Cereal Cakes & Healthy Carbohydrates

[AnotherFellow]

Hello,today i have just a question for you;in "Maximum Weight Loss" i read i have to avoid all flour products(even whole flour)if i'm looking for a fast weight loss. My question is: i have to think to rice cakes as a flour product or anyway a food i must to limit? i eat them often because they are so easy and fast to handle(i buy just rice/mais/etc cakes without oil,just cereals and sometimes a little bit of seeds,but something like 1% of the total)

at this point if i can i'd really like to know which other carbohydrate products i have to avoid(even if they are made with 100% whole flour). now i remind just whole bread and whole flour

thank you

[Ltldogg]

Hi AnotherFellow,

Hello,today i have just a question for you;in "Maximum Weight Loss" i read i have to avoid all flour products(even whole flour)if i'm looking for a fast weight loss. My question is: i have to think to rice cakes as a flour product or anyway a food i must to limit? i eat them often because they are so easy and fast to handle(i buy just rice/mais/etc cakes without oil,just cereals and sometimes a little bit of seeds,but something like 1% of the total)

Rice Cakes are not recommended on plan whether you are doing Maximum Weight Loss (MWL) or not because they are not a whole food and are very high in calorie density:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=48579&p=501571&hilit=rice+cakes#p501571

at this point if i can i'd really like to know which other carbohydrate products i have to avoid(even if they are made with 100% whole flour). now i remind just whole bread and whole flour

Breads are not on plan for Maximum Weight Loss because they are made with flour products, they are usually high in salt/sodium and they are very calorie dense. Instead, you should consume whole plant starches to include whole rices, sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, oats, barley, millet, rye, etc. Add in some non-starchy veggies and fruits in whole form and you will be following the MWL, regaining health and losing weight. Don't stress out about how fast you are losing weight, the scale, portions, nutrients, etc. It takes time and adherence.

I suggest you review the MWL guidelines: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26620

I also suggest you re-read through the following:

Free Color Picture Book: https://www.drmcdougall.com/wp/wp-conte ... -Book1.pdf
Jeff Novick's Q&A thread links: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=37233

Be Healthy,
Scott

[roundcoconut]

I agree with Ltldogg! It is a precise and exact answer to exactly the questions you are asking us here.

I will add a couple of thoughts, on ideas that are kinda beneath the surface of your post.

First, I wonder if you'd really be willing to reconsider what food is (and isn't), and relearn your ideas about what kinds of foods are desireable.

I mean, we are encouraged to eat processed foods and hyperpalatable foods, and this seems to be a large part of the reason why Americans -- vegan and omnivores alike -- struggle with heart disease, joint problems, mobility issues, etc.

So, people looking to try out this way of eating, will sometimes pick up some ezekiel bread, and some no-oil hummus, which is definitely many steps in the right direction, but is still much more processed than, you know, brown rice and chickpeas. The more processed the food is (and flour is highly processed) and -- hummus too is quite processed because it''s all blended up and neither your mouth has to do anything to digest it (no chewing required!) nor does your stomach have to do much to break it down (all that surface area, because it''s been blended so finely) and so -- the same fooods in their more processed forms, will be less filling and you'll wind up consuming more.

If you are open to the idea, I'd love to encourage you to see your foods not only through the lens of whether it's plant-based, but also through the lens of whether you're eating "food as grown".

Also, don't miss the part of MWL where it is encouraged (if I remember correctly) to eat some raw foods and some cooked foods in each day. Raw foods, almost always, require more chewing and more time in the stomach, before going into the blood stream. Meaning they're very filling!

Maybe it's worth playing around with? See what you can do with that!

PS -- Since you posted in the MWL forum, i should say that my angle on food is just one way -- but not the only way! -- of going about MWL! I do not know what ideas feel right to you, but you DO, so please honor that.

[Debbie]

Rice cakes are most certainly okay to eat and are on his list of foods one can eat.

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... orn-cakes/

Now, they are a whole food but they are calorie dense as they are puffed with air, which makes them dry increasing the calorie density. I like them with hummus and very rarely some all fruit jam.

[roundcoconut]

I am struggling with the statement that rice cakes are a whole food. That just doesn't seem right or true to me. How do you figure?

In areas where rice is grown -- for example, Thailand is the biggest grower and exporter of rice, i believe -- rice cakes, of the Quaker brand puffed rice variety are totally unknown, to my knowledge. Why would this be so, if rice cakes are a whole food?

I would say it's probably because these puffed rice cakes are made in a factory. And how could something produced in a factory be seen as a whole food? It doesn't seem like logical, and I would never call that a whole food.

Like, even though kidney beans can be bought in a can, and certainly there is a factory where those beans are put into a can, and have a chic and appealing label slapped onto it, it is still the case that beans come out of the ground, and then they are cooked, and that DOES seem to be a whole food in my definition.

But rice cakes, I think have undergone too much processing to be considered a whole food in my book.

--

Anyway, back to your original question, there's a line in your post where you ask "Are rice cakes a food I must limit?" and on that one, I think almost everyone, including JeffN would say "If you want to improve your health and follow the recommendations of this program, then yes."

The sticky "Can you really eat as much as you want?" speaks to the importance of not confusing "allowed" foods with "recommended" foods, or -- stated differently -- not eating "once in a while" foods as a daily or weekly staple, unless doing so transitionally.

I hope this offers some type of help, but really you aren't the first person to ever ask the false question, "Can I have it?" but implicitly meaning "Can I have it regularly and often and still achieve good health outcomes?"

[MINNIE]

I have no opinion as whether puffed rice or rice cakes are suitable for someone trying to lose weight.

So I don't say that anyone should or should not eat them. It's up to you.

But, I would call the versions made from brown rice whole in the sense that the whole kernel is used and popped open with heat, the way popcorn kernels are popped using the whole corn kernel.

Different types of puffed rice are a feature in traditional oriental cuisine (China and Japan), and puffed rice is part of some traditional Indian snack foods too.

Here are some examples to show some ways of popping/puffing rice:

https://www.google.com/search?q=japanes ... uffed+rice

[Katydid]

While rice cakes (and puffed rice cereal for that matter) are allowed on MWL, I personally don't recommend them. To me they are:
1) really easy to overeat. Because they lack water, they are less filling to me. I can easily eat hundreds of extra calories without any feeling of fullness.
2) a base to add even more calories to my diet. Plain rice cakes are boring. I'll want sugar-free jam or bean dip or hummus or ... next thing you know I'm reaching for the sunflower butter. Or worse, I'll want the "apple cinnamon" rice cakes (sugar jones ).
3) higher in acrylamide. Puffed cereals and rice cakes are heated to high temps to get them to puff. This creates acrylamide, something I try to avoid in my food.
4) contaminated with soy. Most manufacturers have added soy lecithin to help the cakes stick together. Derived from soybean oil, soy and I do not get along due to a food allergy.

Kate

[Lesliec1]

Rice cakes are allowed but they are usually not the best choice in a snack. I learned here that foods "bulked up with air" do not satisfy like foods "bulked up with water" meaning soups, oatmeal, etc.

I used to keep rice cakes in my car, just in case. I would eat the whole package without realizing it and be no less hungry afterwards. I choose other snacks now.