Re: Is Butter Lite Popcorn safe to eat?

Thanks for the info.

Quentin Grady wrote:
Not if you choke on it.

G'day G'day JJ,

People crave absolute safety. There is no such thing.
Failing that people crave permission from others to continue doing
what they want to do. I won't give it to you. Others might.
The reason is we're adults in an adult world and have ultimately to
assess risks for ourselves. Let's have a bit of look at the risks
associated with eating popcorn.

1. Around this house it largely having to ignore two sets of beady
canine eyes looking up and hoping I will drop some accidentally for
them. They should be thinking about exercise, going walkies and
swimswims not feeding their faces. Hey, dogs are dogs and they would
willing put off exercise if food is in the offing.

2. Information. Information is only as good as it is accurate and
complete. Low GI is a popular marketing tool these days. Is the low
pop corn you are eating really going to have little effect on your
blood glucose? Some popcorn might well be low GI if it is made from
specially selected corn contains a high percentage of amylose, the
unbranched form of starch that forms nice helical spirals. Have you
looked at that corn reeaaal closely, closely enough to see the spiral
instead of the criss-cross branched starch of amylopectin. Relax I'm
pulling you leg but only slightly. Just enough for you to shed some
of the innocence and realise that you have to find out what is true
for you AND your popcorn. What that means is doing one and two hour
blood tests to find out just how much popcorn is OK for you.

3. When something is taken out, something OFTEN gets in to take its
place. It doesn't always happen, so CHECK and find out.

If it is low in butter was that bought at the expense of added high
fructose corn syrup? Perhaps instead of butter which is pretty stable
they used a vegetable fat that needed to be stabilised by partial
hydrogenation. Check the label of saturated fats and more importantly
trans fat content. Trans fats are worse then saturated fats.

This post not CC'd by email
On 8 Mar 2006 05:58:28 -0800, "JJ Jones"
<jamesjonathanjones@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

One of my favorite foods is microwave Butter Lite popcorn. It's a
great "diet" food, since it fills you up without a lot of calories. Do
you think that it's generally safe to eat a bag of that? I noticed
that it's listed as low "GL". I'm a newbee, so please excuse my
ignorance on this.

Ignorance is cool.
What is dangerous is ignorance that isn't recognised.

How about apples and oranges?

T2 diabetics who eat oranges tend to have better blood glucose control
than those who don't. Of course it could be that those with better
blood glucose control are freer to eat oranges. Correlation isn't the
same as cause and effect. FWIIW, I happen to think that it is good
for diabetics to eat say half and orange a day IF they test and find
their blood glucose stays with guidelines. For me the American
Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the AACE set the most
sensible guidelines. Jennifer's advice to newbies is really helpful
in making this simple to follow.

Apples and pear are good choices from fruit. Even better are berries.
Think strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries,
bilberries. They are all good.

Are fresh fruits and vegetables generally part of a diabetic diet?

It you need to make simple choices which you intend to test with your
blood glucose meter then a good place to start is with fruit that grow
in areas outside the tropics. I eat prunes daily. The reasons are
long and involved but put simply they are cheaper than the
antioxidants people buy as supplements. They will recycle the vitamin
C and Vit E you get from fresh fruit and might find you can eat only a
limited amount of because they affect your blood glucose or your
wallet.

Or do you have to be very careful with them?

Fruit is something to learn about by testing. It is a very individual
thing. There is a class of vegetables that you can and most likely
should eat in fairly unrestricted amounts. These are the high water
content vegetables. Mineral dissolve in water, so high water content
vegetables mean you get your minerals. Diabetics need stuff like
potassium and magnesium from natural sources. Greens do it. Now some
people can eat steamed vegetables. Some of them even taste nice. The
reality is that many of them taste better when cooked or served with a
little olive oil. The success of the Mediterranean diet isn't so much
that people eat vegetables but they make them palatable enough to be
enjoyable to eat. Take a hint from a bloke. Buy some lemon pepper
mix. It makes most vegetables more enjoyable.

How about lean meats? Is it necessary to specifically limit the amount
of meat in the diet, or is meat a fairly "safe" food?

No food is absolutely safe. IMHO, lean meats are a good choice if one
is looking for relative safety. Notice the thinking here. Lean meat
but olive oil with vegetables. Olive oil contains a high proportion
of what is called mono-unsaturated fats. The expert opinion of the
American Diabetic Association is that one remove some carbs from the
diet and replace it with this specific type of fat.

I know that these are probably pretty stupid questions to more
experienced people, but it's all new to me.

They are not in the least stupid. Stupid is not asking the questions
or not being very, very selective about which answers you accept at
face value. The reality is as usual that we are adults living adult
lives and must test what we believe with whatever tools we have at our
disposal.

I would be interested in hearing about people's diets, if you feel like writing.

Sure. If you have understood what has been said by me and others on
this thread you will already have made much progress.

Think simple unprocessed foods THAT AGREE WITH YOU as staples.

1. High water content vegetables.

2. Lean meat, fish, shellfish.

3. Some whole grain foods eg Ryvita, or Kavli crisps.

4. Plenty of berries, some carefully selected fruit.
Avoid fruit juice.

5. Some nuts eg almonds or walnuts you keep in the deep freeze.

6. Some low fat YOUNG cheese such as cottage cheese or feta.

Choose quality over quantity. Avoid the 10% more gimmicks.

Think of this as a starting place.

It could be that you have medical conditions that mean you need
professional dietary advice. You be the judge of that. Even if you
decide you don't need and perhaps can't afford such guidance, it pays
to be well informed about what is happening to you in terms of blood
glucose, liver function, blood lipids etc. Forewarned is forearmed.

Best wishes,
--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin

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