday, September 11, 2009

LowCarb Eating, and Bread: My Own Experience

This won't be a bunch of recipes; a google search will turn up a bazillion of them. But it's about what works for me.

First, I do buy lowcarb breads of various types for my husband, as he loves his sandwiches and I think they're better than the carby breads. And about once a week I will make a couple of slices of toast with it. But they all contain wheat in some form and I do my best to minimize my wheat intake, which brings us to my second point...

Second, I try to avoid wheat. When I was a child I had an allergy to it. As an adult, I've suffered various problems from heartburn to bloating, from acne to insomnia...and all of them stopped when I did Atkins' induction over 5 years ago. As I added back grains, the symptoms recurred as soon as I added wheat back into my diet. The next few years of experimentation, as well as the experience of countless others, have proven to me that wheat is indeed the culprit. So I try to avoid it.

That said, however, sometimes I weigh the consequences and eat it anyway, usually in the form of Vital Wheat Gluten for my baking, or when I have purchased Carbquik in the past, or when I choose to have lowcarb bread or a tortilla or other premade lowcarb product. (A package of 10 torillas lasts me several months - I freeze them .)

I should note again here that, even though I'm still 100# above my desired weight (which differs from weight charts), I am not wanting to lose any more right now. The reasons for that are irrelevent here, but if I were, I would probably avoid most grains altogether since in the past they have slowed my weight loss incredibly.

So...back to bread. My current favorite way to eat a sandwich, or toast, is using my own version of one-minute microwave bread as inspired by this video . However, I've made a couple of changes to it: for the dry ingredients I use a combination of protein powder, flax meal, and almond flour in approximately equal quantities. I also add a tad less of the dry ingredients, so I don't get as heavy a bread. I whip my egg until really frothy, then I add in my baking powder, cream, and oil while still whipping to keep the volume. Then I stir in my dry ingredients so I don't lose too much volume before I nuke it. The difference between the video and my version isn't huge but I just like it a little better :). I've never followed a recipe in my life without making my own changes, and this is no different!

So, those are my answers to bread :). With the plethora of recipes online there seems to be a bread solution for everyone. If you have a favorite I hope that you'll let me know!