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Bedtime snack for diabetic-sourdough oatmeal muffins

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

Bedtime snack for diabetic-sourdough oatmeal muffins

I'm working on a bedtime muffin for my husband. He has morning blood sugars that are slightly elevated, 115-130. This is the only time of the day that his diabetes is not tightly controlled. So far, I've come up with a muffin that includes cooked stone ground oatmeal, flax seed (ground), coconut oil (virgin), cinnamon (good for diabetes and glucose control), a few raisins, molasses and sourdough WW starter, 2 eggs.  I brought it together with enough WW white to make a batter, some baking powder and a little salt. Turned out yummy and moist. I think I need to add either more flax or coconut oil as blood sugar was still above 110 this am, need a slightly slower digestion that I would get from the fat. Natural almond butter could be another option.

I'm a doctor and did my MS in nutrition some 20 years ago but never really used my nutrition degree much. Any dieticians on here? I could use help regarding figuring out the nutrition value, the quantity that he should get, carb counting of this muffin. Should I add a bit of wheat bran or oat bran to it? I like the health benefits of the flax and virgin coconut oil. Everything I make is dairy free due to my milk allergy and his severe lactose intolerance so I sub soy if milk is needed. (didn't use any in this recipe so far)

I'll try these again tomorrow and keep track of exact quantities now that I know that they seem to have turned out well, he likes the taste and blood sugar was lowered but not quite where I want it.

Tracy

ehanner's picture
ehanner

I started eating a "complex carbohydrate" before bed and solved that issue with my numbers. Just a saltine cracker with peanut butter or two is all it took with me. Sunrise effect it's called.

Eric

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

He's tried that. I think, unlike most diabetics, part of his problem is lack of calories. His weight is nearly perfect and he exercises a lot. On gym days he is frequently calorie deficient. So, the following mornings are his worst mornings for blood sugar.

He's so tightly controlled throughout the day that his body probably can't handle any little dip in calories from fasting at night. His doctor, like me, is very strict on diabetes and cholesterol,even though he barely even meets criteria for being a diabetic. His cholesterol is very low but he has a  component of LDL that is high called LP(a) which is a booger to deal with and hardly ever even picked up but often causes heart disease in people with "normal" cholesterol.

He used to be overweight before I met him but due to my good cooking (?) and his good gym habits,  his weight is now very stable at 175, 5'7 and probably a very low bodyfat. I calculate his caloric intake and he is quite low somedays for his needs.

That's why I'm working to come up with a nutrient dense muffin. Good, complex carbs, healthy fats, some protein (I figured about 12% or better).

I may add some natural almond butter but I try to steer clear of peanut butter as it is high in simple sugars. The same with white saltine crackers, simple carbs. He doesn't seem to do as well with white stuff. The other thing I may try is some rye bread with a protein snack but right now he's loving the oatmeal muffins so I'm going to try to get the quantity of nutrients right in those.

I was quite embarassed that he gave one to his good friend today, a totally unimproved, experimental recipe. Not one of my best efforts. His friend and friend's wife are very good cooks. Fortunately, he "says" he loved it. Maybe he was just being polite, LOL.

BTW, Eric, if you ever have any nutrition questions I'd be happy to help you out. Doing med school and residency in OK I pretty much cut my teeth on diabetics, working in Indian hospitals and such.

Right now though, I'm just trying to get some more technical expertise from a dietician type, which is not what I was trained in. I was trained more along the biochemical/physiological lines in graduate school before going to medical school, never having done the undergraduate dietician stuff.

Tracy

Dave323's picture
Dave323

"Cornell Bread" for your hubby. I am also diabetic and this bread, made with WW instead of unbleached white flour is great for people like us. Give it a try.

 

Cornell Bread

This widely known Cornell bread is high in protein with its nutritionally enriched combination of flours. It was created in the 1940s to act as a staple in the low-cost diets of the days of war rationing. The nutritional merits are important, but what fueled the popularity of the Cornell Formula was its pleasing taste. The Cornell Bread recipe was developed by Cornell professor, Dr. Clive M. McCay.


