By the time this goes out I shall be on route to Ireland to visit those lovely people at the CAI, ready for a chin wag all about IRON on Saturday and Turmeric Sunday.
If you there please pop by my trade stand and say hello.
If you missed it, here is the IRON and Turmeric PLUS webinars, free CPD.
Iron in clinical practice 👇️
Turmeric PLUS 👇️
Remember we have our own Ireland one day seminar coming up. Please join us.
Early bird fee is £205, then it is £245.
Like about 50% of people that cannot tolerate gluten, that is to say they are GLUTEN SENSITIVE, Mrs B’s immune system is also not a big fan of cows milk products.
So, when oat milk started to be a thing in supermarkets and cafe’s she opted for that.
The thing is oats, are pure starch, which is one long string of GLUCOSE.
That is quite different to almond milk or coconut milk which are not (much more fat and protein), thus the milk will have a very different blood glucose response.
But even more than that, the equivalent amount of oats eaten whole will give a completely different response than the same oat milk.
Oats are naturally rich in starch, but when we eat relatively intact oats that starch remains within a food matrix.
Oats also contain beta glucan, a soluble fibre that increases viscosity within the gut and can slow carbohydrate digestion and glucose absorption. Making oat milk changes this considerably.
The oats are milled and mixed with water, disrupting their physical structure, and manufacturers commonly use enzymes such as amylases to break some of the oat starch down into smaller, sweeter and more readily available carbohydrates.
In effect, some of the digestive work has already been done before you drink it.
This explains something that can otherwise seem confusing on the label. An oat milk may say “no added sugar” and yet still contain a significant amount of carbohydrate and naturally occurring sugars.
Depending on the brand, oat milk can contain around 6–8 g of carbohydrate per 100 ml.
A large latte made with 300 ml could therefore provide around 18–24 g of carbohydrate, delivered in liquid form.
Compare that with many unsweetened almond milks, which contain very little carbohydrate, and it’s easy to understand why the glucose responses can look so different.
And Mrs B has a history of PCOS, now called PMOS (Poly-endocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome), which is linked to poor blood sugar control and thus diabetes.
Check out this graph from The Glucose Goddess aka Jessie Inchauspe.
Now compare that against a flat white with a handful of almonds.
Now I will point out this does, of course, vary between people, depending on genetics and gut microbiome.
Check out the same food and subsequent blood glucose response between two different people.
But the bottom line is oat milk is a highly processed food and if we can avoid it we should.
Good old fashioned whole milk, ideally unpateurised is best, but if not a good organic whole milk is good.
If you do need a non-dairy milk, the tricky bit is the flavour with your coffee…..that might be personal taste (literally).
If you fancy some easy blood sugar balancing tips remember:
Eat your veggies/protein first, carbohydrate last in the meal. I can’t make it any easier than that, simply changing the order in which you eat your food can substantially reduce the post meal glucose response.
Veggies and protein first, carbohydrate last.
Look what that does to your HbA1c over 24 months.
How about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with your meal in a little water.
See the glucose response to a standard amount of white bread but with increased amounts of vinegar.
These are easy things you and your patients can do LONG-TERM.