Hi,

Anyone following Life Without Bread?

If you do, how do you work out your bread units? From the book or other sources?

I was just comparing the BU's to Atkins information for carbs (total carbs not net carbs) and the info was significantly different on most things. Eg. 1 cup of raw mushrooms is one bread unit (ie. 12g carb), whereas Atkins lists 1 cup of raw mushrooms as having 3.2g carbs (which would be 0.26 BU).

I'm just wondering whether the LWB book has old data and whether I should make my own BU lists. Hey, I've only got 5-6 BU's day, I may as well get my value for them!

What do you do?

Many thanks,

Kate.

LWB is a very straightforward plan. I like Lutz's book; he did a marvelous job.

As for BU's- I check the label. One man's cup of mushrooms may be different from that of another. In reality, going a little higher or lower than 72 grams/day isn't a world-ender. In reality, for most people, anything under a hundred grams is doing pretty good, particularly if they exercise. Burn up that blood sugar before it messes with the ol' biochemistry!

What kind of mushrooms would be 12g for a whole cup? Are you subtracting fiber? Are you looking at cooked or raw mushrooms? Remember that mushrooms shrink a LOT when cooked, so a cup of cooked mushrooms is more food (and more carbs) than a cup of raw mushrooms.

The LWB plan is basically 72g of carbs a day. That's all you need to know. I personally don't do my head in about all this subtracting fibre and "net carbs" and all that. I have a few tables I consult and make a note of that. I now know what - according to my calculations - will make me gain, lose fast or lose slowly and whether it is actually scientifically accurate or not doesn't really matter, so long as I know what numbers work and which don't.

But, that said, lots of people use Fitday to calculate their food intake - maybe that would give you the data you need.

amanda

Yes! I am following Life Without Bread. I was surprised to find this thread. Unfortunately, I don't think it's a popular plan because it is not as radical as other low carb diets.

Go back and read the books. Low carb, low starch veggies do not need to be counted. The ONLY problem with this book are the messed up bread units listings in the back of the book. In the volume of the book, it's repeated several times that one need not worry about the carbs in low starch veggies, yet the listings show counts for veggies. ????

I do not count meat, fish, fowl, fats, cheeses, creams and low starch veggies. I do count any fruits, grain type ingredients and milks and of course sugar, which I don't have anyway.

This way of eating can become a major lifestyle. I followed it very successfully about 8 years ago. Unfortunately, I let life get in the way and no longer made this way of eating a priority. Now I'm suffering for it.

In my opinion, this is the best low carb plan around.

It's been a year and a half since I read LWB from the library.

I remember the 72 grams of carbs- is that total carbs or do you subtract fiber?

What's the deal with the Bread Units? How many carbs makes a BU and how many do you get per day?

Maybe he thought this would be helpful for diabetics. In Germany a lot of products have the "Broteinheiten" (bread units) of a food or drink on the label. Lutz is Austrian so maybe they do the same in Austria. For regular low-carbers, this is not important. 1 Bread Unit = 12g of carbs. 6 BUs = 72g of carbs. End of story.

I have no clue about the fibre aspect.

BTW, are cooked mushrooms a lot carbier than their raw counterparts?
Like cooked versus raw carrots?

amanda

Cooked mushrooms are more concentrated than their raw counterparts. So a cup of raw mushrooms cooks down to 1/3 or 1/2 cup, without losing any carbs (or protein or other nutrients except maybe vitamin C) in the process.