Cornell Formula White Bread

3 cups warm water

2 packages active dry yeast

2 tablespoons honey or sugar

3 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 cups unbleached flour

1/2 cup full-fat soy flour

3/4 cup nonfat dry milk

3 tablespoons wheat germ

 

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in honey, salt, and oil.

2. Combine three cups of the unbleached flour with the soy flour, dry milk, and wheat germ; add to yeast mixture. Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, to make dough stuff enough to knead easily.

3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board. Knead about ten minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking.

4. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to oil the top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place until double; about one hour.

5. Punch dough down and turn onto lightly oiled board. Divide dough into three equal portions and shape each into a loaf. Place in greased 8x4- inch pans. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until double; about one hour.

6. Preheat oven to 400. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. 

YIELD: Three 8x4 inch loaves.

 

Right now, I am experimenting on "Cornelling" as many different bread recipes as I can. You will note the only truly different thing about Cornelle Bread is the addition of:

1/2 cup full-fat soy flour

3/4 cup nonfat dry milk

3 tablespoons wheat germ

to up the protein content and nutritional impact of the bread.

I have had success adding those three ingredients, in those proportions, to Italian bread from BBA and also my rye bread, from the KAF book. Both turned out well.

Good luck.

This Day's picture
This Day

My husband has Type I diabetes, and he counts carbohydrates.  He tries to eat no more than about 52 carbohydrates for a meal and about 15 carbs for a snack, assuming his blood sugar is in a normal range.

I keep an Excel spreadsheet with a master list of carb counts and calorie counts (for me) of ingredients I use in cooking and baking.  It would be easy to add other nutritional values, such as fat and protein counts.

When I cook or bake something new, I calculate carbs and calories by copying/pasting each ingredient's row with its counts to a blank space in the spreadsheet.  I key in how many of each ingredent's units I've used, and formulae in the total carbs and total calories columns will display the totals for each ingredient.  Values for the entire recipe are totaled by formulae at the ends of these columns.  Formulae under the column totals will calculate carbs and calories per serving after I key in the number of servings in the cell where the formulae look for it. 

To calculate counts for bread, for instance, I use total weight of the loaves after they've cooled to calculate a per-ounce carb and calorie count.  We can then determine the carb and calorie count by weight as we slice the bread.

Volume measures are more appropriate for some recipes (soup, for instance) and unit servings for other recipes can be determined by the number of uniformly-sized pieces they yield.  Of course, we can also change the per-serving carb count by changing the number of "pieces".  We do this frequently with lasagne, for instance.  If my husband is looking for a certain number of carbs, we can fiddle with the total number of servings.

I name each recipe calculation on the spreadsheet, and it can be revised in a short time if I vary ingredients or amounts the next time I use the recipe.  It's not a sophisticated spreadsheet, but it works for us.

 

Janknitz's picture
Janknitz

curious about what ends up working for your hubby, Doc Tracy.  Please report back!

My money is on the almond butter--I think that the added protien and fat will slow things down just right. 

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

His niacin was dropped. He was given niacin for a relatively uncommon cholesterol problem called LPa. He has very high LPa levels which put him at high risk for heart disease despite healthy lifestyle and low overall cholesterol levels.

Since the niacin hasn't done a thing for his LPa levels, they have in fact risen, I told him to give it a week without the niacin. Between that and a piece of my homemade, 100% rye bread with a bit of cream cheese his glucose in the AMs has hit 85 on average for the past month!!

It had been running 110-125 before so this is amazing.

His doctor changed his Lipitor to Crestor because of the change. The only other treatment besides niacin for this problem is to keep LDL as low as possible, even lower than you would for someone at very high risk for heart attack. His target for LDL is about 70 which is pretty darn low!

This past week he had surgery and it's amazing how much the stress the surgery causes. His blood sugars are back up but starting to trend down again, one week out.