On buckwheat noodles, cravings, blood sugar and low-carb eating



D

Doug Lerner

Guest
On New Year's Eve I joined a friend at a soba (buckwheat noodle) shop
for traditional "otoshi koshi soba" - eating a bowl of soba to send out
the old year. A typical bowl has, I believe, about 60 gm of carbs and
about 370 calories.

This was after being on strict low-carb (20 carbs/day) for the past two
weeks and after losing 11 lb that way.

Instead of getting cravings though, I actually felt very full
afterwards. In fact, I didn't feel like eating anything for a good 8 or
9 hours. Even when we went to hatsumoude (the first shrine visit of the
year, after midnight) I wasn't tempted by all the food stands with high
or low carb offerings, like yakitori, grilled squid, etc.

Nicky also commented in this group: "I eat buckwheat noodles every
couple of months, as Pad Thai. A small bowlful does nothing nasty to my
blood sugar, doesn't cause cravings, etc, etc. Buckwheat isn't a wheat,
it's a relative of japanese knotweed!"

To me, the ONLY point of a low-carb diet is to control hunger so that I
don't overeat in general. But I think you also have to be calorie
conscious in order to achieve final goal weight. So I try, when
possible, to subsitute lower calorie low-carb items, such as chicken or
fish instead of red meat all the time. I would also use things like
butter buds to add butter flavor to broccoli rather than melting actual
butter on top. Things like that.

I am wondering, though, if regardless of theoretical carb count
(buckwheat noodles have a lot of carbs) if the fact that they don't
cause cravings means that they don't affect blood sugar the way some
carbs do and if so does that mean there is no reason not to treat them
as though they "acted like low carb foods" and eat them without
reservation, like I would eat a hamburger?

In the long run, if I snacked on a bowl of buckwheat noodles and really
felt full from that for a long time, I would lose more weight wouldn't
I? It's less calories than snacking on, say, cheese.

Maybe for each person each *particular food* item needs to be considered
before deciding whether is good or not on a low-carb (maybe better
termed "low blood sugar"?) diet.

A counter-example would be macadamia nuts. Those are "theoretically"
low-carb (though the data ranges all over the chart depending on where
you look), but if I eat them I get hungry for more, just like I had too
many bad carbs.

Maybe it's all much more "case-by-case" for each food item and not
strictly the number of carbs, per se. Maybe the "glycemic index"
approach is better for controlling hunger? The problem with that diet
though is that there are some ridiculous, obviously dangerous items that
are technically low GI as well, like chocolate eclairs and pudding!



Anyway, what do you think?

doug
 
"Doug Lerner" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On New Year's Eve I joined a friend at a soba (buckwheat noodle) shop
> for traditional "otoshi koshi soba" - eating a bowl of soba to send out
> the old year. A typical bowl has, I believe, about 60 gm of carbs and
> about 370 calories.


That seems like a lot. Was there anything put on them or did you eat them
with something? How big is a bowl?

>
> This was after being on strict low-carb (20 carbs/day) for the past two
> weeks and after losing 11 lb that way.
>
> Instead of getting cravings though, I actually felt very full
> afterwards. In fact, I didn't feel like eating anything for a good 8 or
> 9 hours. Even when we went to hatsumoude (the first shrine visit of the
> year, after midnight) I wasn't tempted by all the food stands with high
> or low carb offerings, like yakitori, grilled squid, etc.


Maybe your mind was focused on staying on plan, so you didn't "give in". I
think somethings what LCer just "give in" and almost make up "cravings" in
their minds.

>
> Nicky also commented in this group: "I eat buckwheat noodles every
> couple of months, as Pad Thai. A small bowlful does nothing nasty to my
> blood sugar, doesn't cause cravings, etc, etc. Buckwheat isn't a wheat,
> it's a relative of japanese knotweed!"


How much is a small bowlful? How much exercise does Nicky get?
>
> To me, the ONLY point of a low-carb diet is to control hunger so that I
> don't overeat in general. But I think you also have to be calorie
> conscious in order to achieve final goal weight. So I try, when
> possible, to subsitute lower calorie low-carb items, such as chicken or
> fish instead of red meat all the time. I would also use things like
> butter buds to add butter flavor to broccoli rather than melting actual
> butter on top. Things like that.
>
> I am wondering, though, if regardless of theoretical carb count
> (buckwheat noodles have a lot of carbs) if the fact that they don't
> cause cravings means that they don't affect blood sugar the way some
> carbs do and if so does that mean there is no reason not to treat them
> as though they "acted like low carb foods" and eat them without
> reservation, like I would eat a hamburger?


