Permissable Snacks...??

[udeskym]

I love popcorn and I'd love to snack on some but have avoided it because I heard it was inflammatory. Curious how it affects us? Is it totally taboo? How does it affect our insulin?

Secondly, I'm hoping to add some new healthy snacks to my diet other than my usual: olives, pickles, hummus, Mary's crackers -- and my nightly dessert: a mixture of frozen blue berries and raspberries, fresh strawberries, unsweetened coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, and walnuts. (I'm an open book — I've shared too much!)

Any snack ideas would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Michael

[Stavia]

Carrot or cucumber sticks dipped in pesto.
Nuts.

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[Julie G]

Popcorn is my kryptonite too, Michael. Unless it's organic, it's automatically genetically modified, high in lectins and high on the glycemic index. I still cheat and have a bowl every few months . I use organic, cook it in coconut oil and put yummy grass-fed butter on top. Carb nite for me.

Do you like kefir? I like to mix sliced almonds, walnuts, and coconut flakes with a few berries and unsweetened kefir from A2 cows with a little stevia. Sometimes, I skip the berries and put in a squeeze of key lime juice and zest and sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Tastes just like key lime pie- heaven.

[SusanJ]

If you like hummus and eat nightshades, have you tried Baba Ghanouj? Here's my favorite recipe.

Hmm, I do have an eggplant in the fridge...

Baba Ghanouj
Makes 1 ¾ cups
(from Bon Appetit)

2 1-pound eggplants, halved lengthwise

¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup tahini
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, chopped

Preheat oven to 375°. Oil rimmed baking sheet and place eggplant cut side down on sheet. Roast until eggplant is very soft, about 45 minutes. Cool Slightly. Using spoon, scoop out pulp form eggplant into strainer set over bowl. Let drain for 30 minutes.

Transfer eggplant to food processor. Add remaining ingredients. Process until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature with your favorite dippers.

[slacker]

a little cumin in the baba ghanouj is also very tasty! And maybe skip the cheese in the pesto...

[circular]

'Sumpreme Peeled' tiger nuts, soaked in water in fridge so they're slightly crunchy. Expensive but filling and last a long time, at least for me. Somewhat carby if overdone, may be good biome food, on Gundry's approved foods list for those interested in that. Slightly sweet if you're not hooked on a lot of sweet foods.

I periodically snack on popcorn too, but I generally steer clear since I find it addictive.

My other guilty lectin pleasure is hummus, but you may not need to worry about lectins?

Leftover smoothie - if I make for breakfast it's 2-3 16 oz cups worth of high veggie/greens and low carb.

Raw veggies including jicama with artichoke hummus (sans chickpeas) with avocado added.

[apod]

My go-to snack is usually a meal from leftovers or nuts + meat, some avocado / guac over some veg, or a piece of 85-100% chocolate + coffee.

I had a pretty weird snack today -- nori seaweed in an olive oil + sea salt dip. Lately, I'm on a sort of roasted veg kick. I did roasted red dandelion today... tasty stuff! Very chip-like, and with MCT oil, it's sort of popcorn like in taste.

I made some pickled dill carrots that came out pretty good -- an easy prebiotic + probiotic stack snack.

[Julie G]

Thanks for sharing. So many yummy ideas! I just re-ready my post above and wanted to clarify something. Organic popcorn is not genetically modified, but it's still high on the glycemic index and high in lectins. Unfortunately, not great for us

[udeskym]

These are great suggestions, thanks!

What about baby carrots? I've been eating them EVERYDAY with hummus -- and I'm realizing they might be too high in sugar. It says high glycemic index but low on glycemic load. Hmm. Is nothing sacred?? Maybe celery instead of carrots.

[apod]

These are great suggestions, thanks!

What about baby carrots? I've been eating them EVERYDAY with hummus -- and I'm realizing they might be too high in sugar. It says high glycemic index but low on glycemic load. Hmm. Is nothing sacred?? Maybe celery instead of carrots.

While wearing a CGM, I ate a ton of raw peeled carrot to get a feel for the GI at a moderate carb intake. It looked about like an apple. At normal serving sizes, particularly with more fat/fiber/protein in the meal, I wouldn't worry about it at all. (Weird but tasty snack -- carrot brushed with olive oil, dusted with sesame seeds + sea salt.)

This seems to align with glycemicindex.com:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/foodSearch ... &ak=detail
http://www.glycemicindex.com/foodSearch ... &ak=detail

You could double check your own numbers with a glucose meter. Personally, I like to try to measure the entire glucose curve so I can get a sense of peak glucose and duration / magnitude of the PPG elevation. (It usually peaks around 30-45m after my first bite then drops down to baseline within 15-90m.) Granted, this is highly influenced by your activity / diet / health at the time (I saw my highest glucose results when I missed a night of sleep due to a bad migraine, and my lowest numbers after hard exercise), so you're more or less just looking for clues / comparable trends. A walk after a meal seemed to reliably push glucose down a bit.

That said, a little bit of glucose mediated insulin release is probably a good thing:

Chris Masterjohn, PhD wrote a great article for examine.com, titled "Sugar is the Ultimate Antioxidant and Insulin Will Make You Younger": https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/2016/05/ ... idant-and/

"In principle, glucose is the ultimate antioxidant and insulin is central to the defense against oxidative stress and glycation... What I am advocating here is a recognition of the positive contributions of carbohydrate itself to these systems. In popular writings, antioxidant defense is often reduced to vitamin E, vitamin C, and plant polyphenols, while glycation is misleadingly attributed to sugar. This could easily lead us to a diet rich in meat, vegetables, and fat, without considering positive roles for whole foods rich in natural sugars and starches. Recognizing positive benefits of glucose and insulin within these systems should cause us to open up our menu to whole foods whose central place in the diet is to provide carbohydrate."