GD food ideas

brunoshort

This is the second pregnancy I've had gestational diabetes for.  The first one I basically sucked it up and avoided all fruit and most bread.  Luckily I didn't find out until after the holidays were over. This time around I'm due a week after Thanksgiving.  I've put more effort into researching fiber and protein along with low carb diets.  My problem is any sweet recipe that I want to try has artificial sweeteners in it!  I avoid them like the plague, along with "natural" sweeteners like stevia.  Am I doomed to miss all the pumpkiny goodness? Are there no recipes out there that I can squeeze in? About the only thing I have to curb the sweet tooth is my maple almond butter and the creamer in my coffee that I can't give up.  I can't find anything when I look on Pinterest or Google. As soon as you use "low carb" it's an artificial free for all.  HELP!!

bowlwoman

I use a bit of agave in my tea, and it never spikes my blood sugar. Once or twice a day, and not very much, but it's been a life saver.

You can also grind up dates and use in recipes. It's still sugar you have to count, but it's offset by the fiber somewhat.

You may want to google some paleo dessert recipes that use honey, dates, and nut flours. There are some really good alternatives that will let you have your cake (or pie) and eat it too.

Eora3

You could do a pumpkin soup and sweeten it with some stewed apples (high fiber so it should offset the carbs, right?).

jjaxbie

Edy's used to make a slow-churned pumpkin ice cream, not sure if they still do.  I think it was 17 carbs per half cup.  If you can process dairy, I always had good luck with that for a bedtime snack.  Tastes really good too!

bowlwoman

Most ice creams are 15-18g carbs per half cup. Just FYI.

Heidig14

Look at paleo recipes. They only use natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup.

path75

That is a challenge. Everything i see that is sweetened naturally is high in carbs. If I see something I will post it but unfortunately I have always used the bad sweetners. I would side with honey and maple maybe just try and limit how much you use. That is probably your best option. Good luck. 

Mousy345

Is it possible to satisfy the sweet cravings with fruit? That is what I've been doing, though I haven't taken my glucose test yet. Healthier overall...

bowlwoman

Part of the blood glucose monitoring is to help you figure out what your body can tolerate in terms of carbs. I can use some agave no problem, but honey can have a higher sucrose content and usually makes my numbers too high. Also, I'm gluten intolerant, but many gluten-free items use corn and rice as the starch alternatives, and those two grains ALWAYS spike my blood sugar (they also did with my first two GD pregnancies, so I know beyond the shadow how my body reacts to them and I don't eat them when in the third trimester). Potatoes on the other hand have been fine as long as I adhere to portion control.

If you find a sweetener that your body can tolerate safely, then use it. That's part of the process of managing GD.

jjaxbie

I forgot - the queen mother of all deliciousness - Pumpkin Cheesecake!  

I wouldn't buy a pre-made one because of all the HFCS and thick crust, but if you can make it yourself the cheese and egg help "balance" out the half cup of sugar.  There's no flour so the protein/carb ratio is pretty favorable.  If you don't know how you react to it, maybe try a small piece and skip the crust - but I love it because there's nothing artificial in it.  

Also works well with apple pie flavored cheesecake.  Taste's awesome and way lower carb.  

brunoshort

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!   I've been looking through the paleo recipes and still have problems eating things like bananas.  I've found I can eat strawberries with no problems and small portions of pears.  I haven't found another fruit that works well for me, yet.  I realllllly miss my bananas.

I was excited yesterday morning to find a coconut flour waffle recipe that isn't too bad and only 9.5g carbs for 2 servings. Even pairing it with strawberries and powdered sugar only put me at 19.6g for breakfast.

I haven't attempted dates.  It looks pretty comparable to granulated sugar at 3g carbs per teaspoon versus 4.2g but not seeing any solid fiber numbers on the products that popped up on Google.  I need to look into this.  Natural sugars in fruit seem to affect me the same as just eating straight sugar, so although the sugars found in ripened fruit are better I still can't eat much at all.  

My insurance refuses to cover my testing supplies so I'm -trying- to be frugal with my outrageously priced strips.  I'm all about experimenting. I wish I had the ability to try out as many things as possible and get a really good feel for a variety that works.

I'll look into crustless pumpkin cheesecake!

bowlwoman

@brunoshort My GD diet stipulates no fruit before lunch, because your body reacts differently to fruit sugars in the morning than it does the rest of the day. Maybe if you try bananas at lunch or dinner (and remember that 1/2 banana = 1 carb serving), you can see if something like that might work to still let you have your fruit and eat it too.

SoxFan777

@brunoshort I can't believe your insurance doesn't cover it at all... My insurance didn't cover the first brand I tried very well, but another brand costs me about $40 a month which is doable. I thought they had to cover something? New law? I had to call my insurance company directly to sort it out.

in other news! how many carbs do those giant farmstand honeycrisp apples have? I went apple picking this weekend and I can't stop eating them.

bowlwoman

An apple the size of your fist (mediumish size) is considered to have about 15g, or 1 serving, of carbs.

brunoshort

bowlwoman said:

@brunoshort My GD diet stipulates no fruit before lunch, because your body reacts differently to fruit sugars in the morning than it does the rest of the day. Maybe if you try bananas at lunch or dinner (and remember that 1/2 banana = 1 carb serving), you can see if something like that might work to still let you have your fruit and eat it too.

I can't eat bananas at all when I have GD. In the morning I know it's because insulin is sluggish. It's one of those trigger foods I've tried late in the day and still didn't have success. Last pregnancy it also included white potatoes. This time I can eat a small portion if I pair it with a lot of protein.

bowlwoman

brunoshort said:

bowlwoman said:

@brunoshort My GD diet stipulates no fruit before lunch, because your body reacts differently to fruit sugars in the morning than it does the rest of the day. Maybe if you try bananas at lunch or dinner (and remember that 1/2 banana = 1 carb serving), you can see if something like that might work to still let you have your fruit and eat it too.

I can't eat bananas at all when I have GD. In the morning I know it's because insulin is sluggish. It's one of those trigger foods I've tried late in the day and still didn't have success. Last pregnancy it also included white potatoes. This time I can eat a small portion if I pair it with a lot of protein.

Then that just sucks.

I've been living on white potatoes for starches because I'm gluten intolerant and rice/corn spike my sugars (as they did during my pregnancies with the girls). I can do a bit of quinoa, but that's about it.

brunoshort

SoxFan777 said:

@brunoshort I can't believe your insurance doesn't cover it at all... My insurance didn't cover the first brand I tried very well, but another brand costs me about $40 a month which is doable. I thought they had to cover something? New law? I had to call my insurance company directly to sort it out.


in other news! how many carbs do those giant farmstand honeycrisp apples have? I went apple picking this weekend and I can't stop eating them.

Our plan was grandfathered in before 2010 so I literally have had to pay out of pocket for all prenatal labwork, GD testing, ultrasounds, every time I pee in a cup, copays for every visit, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry over the hospital bill. We thought we had better insurance and was reassured by others in my husband's office that we'd be fine. Next thing we know I get a $500+ bill for the first set of labs.

The testing supplies are considered name brand and we don't get to have the $30 name brand copay until we reach a $300 deductible. But even then we can't have the deductible because testing supplies are considered speciality... They don't even sound like they know what they're talking about most of the times I've called.