Be careful. Are they carbs or not? Also, 60 g might not be that much if
you haven't been eating that many carbs and if you exercise regularly. In
fact, 60 g of carbs typically wouldn't bother me at all. I need way more
carbs than that to get cravings.

>
> In the long run, if I snacked on a bowl of buckwheat noodles and really
> felt full from that for a long time, I would lose more weight wouldn't
> I? It's less calories than snacking on, say, cheese.


Bottom line: if you can manage to eat less (fewer calories) and lose weight,
do what works.

If you're not a T2 and have no issues with BG, and don't get them from these
noodles, you have my permission to eat them at will provided you make
progress.

>
> Maybe for each person each *particular food* item needs to be considered
> before deciding whether is good or not on a low-carb (maybe better
> termed "low blood sugar"?) diet.
>
> A counter-example would be macadamia nuts. Those are "theoretically"
> low-carb (though the data ranges all over the chart depending on where
> you look), but if I eat them I get hungry for more, just like I had too
> many bad carbs.


I think that's just "like" not cravings. In fact, I'm convinced that
cravings can be beat down with just a little practice and the desire not to
stay off plan. It doesn't even take a lot of will power. To a large degree,
this "cravings" thing is getting a little bit overhyped in here. People are
using it as an excuse for falling off plan.

>
> Maybe it's all much more "case-by-case" for each food item and not
> strictly the number of carbs, per se. Maybe the "glycemic index"
> approach is better for controlling hunger? The problem with that diet
> though is that there are some ridiculous, obviously dangerous items that
> are technically low GI as well, like chocolate eclairs and pudding!
>
>
>
> Anyway, what do you think?


Comment: you've gotten back on LC and you're counting calories and losing
weight. Why rock the damn boat, doug?
 
I don't have any opinion on eating buckwheat "without reservation", but I
ran across this article while doing a google search for something else
yesterday. Note that they're talking about diabetic rats, not people. But
it certainly is interesting. :)

http://www.newstarget.com/000134.html


on Sun, 02 Jan 2005 09:33:31 +0900, Doug Lerner <[email protected]> wrote:

>I am wondering, though, if regardless of theoretical carb count
>(buckwheat noodles have a lot of carbs) if the fact that they don't
>cause cravings means that they don't affect blood sugar the way some
>carbs do and if so does that mean there is no reason not to treat them
>as though they "acted like low carb foods" and eat them without
>reservation, like I would eat a hamburger?


-----
Bev
 
Roger Zoul wrote:

>>On New Year's Eve I joined a friend at a soba (buckwheat noodle) shop
>>for traditional "otoshi koshi soba" - eating a bowl of soba to send out
>>the old year. A typical bowl has, I believe, about 60 gm of carbs and
>>about 370 calories.

>
>
> That seems like a lot. Was there anything put on them or did you eat them
> with something? How big is a bowl?


It was pretty big. :) To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. I was guessing
200 gm of cooked soba noodles, because that it what usually goes into a
typical serving bowl of rice. Also, the convenience store was selling
soba that day and that's what was marked on that package.


> Bottom line: if you can manage to eat less (fewer calories) and lose weight,
> do what works.


Yes, true.

>


> Comment: you've gotten back on LC and you're counting calories and losing
> weight. Why rock the damn boat, doug?
>

Because I'm beginning to feel that the boat is a bit like a stodgy old
cruise ship and the only entertainment is shuffleboard and reruns of the
same movies. It would be nice, in general, to have more VARIETY. That
always helps staying on any diet.

doug
 
Bev-Ann wrote:
> I don't have any opinion on eating buckwheat "without reservation", but I
> ran across this article while doing a google search for something else
> yesterday. Note that they're talking about diabetic rats, not people. But
> it certainly is interesting. :)
>
> http://www.newstarget.com/000134.html
>


Very interesting, Bev-Ann! I'll investigate more too.

doug
 
On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 09:33:31 +0900, Doug Lerner <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Maybe for each person each *particular food* item needs to be considered
> before deciding whether is good or not on a low-carb (maybe better
>termed "low blood sugar"?) diet.


YES.

This is EXACTLY right. You have to consider each person individually
to be sure what is 'right' for them or not.

If *you* in particular can eat a small bowl of soba now and again, and
*I* cannot (tried it - it sent my bgs way too high for comfort) then
for you it's a safe food and for me it's not. As a man, you very
likely have a safe carb level far higher than mine as a very insulin
resistant diabetic (T2) woman.

That's why, when people come to the list and say "Can I eat..." or
"Can I drink..." the only answer that makes sense is 'try it and see'.
Lots of people don't like that answer. It makes them nervous to have
to actually EXPERIMENT but it's true.

Aramanth