Too Much White Stuff

Fibre does seem to be the theme this week. I had a multigrain gluten free cereal at breakfast yesterday, which had some fibre, but it was followed by basmati rice for my main carbohydrate at both lunch and supper. I got home rather late last night and was quite tired so it was just easier to pop a frozen meal in the oven and boil some rice. However, that meant that even with some raw fruit as a snack and plenty of cooked vegetables at both meals I got less than 17g of fibre for the day, which is simply not enough. Many Celiacs have this problem on the gluten free diet, especially if you mainly stick to potatoes, rice and gluten free replacement bakery products, all of which are lower in fibre than ‘wholegrain’ cereals and breads. Of course this is a common problem on the regular British diet too!

The problem is having a diet high in white carbohydrates like white rice, potatoes and pasta has been shown to be much lower in essential vitamins and minerals, not to mention fibre, than one with more whole grains and other starches. Without the fibre to slow down digestion, many white carbohydrates act just like sugar, rapidly raising blood glucose levels causing a quick energy rush, then crashing an hour later, making you feel hungry again. In fact new evidence has shown that the people who eat the most white bread are the most overweight.

So if I’m going to keep the weight moving I need to try to only have white carbohydrates (potatoes, rice, gluten free pasta) once a day at most. My other main meals of the day have to have more interesting carbohydrates like clean porridge oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa, lentils or beans. I’d include gluten free brown bread since two slices have 6g of fibre, but it’s so high in fat I’m not sure I want it to become a staple of my diet. Balance is the key!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1748.34	120.50g	201.76g	51.22g	0	16.43g
	28%	46%	26%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:45	Black Tea	500mL
11:00	Green Grapes	100g
	Wookey Hole Mature Cheddar	35g
	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
12:30	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
14:00	Sainsbury's light sweet & sour cooking sauce with chicken and extra vegetables	300g
	Basmati rice	50g (dry)
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
14:45	Green Tea	250mL
18:15	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
20:00	Blackberry and Nettle Tea	200mL
20:30	Cook Chicken Jalfrezi	320g
	Basmati rice	50g (dry)

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.