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Hi USA, yes, 70% chocolate is commonplace over here as is Stevia. Not sure if Stevia content chocolate is available. The problem with Stevia is its cost in relation to sugar, weight for weight the cost is prohibitive for many.
Go onto Google Scholar, search DIABETIC CHOCOLATE CONTENT. I found one site, http://www.online.library.wiley.com which had some research comments within their Diabetic Medicine subject research. One result states,- quote “Consuming high-polyphenol chocolate sweetened with sucrose over an 8 week period improved cardio-vascular risk indices by increasing HDL cholesterol without a detremental effect on glycemic control, insulin resistance, inflimation or weight”. unquote.
As to the wheat base content cannot comment on that.
Good Luck.
Hang on, guys and gals! Even if Stevia doesn’t come with any known side effects, its still a sweetener. So it will still elicit a response in the brain, with insulin spikes and endorphin response.
So not good for diabetics/pre diabetics who want to give their pancreas a rest and avoid insulin resistance, and not good for sugar addicts.
In both cases the mechanism is similar. If you keep on producing the stimulus (insulin or beta endorphin) then the receptors get jaded and less responsive – ie RESISTANT, and then to get the same effect you need more and more of the stuff until finally the whole thing crashes.
Of all people I know how hard this is, but the only way is to lose the sweet tooth. At the moment I find it hard to envisage such a life, but that is the only way.
You want a list?
Sugar, in lumps, coffee crystals, candyfloss, or if things are (not very) desperate straight from the packet.
Meringues
Marshmallows
Marzipan
Sugared almonds
Honey, (raw, I used to keep bees and my daughter still does)
Lower on my list, but still fine if I need a fix
Chocolate (70-75%)but it stays in the fridge for weeks, until I have a migraine when it helps a lot.
Florentine biscuits
Butterscotch, toffee, fudge, tablet (all preferably home made)
Dried fruit, especially prunes, dates and apricots.
Chocolate truffles, home or chocolatier made.
I do quite like cake, but now that I am totally grain free its a difficult one. I might try some of the ‘wheat belly’ cakes, but they all seem very heavy on sweeteners, and I have not found a sweetener yet that doesn’t have an aftertaste. I will probably try making Christmas cake with ground almonds, (and real sugar and molasses).
I dislike milk chocolate, sweets with colouring (other than sugared almonds and marshmallows, of course), anything with ginger.
Written on a fast day, and I am not finding myself drawn to the cupboard. How wierd is that? But maybe not because for me fast days give a kind of freedom from the tyrants of food and presumably sugar. But it will be a different matter at 4pm!
Its quite a liberating list, because I look at it and know I can live without. Except when under stress when I have a tendency to head straight for it. That’s the bit I need to work on, and am going to try meditation for that one.
Candyfloss is cotton candy in the USA I understand. Pure sugar made pretty.
I am married to an Unreconstructed British Male, who isn’t interested in matters health at all (and is basically fit, albeit his waistline could do with being a bit smaller). Its not fair to remove foods from the cupboard that he thinks are normal. Mind you, if I cook he gets what I regard as healthy! He can eat what he likes away from home, or when I am away.
Unless under extreme stress I don’t buy the bad stuff. Mind you, I seem to be under stress rather a lot of late. Am starting again on meditation.
Hi Ruthi. …fast days give a kind of freedom from the tyrants of food….perhaps that is the case. Fasting today, had to swap this week from Monday, and although I do feel hungry now and then, wouldn’t dream of reaching for food. Get some water instead. Amazed at how I don’t feel hungry the whole day. On a non fast day, although I don’t eat as I used to do, if I feel hungry I will probably reach for fruit. Odd isn’t it. It is better though that I reach for fruit now, not bread or biscuits,(which I don’t buy any more to be honest), which I did do.
@ruthi
“I dislike milk chocolate, sweets with colouring ”
Interestingly, I went to a session that I helped host where I was serving wine to attendees. Since I don’t drink alcohol nor wine, I’m probably the perfect person to hand it out. As part of the presentation, chocolate boxes were passed around to the audience. None of that chocolate appealed to me.
I feel the same way now that you do about sweets with anything or milk chocolate, none of it appeals to me. Very different from how I was raised.
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@ toms mantis
“It is better though that I reach for fruit now, not bread or biscuits,(which I don’t buy any more to be honest), ”
I keep bananas in the refrigerator, so that when I open the door, a banana is handy to get and eat. Likewise, we don’t buy bread or biscuits or anything that is a comfort food, mostly. My wife does succumb to some foods but is gradually minimizing that behavior.
