Bread and Chocolate!

My father-in-law was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I was pretty shocked considering that he is active daily, a normal weight, and eats a healthy diet. He has a protein shake with greens each morning, and if we went to a steakhouse, he'd usually order fish and a side of some type of vegetable. His only real weakness? You guessed it: Sweets.

Like me, my dad-in-law has a penchant for things confectionery and baking-related. Since his diagnosis, we've admittedly enabled one another with the rare indulgence. But for the most part, I've been helping him learn how to improve his diet even more so that he can avoid sugar spikes.

Yesterday he introduced me to something new that I really enjoyed! He found a company that makes chocolate bars *mostly* sweetened with stevia. They use a small amount of erythritol, and even for someone sensitive to sugar alcohols I found it completely tolerable. They are somewhat high in fat (although the milk chocolate has less), so if you dump on fat they may not agree with you. Is it something you should eat daily? Of course not, but it is definitely a nice way to indulge that occasional "Screw it all, I want chocolate!!!!" feeling without the queasiness afterward. Bonus: Tons of fiber.

They come in both milk and dark varieties, either plain or with nuts/dried fruit. Dad-in-law gave me a bar with almonds to try and it was pretty fantastic. No funky aftertaste, just really quality dark chocolate. I ordered some of the milk chocolate with hazelnuts to taste and am looking forward to seeing how that is. The label below shows the nutrition facts for a plain 70% dark chocolate bar. Their website (also on the label) has the nutrition labels for each individual flavor.



In return for his delicious chocolate, I gave dad-in-law a loaf of homemade honey wheat oatmeal bread. It's one of my favorite loaves to make and is low in sugar and fat, but high in fiber and protein. You can find the recipe here: http://neensnotes.com/2012/09/05/bake-it-all-away-honey-whea t-oatmeal-bread/.

Just thought I'd share these two little things with all of you. I know that many of you avoid these types of foods entirely post-op, so please don't feel like I'm telling you to change your eating plan.

Sorry to hear about your father in laws diagnoses, does diabetes run in his family? Just curious because it sounds like he is very health concious.

Thanks for passing along the info on the chocolate. Gonna give them a try because i've learned the hard way that i'm very sensitive to sugar alcohols, so every once in a while I give in to temptation and have some m&m's. I also really like the high fiber in them and I could always use more fiber.

The fiber was a big selling point for me too. As for sugar alcohols, maltitol is the one that gets me. I like that they're using non GMO plants too. In my mind, the less weird things we do to ingredients, the better.

He *is* really health-conscious which was why it surprised me. I didn't know his parents unfortunately, but as far as I know it's not something that runs in the family. He's predisposed to high cholesterol, but that's about it.

Thanks for sharing!

When the chocolate craving hits me, i reach for a couple squares of the 86% dark chocolate....the real stuff.  I just happen to love the bitter taste of REALLY dark chocolate-it is low in sugar, but high in fat-but when I gotta have it, I gotta have it!

Yes, this was nice and bitter without that funky aspartame/sucralose aftertaste. Normally I'm wary of stevia because it can have that licorice taste, but this was delicious.

If you like good regular dark chocolate, you can't go wrong with Valrhona. It's what I use when I'm making candy.

Ooooh.

Thanks for your link to the bread recipe.  It looks and sounds delicious.  Do you happen to have full nutrition information on it?  I saw 1.5g of fat and 1.5g of sugar, but do you know anything else?

Thanks!
Michelle

Yes, I do. I put it into a recipe calculator and came up with the numbers below. The amounts are for a 1.5 oz. serving, which is a hearty slice for a sandwich. Each loaf yields 16 slices of that size.


Nutrition info per slice:
Cals: 96.3
Fat: 1.5g
Sugar: 1.5g
Cholesterol: 4.3g
Sodium: 2.2mg
Total carbs: 19g
Fiber: 5g
Protein: 4g

Sometimes I slice it thinner if I'm making toast or watching calories.

My theory in life is that baking bread is cheaper than therapy and has the bonus benefit of being delicious when it's done.

Thank you SOOO much!!

 How does it feel to melt in  your mouth?  I like to suck on chocolate -- but I haven't had any for weeks due to not feeling like it offered any nutritional benefit for the calories.. but the fiber in these could potentially sway me.