did you know that most breads are made from wheat? but then there is also white breads, breads with nuts, bread with seeds, bread that is made with malt…
and then there is SOURDOUGH bread. normally, i need a longer pre-bolus for bread so that i dont spike from its immediate surge of simple sugars. but with sourdough bread and its low GI, you can actually keep your flat line BG flat. it digests slowly and doesnt get that crazy rise we’re all familiar with. and this is not only from my own experience with it, but i found it on several websites.
if you enjoy it great; if you dont, maybe you will after several of your own experiments and experiences.
Nor does it have to be technically a sourdough. In my own many years of home baking, I find that any bread made with a natural starter (called variously levain, poolish, biga, or sponge) digests slower and doesn’t spike like straight-yeast (“direct method”) breads, especially supermarket breads with their extra yeast. Even adding a few tablespoons of my natural starter to a regular yeast dough will result in less BG rise.
In addition, unless the baker is an idiot, the natural starter bread tastes so much better than “regular” bread, that if given a choice most people would prefer the natural starter bread anyway.
which sourdough do you indulge? I recall the Sourdough from San Francisco, very sour and yummy. I haven’t found any sufficiently sour and tasty near my home. I would be happy to order online!
Have you tried to create a starter at home and see what the local population tastes like? I have had so so luck with this, but a few times I have been pleasantly surprised by the local flavor.
Once a year, I “cheat” and make a buche noel for the extended family to share. I do it mostly to decorate and the fun of putting all the whipped cream, the plastic little decorations, trees, mushrooms, reindeers…etc. I haven’t baked much recently except for the buche noel. because I haven’t quite tamed the BG spikes yet.
I use the BOUDIN SOURDOUGH (original) from San Fran; Eric turned me onto it. it is the best i have ever tried. a little pricey on the shipping, so i stockpile it when i order (bc the shipping $ is the same no matter how much you order) and i just put it in the freezer until i am ready to take it out for eating. The loaves are quite huge, so i take out one at a time, cut it in half, put one half in the fridge and put the other half back into the freezer.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!! definately worth the price.
I am reviving this topic from 4 years ago - because there is already some really interesting observations about sourdough bread which I didn’t know and which are very useful. Thanks @daisymae !
And @TomH and @CatLady here’s a place where we can continue our bread conversations.
I love bread and when I was first diagnosed back in 2010 the educators told me - you have to cut out bread, which was crushing for me. Since then, I have figured a few things out. You don’t have to cut out bread, but you have to be careful.
I have a few bakeries throughout the country that are almost pilgrimage sites for me - (Cheese board in Berkeley, Zacks in Miami for example). Glycemic indices of bread are highly variable - some are quite low (like earlier in this thread sourdough); others are extraordinarily high, and often it’s not easy to predict which is which.
Here are a few observations on bread and diabetes:
Darker is better. If you have a choice between a white bread and a dark bread, usually the dark bread is lower glycemic. (Not always.)
Denser is better. There’s probably some good reason for this, but I don’t know it. But if you get a really dense really dark bread (like those Danish or German ryes) those seem to have low glycemic indices.
Bread bakeries are better than supermarkets. The bread is better and bakers are usually quite knowledgeable about their ingredients. So you can ask questions like: ‘what kind of flour is in this bread’
Most bakeries are not bread bakeries Turns out most bakeries in the US are sweets bakeries. I have not found a sweet baked good with a low glycemic index. And just because it’s a bakery doesn’t mean the bread is good. The sweets bakeries will often have some home baked bread but it’s usually white and mushy - and has a high glycemic index. A bread bakery will have at least 3 types of bread for sale everyday.
Pizza has never been good for my blood sugar. But I love it and try to eat in moderation - like half a piece at a meal.
My local bakery (called Iggy’s) has an “ancient grain” bread that has some spelt flour in it. I can eat a couple of slices of that and, with a proper bolus, it will show no change in my blood glucose, which is quite remarkable for me. They also have a good 7 grain. But their whole wheat bread will spike me.
I am spoiled and privileged in that I can buy bread from bakeries and don’t have to buy from grocery stores. I don’t know any good tasty low glycemic grocery store bread, but I’m sure there are some out there. Does anyone have any recommendations?
My local Walmart has started carrying Food for Life’s Ezekiel English muffins in the freezer section . I eat all of the Food For Life’s stuff because it’s usually a little easier on my BG. I eat their English Muffins not for BG - for the delicious hearty whole grainy flavor. Especially toasted a bit.
Really interesting! Since I’ve only had my CGM for a couple months now, I hadn’t realized for years just how much pizza in particular affected me.
I recently started trying to make my own sourdough. I have made one decent loaf so far haha. I’ll have to pay more attention to how my BG reacts! A sourdough pizza might be just the delicious solution I need…
Just to note (for those in the Boston area) while the Francese is wonderful bread, it’s on the higher glycemic index side of Iggy’s offerings (made with white flour - it’s basically a white rustic style bread). Try the 7 grain or the ancient grain!
During the pandemic, Iggy’s did weekly deliveries to our home-- we could get almost all of their offerings, including their insane chocolate croissants (no comment on glycemic index…). How lucky are we that the local supermarket carries Iggy’s in the bakery?!
When I had covid, the taste in my mouth left by paxlovid was strongly reminiscent of sourdough, which was so odd. It left me off of sourdough for awhile.
For supermarket bread, if you have a Wegman’s nearby, I like their super grainy marathon bread. For Boston people: I LOVE going to Clear Flour (Brookline) and going nuts with their breads + sweets.
@JessicaD yes, “north of boston” aka Medford. A friend of hubby’s family had Iggy’s delivered every week during the pandemic. I love Wegman’s bread, I’ll look for that kind. The only thing I miss about living in Allston is Clearflour was just a step away.
@bostrav59 All of Iggy’s bread uses sourdough starter, so it affects me less.