As I read the post on the chocolates, I was amazed on the detailed descriptions. That’s an expert description on chocolates that quickly needs to be an amateur. Just the beginning of the word ‘choc’, is the same as the word choke. All that sugar is quickly chocking the life in the body. Of course, most people know it but pretend to be helpless to stop it.
The fasting with the meditation and awareness of what to have around helps.
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Hi Rockyromero, bananas in the fridge are a good tip. I do still buy bread weekends. It’s amazed me how I don’t buy things now that I used to. Don’t even look wistfully at them when shopping! Funny though, I have craved things recently! had a cupcake which I had made, just a few to give visitors with their tea last weekend. It didn’t live up to expectations. Hope that’s the end of that craving.
@ruthi
“I am married to an Unreconstructed British Male, who isn’t interested in matters health at all”
I’m not sure what type of male that is, but health is going to matter very soon for all of us.
I must have a Constructed American woman for a wife, although she will leave chocolate droppings still in wrappers in our kitchen.
Today, I moved them to a bag near the garbage disposal. It’s like getting rid of roaches, you know.
I suppose if the urge to retrieve them later may occur.
But who would?
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LOL rockyromero
“I’m not sure what type of male that is, but health is going to matter very soon for all of us.”
You know that, and so do I, but in his youthful innocence he is yet to fully appreciate that its not just other people that get older. And I deliberately chose a man who isn’t an easy pushover so I can’t complain if he doesn’t always do as I wish. He came fully house-trained and complains that I didn’t, so it would seem I am not perfect, although I wouldn’t leave chocolate droppings because the dogs would eat them, and that is not good for them.
But the upshot is that he will eat rubbish left to his own devices, and has to be allowed to ruin his own life. It quite difficult to make a nearly 60 year old man, who has an occasional twinge of arthritis in his big toe but no other problems at all, that he should be looking after his health in uncomfortable ways.
But he allows me to feed the dogs properly (RAW) and wouldn’t dream of feeding chocolate to my precious dogs, so I will live with his foible, and his junk food. And he eats whatever I put before him appreciatively so when he retires (IF her retires) I’ll have him in my power.
@ruthi
“feed the dogs properly (RAW) and wouldn’t dream of feeding chocolate to my precious dogs,”
I noticed that you have double standards for that which is precious to you.
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Rocky, I don’t have double standards at all. I feed him healthy stuff in so far as I can, and he buys his own junk. He is an adult, and can make his own choices. Believe me, I do my best to persuade, but I choose not to attempt control.
The dogs are totally dependent upon me, and I make their eating decisions for them, (again as far as I can because the little one scavenges. It behoves me to make the best decisions possible for them.
My main source of stress is my business, a petcare company. We walk dogs and feed can care for cats and small pets at home. I have six staff. A couple of years ago I broke my knee (well a dog collided with me, not even one I was walking!) and since then I haven’t been able to do the walks I used to.
In the last six months one girl had her 16 yo daughter diagnosed with cancer – six months of chemo, and she has been in for about half the time. When she was there I had to find as much work as possible as she is in benefits, and dropping her hours below a certain level results in a huge loss of income. Then another had a twisted gut, a week in intensive care, two months off work entirely, now she can still only feed cats, has another hospital stay booked for November when they will try to reconnect her remaining bowel, off for goodness knows how long, who knows if she will ever walk dogs again(she’s over 60). Another fell down a step and badly broke her ankle 3 months ago, still ill. Another fell but thank goodness only badly bruised. These are all good and loyal staff and I have to keep their jobs for them, however hard it might be for me.
Finally I came back from France to complaints from a customer (a loyal and high value customer) that one of the girls was regularly doing short walks – cheating the poor dog of his only break in the working day. I’ve sacked her, but its a hugely stressful business because of the laws in the UK, and not helped by sacked girl’s boyfriend bombarding me with abusive emails.
I’m going to put the business up for sale, I’m 63 and these stresses are harder to handle than they used to be.
Then this summer my daughter has been pregnant, and finally gave birth in September. The last couple of months were problematic, and the birth was fairly disastrous. I worried about her. She is doing fine now, with quite a challenging baby, but is still quite seriously anaemic. My son has two daughters, the elder of which is quite severely disabled. It takes the whole family to support them.
