Discussion Board

Ah the poor guy, I feel sorry for him when you put it like that - it's not 2 different meals, he'll get a lemon juice dressing instead of a tofu one for example. And it's not every night, probably 2 or 3 times a week. I do a lot of "high-fat" lunches for myself, when I'm alone, which balances out the MWL dinner with the family at night.



I'm afraid to bother him, I'm sure he has a million more important things to do. I'm already shocked that I have his e-mail address!

This is great! My experience and research, being a bit of an exercise freak, is that planks are pretty much the ultimate ab exercise. The key is to really focus on super tightening all the ab muscles (butt too if you can) while holding. Makes it more difficult but that's the idea. Work up to 1 minute holds, rest and repeat 3 times. Crunches and sit-ups are counter productive (except Janda sit-ups) as people end up using their psoas muscle to yank themselves up by pulling on the spine and also tending to flex the spine. This will aggravate any back pain/problems.

Sounds to me like you guys are on the fast track for him to be non-diabetic!

I think it was Doug Lisle... who shared when just thinking of calling Dr. McDougall ... he already has lifted up his phone:) How gracious is that?

Aloha, patty

Thanks everyone for all the replies, I truly appreciate the feed-back.

He's happy to email back. His emails are brief and he often can't go into much detail (b/c you/hubby are not his patients--legal issues) but he can clarify issues for you.

"1. My husband has diabetes type 2 so unfortunately some whole foods will spike his blood sugar into unsafe levels, i.e. 200+. A few examples are potatoes, oats, wheat flour, and apples. Luckily there are several healthy grains he can eat without any problems, such as quinoa, brown rice, and chickpeas. We're still in the process of testing to determine safe and unsafe foods for him at this time. The only high fat food he eats regularly is tofu in his breakfast scramble, prepared with a lot of veg, and this because it does not spike his blood sugar. He does not eat any oils nor do I ever use any in my kitchen."


Have you tried Kasha (buckwheat)? If he can't do oatmeal, he might like that for breakfast sometimes. You could go either savory or sweet.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ce&dbid=11

If your husband does well with chickpeas, you might also try a scramble made with chickpea/garbanzo bean flour (besan). You can doctor it up with whatever flavors and vegs you like just as you would with a tofu scramble. I just experimented with a simple version this morning and had chickpea scramble tacos with salsa for breakfast. I actually didn't scramble the mix, leaving it solid like an omelette. You can see one person's scramble here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=389001.0 She used oil in her pan, but I used my green pan and no oil. I began my omelet with sauteeing 1/4 cup each onion and bell pepper over medium heat, and I think the onion also helps keep the batter from sticking. I mixed 1/2 cup chickpea flour, 1/8 tsp Indian black salt (eggy taste), a bit of black pepper and 3/4 cup water to make the (thin) batter, then I poured that over the sauteed vegs. After a minute or so, when it began to set (look dry), I covered the pan and let it cook 3 minutes. Then I slid the omelette out on a plate and flipped it back into the pan, covered it, and cooked 3 more minutes. Then I cooked it a minute or so uncovered. (Have to make sure chickpea flour cooks because it will taste beany/icky raw.) I slid the omelette onto a plate and cut it in half. I made two tacos with one half, using corn/wheat tortillas and chunky salsa. Now I'm full, and there's half of a chickpea omelette sitting in my kitchen with no place to go. Guess I'll send it to leftover heaven.

Agnes, great idea and looks delicious! You could also use already cooked, mashed chickpeas and it would be much quicker, no risk of that "raw" taste.

We found a plank instructional video on youtube, and will get planking next week. Thanks for the great info, I thought he should do sit-ups



Agnes, thank you so much for posting this, I actually have some chick pea flour I picked up the other day but wasn't sure what to do with it. I'm so excited to try this out, I was even thinking of doing a sweet version with blueberries tomorrow morning. It's a family tradition to have pancakes on Sunday morning, and husband hasn't had any for a long time. I had heard of people getting good results in terms of blood sugar with almond flour, but I was loathe to use it because of the calories. And I love the idea of making a savory breakfast omelet out of it with lots of sautéed veggies. It makes me think of Dutch pancakes, they pour the batter in the frying pan, then put cheese and ham on top and flip it. It's great to have a low fat option to the tofu.

I thought you might like to see some before and after pictures of my husband. In the after shot he's showing off his old suit yesterday, we took it to the tailor to have it altered but unfortunately they said it wasn't possible because there was too much extra fabric now! I love his new cheekbones

Your husband is looking good. Bet he feels a lot better.

In the recipe section, there's a thread on chickpea fries. You might like those. You cook the chickpea flour and water much like you would polenta, chill it, slice it, and brown the slices in a skillet or bake/broil. I really like those. (I also saw an Indian recipe online where the woman used that method for her scramble. She cooked it with the spices and then she crumbled the cooked dough ball so it appeared like scrambled eggs.) You could also try socca. I saw a recipe recently that added pumpkin puree and spice to the batter. This is a simple socca recipe: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/06/14/ ... cca-recipe The challenge is making it without all the added oil in the pan. A well-seasoned cast iron skillet probably helps. And maybe rubbing an onion on it before adding the batter, like they do with dosa, would help too. I haven't made socca yet, but it's in the back of my brain on my "maybe I'll try that someday" list. The main thing about the chickpea flour is it has the eggy taste I sometimes crave. More eggy than tofu. More filling, too. I could probably eat a half ton of tofu scramble, but not a ton of chickpea flour scramble.

Does your husband's blood sugar spike with even small amounts of wheat, or is it just when wheat is a large component of the meal? If you were to make a flatbread/pancake of mixed grains/flours, including some wheat flour, would his sugar spike or do the other food components balance things out? You can make many kinds of flatbreads/pancakes, mixing various flours. Since brown rice and chickpeas don't spike his blood sugar, those flours would be good ones to include, and if small amounts of wheat aren't a problem, you'd be able to use some of that in the mix too. You could also use some quinoa or buckwheat flour. You can use these flatbread/pancakes as wraps for all kinds of veggies or fruit, much like a tortilla. Here are links to a couple of the experiments I've done over the years that might inspire your own experimentation.

http://karicooks.blogspot.com/2009/10/b ... ncake.html
http://karicooks.blogspot.com/2011/08/m ... -with.html

I'm too lazy to make these kinds of things every day, but once in a while I get a hair up my Agnes.

Wow, a rebirth for you hubby! He deserves gold stars and kisses...

Another trick, not breakfast but anytime wanting tortillas or bread etc that might satisfy and be much more blood sugar favorable:

Just sprout some lentils until little tails appear. Then food processor until fairly smooth. Spread moderately thinly on parchment paper/cookie sheet and bake awhile. Can mix any herbs/spices in before cooking.

Also this from a friend of mine. If not presoaked probably need high powered blender. If presoaked a food processor will easily do the job: