Indian Food

[gobbly2100]

Hi there,

I seem to have high blood sugars after an indian meal but before I give up on eating them I was hoping someone could tell me if they are bad or not?

[Cyborg]

I love Indian food. You could try taking your bolus earlier, which should help with the bg spike...

[HelenM]

It depends what and where you're eating Gobbly as restaurant food varies. It might be a good idea to experiment with some take aways from your favourite restaurant on an individual dish basis.

In general :
Some of the sauces have a lot of sugar in them eg. Chicken Tikka Masala is often very sweet.
Others with rice are high ; 400gm portion of Chicken biryani could have 66gm carbs.
Some of the creamier sauces are very heavy in fat ; a 350 gm Chicken Korma might have only 8gms of carbs but 51 gms of fat.
Rice is a food that has varying results on peoples BS because its glycaemic index varies according to variety and length of cooking time but 100gm pilau rice has about 31gm carbs
A 160gm Naan bread has 80gm carb.

Don't even look at Indian sweets, they're often made with condensed milk and sugar!

low carb options might be tandoori or tikka with salad, shasliek (kebab with spiced chunks of meat and veg), or curries cooked with herbs and spices and (hopefully) no added sugar ; Chicken Jalfrezi (350gm 11 carbs.)



Why don't you get yourself a book of nutritional info. Many have got counts for average restaurant dishes? I've got one here in front of me and I use it a lot. Mines 'Food and diet counter' Dr Wynnie Chan published Hamlyn 2003 £3.99. but there are several others in the shops.

[Gary_W]

Hi Gobbly,

I love Indian food and often indulge. I would say that it's not a case of giving up eating it, more a case of learning how to deal with it and thinking about the different components. I'm a pretty good cook as far as Indian food goes (roast and grind all the spices fresh for each meal). If you want to recreate the curry house flavour, one component that needs adding is sugar; there will be some added to quite a few of the dishes, so as long as you're aware of it you'll live. A few things to consider with this kind of food:

1. Rice. If you're lucky, it will be basmati which slows it down a little. But get used to carb counting to take account of this.

2. Breads (naan, puris, parathas, roti (chapaati) etc). Roti (or chapaati, same thing) tend to be made from flour that is a bit browner than naan bread so again tend to absorb a little bit slower. Again, you'll have to bolus for this.

3. Batters (e.g. pakora, onion bhaji etc). All made out of chick pea flour (gram flour, also known as bessan). This will again have an affect on BG, so you'll have to bolus for it.

4. Sugar contained in the sauce. I'm not saying all Indian sauces contain it, but I'll bet you most do. Korma certainly has a fair old sugar hit, and you average Tikka Masala sauce also tends to have sugar in it. I am basing this purely upon making them at home and, from taste, the thing that brings it close to the restaurant version is sugar.

5. Poppadoms and chutney. I love mango chutney. I love poppadoms. Your are effectively eating extra rapid absorbing crisps with jam. Which is fair enough, but you'll have to deal with it.

6. Pulses in the food (dhal, chana etc). These are all nice and slow release, but again you'll need insulin to cover.

7. Protein in the meat. If you're really packing in the meat then you may need a little insulin to cover it. Cyborg is your man on that one :)

Now, 1 through 5 will all raise your BG fairly rapidly (5 very rapidly). 6 and 7 will turn around and bite you at the 3-4 hour point. For this reason, you'll probably go really high at 1-2 hours, get back to a reasonable level at hour 3 and then get hit again.

I'm still new at the carb counting, but on the few occasions I've had curry since converting I have found that injecting rapid to cover 1 through 5 above 20 mins before starting the poppadoms is a good idea (BG allowing). I then whack in a bit more after 2.5 hours to cover the meat and dhal. I have tried leaving out this second dose for the sake of experiment and always go into double figures.

Despite it being morning over here, I really fancy a curry now...

Hope this helps

Gary

[Gary_W]

Don't even look at Indian sweets, they're often made with condensed milk and sugar!

.

Oh that's so unfair of you.

They add rosewater too :D

[mg_2204]

I love Indian food. So much I've learned how to make it! Eventhough I love rice, I have very little of it. But I find that having Indian food over the week-end and for lunch instead of supper is better. My body has the time to process all the extra sugar...

A recipe book I just love : 'Indian Every Day - Light, Healthy Indian food' - By Anjum Anand ... You can make your own chutney and control what you put in it, etc. I just can't do without it!! :)