I only have two dogs now, but one has undiagnosed health problems (he is only 7, losing hair, no obvious explanations, arthritis, continence problems, heart murmur, slipped disc and cancer at the beginning of the year, both surgically sorted we hope, waiting for referral to the Royal Veterinary College). The other was a foster that stayed because his behavioural problems made him unsuitable for the kind of people who fell for his cute looks. He’s made huge progress, but still requires my almost constant attention.My dogs are my toddler substitutes
Finally, Unreconstructed British Man is working far too hard, to the point where I worry about his health. He’s away for most of the rest of the year in Japan and China (and is right in the path of the typhoon today) And he won’t let anyone else work on our house, which is partially dismantled as we remodel it to the home we want. But he doesn’t have the energy or time to really tackle it, and doesn’t trust me to do the work (although while he is away I do some stuff). Before I met him I was better at DIY than any man I knew, but I admit he is better than I, just not quicker!
Is that enough?
I too have failed at mediation before, but I am finding that the Headspace programme seems to be working for me. http://www.getsomeheadspace.com
Bl**dy H*ll USA, you aren’t very kind to yourself, are you?
I am unconvinced by the argument that intensive exercise is necessary. I think its unlikely that our wilder ancestors deliberately engaged in intensive exercise on a regular basis, although as hunter-gatherers they would have walked huge distances.
I’m not doing HIT either. All I do is walk, fairly fast, for at least an hour a day. I’m of the same ethnic group as Micheal Mosley, so I reason that my genetic makeup will be similar.
Anyway that’s my excuse, but the truth is I hate gyms.
I suspect bicycling on your back won’t be the same in HIT terms – no resistance!
USA, you’re such a breath of fresh air. I have a picture of you lying there on the floor cycling, well, as good a picture as I can have without seeing you. My exercise has been lacking this week up to now. Bit limited to what I can do due to a spinal problem which inhibits my walking for long periods. That’s why my allotment is so important to me. Do an exercise class twice a week usually. Anyway, changed our fasting day from Monday to Tuesday for a few weeks as OH is working away 2days a week, makes it awkward Mondays, and it’s thrown me a bit. Will fully read your research on belly fat later. Happy fasting.
@ruthi
” I don’t have double standards at all. ..The dogs are totally dependent upon me, and I make their eating decisions for them, …it behoves me to make the best decisions possible for them.”
You treat your dogs better than you treat yourself.
That’s a double standard.
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I treat everyone better than myself, that’s what women do. Isn’t that the response?
But actually I am not sure I do. In feeding terms I treat myself pretty well as I do the dogs, ie I feed myself good food. And then the other me goes mad occasionally when I find/need sugar (and the dogs go mad when they find a discarded burger!)
How do you think I should treat myself better?
Awww! little hearts! Thank you!
I am fine, although struggling a bit with the sugar demons. With URBM away I have been totally carb free (save for some beans) and found it really hard. And Mrs Clever took a while to realise that it was the change in diet that was causing the headaches, SLEEPLESSNESS etc. I think I need to read Dr Davis in more detail, because I never had any great problems giving up wheat (and switching to gluten free stuff) but its clear that going properly low carb is going to be a bit of a struggle.
And I couldn’t think of anything to criticise with yesterdays menu! I was amazed how much fibre is in a day’s food with not much green stuff. If you analysed further, did you get all the necessary micronutrients?
Hello USA,
I was interested that you are eating raw garlic. I read such good things about it – but the effect on a person’s breath 🙁 but more important is the good it does I guess. I have it when I’m not expecting to see anyone for a few days.
I noticed recently that my blood sugar was suddenly rather higher than it had been lately. Into the 6’s. Even one 6.8 after eating. I think what I’d been doing differently the days before was not having definite meal cut-off points. I’d been eating the same healthy, low GI things but grazing more than I had lately. So I suspect that this grazing way of eating is also not good and I need to eat then stop for several hours.
It’s a bit shocking also how tiny little bad habits sneak back in unawares. In this I think I’m going to have to do zero tolerance with frequent critical reviews.
Hope you have a good day 🙂
You depress me, USA. All those lovely links to articles that say how bad carbs are, and you still eat loads, plus hardly any vegetables. Carbs make you fat, and keep you fat. And while you stay fat, you’ll likely stay T2D. Popcorn FFS!!! not nutrients in there just carbs.
Dr Davis says max 40g carbs on a full eating day, Dr Mosley is advocating nutrient dense foods on fast days, which basically means lots and lots of green veg.
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