total carb. and dietary fiber question

Hi Lanie,

That's a good question. Here in Scotland products may have fibre and carbohydrate listed seperately, or sometimes both are combined under the carbohydrate heading. I believe in the US that your regulations insist that fibre is labelled as carbohydrate too.
Generally, indigestible fibre will have a very small impact on blood sugars where other carbohydrates can be at the opposite extreme. Things like celery, brocolli and cauliflower for example are mostly fibre and have a very low impact on my blood sugars.
I've been trying the GG Scandanavian Bran Crispbread recently but, like you, they have more of an effect on my blood sugars than I expected, despite their 42g of fibre and 2.8g carbohydrate per 100g. One thing I notice is that in any given pack of crispbreads they will vary in thickness to a great extent. Some can be twice the thickness of others which makes the 2.8g-fiibre-per-slice rule a bit meaningless - it could conceivably be less than that or as much as twice that, even before you factor-in a tolerance of 20-30% for the nutritional measurements in the first place. This is not an exact science by any means!
One thing is certain though, we all seem to react differently to different foods. I suppose it's trial and error for most of us to find the foods that work for us and those that don't. If only there weren't so many in the latter category......

All the best,

fergusc

HI Ruth and Fergusc,  this package of Wasa Fiber Rye lists dietary fiber and sugars separately with their respective grams under Total Carbohydrate.  So, I'm wondering if I should consider 1 crispbread to have just 5 gr. carbohydrate if I discount the 2 gr. fiber.  Well, actually, it might not matter. I've had mostly higher readings afterwards anyway.  So, maybe I could get away with 1/2 cracker.  Sometimes I think this is too ridiculous, like counting grains of rice (which I can't eat anyway.)  A piece of meat the size of a deck of cards.  What's next?  Soup in a thimble?  

Ruth, I bought it at Kroger in a section that seems to have imported crackers in the bigger cracker/cookie section. 

Lanie  

Lanie ...

LOL. I hear you. Today as I made lunch I mentally stacked up my Meijer's "chicken tenderloins" and thought they equalled a deck of playing cards. But then there was the thickness to compute. Too confusing. I just ate them.

I looked for the Wasa Fiber Rye today in the grocery and could find tons of OTHER Wasa products ... but not that one, of course. There was something with 8 grams of carbs and 2 fiber. I considered it briefly and then discounted that, too. TOO confusing.

Besides, we all know I'm a carb addict. I better off leaving my addictions alone. <sigh>

Fergusc, they would be great with a slice of meat and swiss!!!

And "no soup for you!"

LOL

The general rule of thumb for the Zone food plan is that you can't subtract the grams of fiber from the carbohydrate until the number reaches 5 gm. fiber. So, if you had a piece of bread that had 15 gm carb total and 5 gm fiber (It would taste like sawdust!) the total would be reduced to 10 gm. carb total IMPACT. Generally speaking, what this means is that the carbs are so wrapped up in the fiber that your body can't access them all. Fiber tends to move food thru the GI tract faster so there is less time for the absorption of all of the nutrients.

When they break down food in the lab they measure the carbs as if you consumed and absorbed the whole thing, not allowing for some people's differences in absorption. Hope this helps.

The soup I had last night would have been deadly enough in a thimble. It wasn't that it raised my blood sugar. It was so spicy hot that I thought I was going to die. I can usually stand pretty spicy food. This made me break out in a cold sweat and put my face in actual pain. Actually, it tasted very good until I bit into something in it that was super, super hot! I could not taste anything for hours.

Nope. It was take out.