YOUR KETO KITCHEN
Functional nutritionist, author and keto expert Pauline Cox, MSc, explains how to enjoy sweet treats while minimising the impact on your blood sugar, so you can have your Christmas cake and eat it!
HEALTHY EATING IS often associated with depriving yourself of the things you love. However, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can still enjoy the rich, smooth creaminess of chocolate, the comfort of a slice of cake or the bite of a spiced biscuit. It just comes down to a few tweaks when you’re choosing your treats.
Remember, too, that it ’s not only sweet foods that add to your blood sugar load; baskets of bread, pizzas and other carb-heavy foods will also see your blood sugar heading upward. Check the carbohydrate content of packaged foods to get an idea of the impact they could have. For example, a 100g packet of white rice contains 29g of carbs whereas 100g of cauliflower rice has just 2g – that’s a big difference when it comes to blood sugar!
Eating foods with a lower carb content will create less of an impact on your blood sugar, which is good if you’re trying to lose weight and reduce cravings, as it ’s difficult to get off that sugar/insulin rollercoaster once on it. The more frequent and pronounced your blood sugar spikes, the greater the risk of gaining weight, perpetuating cravings and developing insulin resistance.
GO FOR RAW CHOCOLATE
Chocolate often gets a bad rap for being an unhealthy food, responsible for helping you pile on the pounds and driving sugar cravings. The good news is chocolate has some incredible health benefits. But before you do a supermarket sweep down the confectionary aisle, note that not all chocolate is created equally. There are some big differences between the nutritional values of the millions of bars on offer.
Raw chocolate, also called cacao, is made from raw, unroasted beans. The lower temperature used when processing these cacao pods maintains higher levels of natural nutrients in the chocolate, which can be destroyed in the traditional roasting process. Cacao is a rich source of many nutrients, including magnesium, which many of us are deficient in, as well as iron, potassium, calcium, zinc and copper. Mood-boosting flavonoids help to give chocolate the feel-good factor. Roasted beans, found in regular chocolate, still offer many of these health benefits.
TOP TIP For an even greater positive impact on your blood sugar, head out for a brisk, post-meal walk within 15 minutes of eating. This will help reduce your blood sugar level – pass the woollies and wellies!
AVOIDING SUGAR OVERLOAD
Dark chocolate will give you less of a sugar spike than milk as it tends to contain less sugar.
Keep an eye on the label
